The push toward digital transformation is still a big talking point within business circles but what about digital transformation within sport?
Sport is not immune to the ever-growing reach of technology as you might have seen in this year’s FIFA World Cup where the video assistant referee (VAR) featured prominently and drew harsh criticism from fans who felt that the sport had lost some of its raw charm.
However, while soccer fans wax lyrically about how technology is bad for the game, some sports are embracing technology. Among those is cycling and this year’s Tour de France showcased just how important digital transformation can be for a sport.
To find out more we spoke with Dimension Data’s chief technology officer Stephen Green.
Dimension Data is the official technology partner of the Tour de France and has helped the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) push the Tour de France and the sport of cycling at large into a new digital era.
“ASO who owns the Tour de France approached Dimension Data to work with them to go beyond the television era,” Green tells us.
“The ASO began to understand there are technological opportunities to captialise on that would introduce fans to a new experience that would engage them beyond the television era.”
In doing this Dimension Data has created a number of solutions which not only benefit fans, but the riders they’re cheering on as well.
On your mark…
This journey began in 2015 with small steps that introduced technology to the sport. This began with a GPS fitted to a bicycle which yielded small gains such as allowing fans to track riders throughout the race. That small gain however has led to bigger things says Green.
“By simply fitting a GPS device to the back of a bike to start with, we’re now seeing the capabilities of things like machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive analysis and so on.”
The CTO tells us that teams are now able to access vast amounts of data adding that during the course of the race some 3 billion data transactions are completed.
This data (which is controlled by the ASO) can help teams during a marathon race such as the Tour de France. Decisions about when to attack and when to hold back are now less of a “best guess” as decision makers have more information to base decisions off of.
Naturally all of this data being around made us think of cheating and doping which is sadly a regular fixture in cycling. When asked whether all this data could be used to spot suspicious performance Green said that it is possible but isn’t something the ASO is considering today.
The internet savvy viewer
At the end of the day the ASO’s goal was to appeal to a more tech savvy cycling fan and as Green tells us that appears to be working. “We’re seeing viewers watching the race on TV and then checking fine-grained detail on Race Centre [the Tour de France race hub powered by data collected by Dimension Data] such as the gap to the race leader. We’re also able to present broadcasters with better information to use,” says Green.
This information takes form in better rider profiles which can show their strengths and weaknesses more easily. The other side of this is predicting when break-aways will occur and how likely the peloton is of catching the leader. This can lead to higher viewership numbers if broadcasters are able to punt the fact that a particular stage of the Tour will be exciting.
Indeed the CTO says that there have been 12.6 million unique visitors to the race control website, with even more engagement on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. Fans want more information during the races and Dimension Data makes that possible.
But it’s not just the fans at home. Green says fans are using the data on the side of the road to see when their favourites will be coming past them.
“You’re seeing fans on the ground posting video and photo to social media. What we’re seeing is a melding of the television broadcast experience with the conversation that is happening in real-time on social media. We’re seeing posts that show that the data that was collected during the sprint or an accident for example is soliciting tremendous conversation among the fan base,” explains Green.
At the end of the day the ASO is still a company and digital transformation is something that it simply cannot ignore. What is interesting is how ASO is embracing technology and slowly implementing solutions that benefit both competitors and fans.
For Dimension Data the Tour de France is a chance to show the world how beneficial digital transformation can be for a business but Green says that it’s a journey a firm must commit to.
“They [the ASO] have seen that they need to evolve as an organisation. They’ve seen the impact of digital and as a result are reaching out into newer formats like social,” concludes Green.
From what Green tells us the Tour de France has big plans for digital transformation in the years ahead and businesses would do well to learn lessons from the ASO’s journey thus far.
