When thinking about the evolution of live sports, it’s worth recalling EA Sports’ “It’s in the game!” catchphrase, which will be a well-remembered slogan heard by video gamers starting in the early 1990s.
Except back then, the buzzy slogan captured the essence of all the groundbreaking video animation and simulation advancements that EA Sports and others were taking from the world of live sports and recreating as virtual worlds in blockbuster console games like Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf.
Those days, the worlds of live action and digital entertainment stayed very much on their respective screens — analog versus digital — with gamers usually waiting for the latest annual release of their favorite sports series to get the newest player profiles, stats and trailblazing computer graphics.
Fast-forward to today and it’s as if those virtual and real sporting worlds have morphed into each other. Indeed, it may even be argued that the virtual worlds of sport are now where most of the action is happening while fans wait for the real drama to unfold on the pitch, field, course or rink.
Let’s take a look at some of the most powerful ways digital experiences are powering fan engagement on, off and all around the playing field.
Augmenting the gameday experience
Today’s live sports experience is very much the epitome of omnichannel marketing.
From researching dates and ticket prices to purchasing and ticket management, fans expect the very best in e-commerce. Add in concessions and merchandising promos or special offers for pregame meetups with players or mascots, and the sports fan’s buyer journey continues.
While there are many touchpoints leading up to the big game, the digital ecosystem for any sporting organization — whether that’s a top MLB brand or farm-league franchise — must be tightly connected and built to get the fan from their digital planning to the actual bleachers as seamlessly as possible.
In terms of the digital experience, however, it’s also not just about getting bums in seats and selling team merch at stadium sports like we have in soccer, baseball, football, basketball or hockey. It’s about delivering digital moments that keep fans engaged up until that final putt or whistle.
Going beyond ticketing to tailormade on-course moments
Let’s consider what happens for a multiday event like a pro golf tournament. Here, Brightspot has deep experience helping power digital event coverage for the PGA of America, Ryder Cup as well as Augusta National Golf Club.
Golf fans attending a tournament like the PGA Championship (to be held this May at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in North Carolina), for example, will usually download a dedicated mobile app to help them plan ahead but also make the most of their day.
Once on the fairways, fans can use the app to stay in tune with the latest scores as well as exact locations and state of play for players they want to watch and follow. They can use the app to locate the nearest drink station, find places to buy tournament merchandise — or just know where the nearest restroom is. Back on the course, fans are only a quick swipe and tap away from the latest moments and news from across the tournament.
Today’s powerful technology now also enables a bridge from the real to the virtual that early EA Sports developers might only have dreamed of. Think geolocated alerts and offers based on the fan’s exact course location. Or flythrough renderings of the hole at which they are watching the action, plus captures of a player’s shots and scores for that hole throughout the tournament. They can get weather alerts to their device, say, if a big thunderstorm is about to roll through.
The wide world of sports has got a whole lot bigger with big data needs
Not everyone lives within three-pointer range of a pro sports stadium or has the time or access to attend a banner event like The Masters or World Cup soccer tournament.
But just as EA Sports’ “It’s in the game!” slogan brought the excitement of live sports into the living rooms of eager console gamers, today’s always-on, nonstop digital era has exploded the possibility and ubiquity of every moment in the sporting world.
While digital providers are expected to deliver secure, seamless data feeds across global sports, the real action isn't limited to using that data for reporting — it's also powering real-time decisions in fantasy leagues and sports betting.
NBCSports.com, hosted on Brightspot since 2023, has integrated a middleware API to power live scoring and real-time stats across six professional sports leagues and three collegiate leagues. This powers a real-time data pipeline for live blog updates, scoreboards and leaderboards on its websites. It also has enabled NBC Sports editorial teams to curate the high-frequency publishing of "Player News" updates, which are the lifeblood of fantasy sports engagement.
Real-time sports betting data further ups the ante with dollars and winnings on the line as ever-fluctuating betting odds flow through to front-end user experiences that must be “on the money,” so to speak, at every second.
Whereas EA Sports’ earlier iteration of FIFA Football Manager might have simulated the impact of David Beckham’s metatarsal break on the fortunes of his team that season, today’s fantasy sports addicts are reacting and relying on sports data that comes straight from the field to their fantasy feeds. Careers may not be on the line for most fantasy sports enthusiasts but there are certainly enough bragging rights and winnings on the line to make this make-or-break data for most fans. The stakes for a system that’s not able to handle this amount of data exchange, accuracy and distribution are certainly high.
Sports event coverage plays to win — but it’s never all over at the final whistle
Let’s return for a moment to the first tee at Quail Hollow for the morning of that first round moment when the PGA Championship gets underway.
On screens as well as on course, the world’s eyes will be on the player making that first shot and for the ensuing four days of action.
It will also be one of the biggest moments of the year for the tournament organizers and for the digital teams tasked with ensuring each part of the digital experience can handle the huge traffic spikes and interest. Live engagement also translates into supporting the many advertising campaigns that go into making all these events and future investment possible.
Jump ahead to Sunday evening and that moment when one player lofts the PGA Championship’s Wanamaker Trophy and claims the year’s second of four Major championships. Shortly after, tournament attendees will start flowing out of the Quail Hollow turnstiles while TV and digital viewers will be tuning out or tuning into some new sports event.
It’s at this moment that the quest to deliver the ultimate fan experience resets and restarts for the year ahead. The daily traffic viewership for the app will drop back to lower pre-tournament levels. Video highlights and moments from this year’s championship will drop into the archives until they resurface again in packages promoting next year’s event.
But the storytelling and moments of magic will continue, flowing into the stream of wider sports narrative until the spotlight sweeps round again. There will be joy and tears, our teams and favorite athletes will rise and fall. It’s why we follow and love the game.
Or as those EA Sports marketing nerds knew long ago: It’s in the game!
