RadioInvented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895

Move from post-event reporting to real-time enjoyment of sporting events.

First live radio broadcast of sporting event – boxing match between Johnny Dundee and

Johnny Ray in Pennsylvania, US, 1921.

TelevisionInvented by Philo Farnsworth in 1927Move toward hearing and seeing live sporting events.

First live television broadcast of sporting event – the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

The printing

Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440Printed newspapers massively boosted sports awareness and popularity.

First sporting event covered by journalists in print – The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, UK, in 1856.

press

Digital

Invented by John Vincent Atanasoff in the 1930s, more

broadly used by 1950sMove from analogue to digital

scoring and timing systems in sport.

computers

Video tape, instant replay,

Video tape debuts in TV in 1956; live action replay machine invented by Tony Verna in 1963

slow motion

Electronic

Invented by Geoffrey Grant and Robert Nicks in 1974

Warns when ball or player’s foot lands out of play – improves accuracy of judging and

fairness in sport.

line judge

The

First networks in the 1960s; current form emerged around 1990s

Data, information, and conversations shared online bring sports stars, organisers,

sponsors, and fans together.

First sporting event streamed online – unconfirmed, but AudioNet streamed the Southern Methodist University Mustangs

versus the Arkansas Razorbacks college football game from the Cotton Bowl in

Dallas, 1 September 1995.

Internet

10 technologiesthat transformed how weview and enjoy sports

First automatic timing device used in competitive sports – the Phototimer at the 1948 US Olympic trials, a unique combination of photo-finish camera and a precision electronic timing instrument.

Ability to show crucial sport moments again, instantly – alsoused for adjudicating close refereeing decisions.

First live action replay during sporting event – US Army versus Navy football match in 1963.

First sporting event that used electronic line judge – the championship finals of both the Men’s World Championship Tennis in Dallas in May 1974, and the Ladies’ Virginia Slims tournament in

Los Angeles the same year.

The

Radar invented by Andreas Doppler in 1842Adopted for baseball in 1974 by Danny Litwhiler and John Paulson to measure the speed at which the ball was pitched.

First sports event that used the radar gun – unconfirmed, but possibly a Michigan State University match against Florida’s Orioles in the US in 1975.

radar gun

Smart

Invented by IBM in 1992, the IBM SimonTablets became popular after 2000.

Made the Internet – and therefore also sports coverage and information – more widely accessible.

First sporting event viewed by cell phone – unknown

mobile devices

The future …

Data

Data debuts along with digital computing, networking, and software, around 1950s

The digital age is the golden era of data, processed in scalable, networked computing

environments made possible by cloud .

In sports, live-tracking data measures everything from speed of movement, to weather conditions, to geo-positioning

through GPS, to athlete biometrics.

Example of sporting event revolutionised through data – 2015 Tour de France,

measuring riders’ speed, distance between riders, and position within the peloton.

analytics

E-sports to grow massivelyVideo games soar in popularity, gamers become sports stars, gathering many fans.

Prize money and viewership for e-gaming tournaments grow astronomically.

The rise of third venuesViewing the event at specialised venues other than stadiums.

Fans experience events through 3D displays, interactive table-top tech, augmented reality, holographs, and more.

Virtual reality becomes the normSports fans experience what it feels like to be on the field, in the racing car, or on the track.

Sporting world of the future is set to be completely immersive.

For more about how technology helps to revolutionise the world of sport, follow us on Twitter: @DiDataSport