wearable technology in sport

Wearable technology in sport.

Leicester City FC won the 2013/2014 English Championship League and two years later, the team won the English Premier League surprisingly. After the Leicester City FC won the English Championship League, there were around 35,000 fans come out to the town to celebrate their winning (Leicester City Football Club, 2014). In addition, figure 1 shows that 240,000 fan turned out the city to celebrate their amazing winning after the club won the English Premier League (ITV, 2016).

Figure 1: 240,000 fans came out after Leicester City FC won the EPL 

Source: itv (2016)

 Also, Leicester City FC achieved high increase in the number of fans in social media. During the 2015/2016 English Premier League, the number of Leicester City FC fans increased in 12.59% (246,513 followers) in one weekend through the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Leicester City Football Club, 2016). 

 The sport technology that they used could be the one reason how they won Premier League (Smith, 2016). Also, those results made their fans happy and out to the street (ITV, 2016). Each player in Leicester City FC wore Catapult Sport's OptimEye S5 which is wearable sport technology (Smith, 2016). Figure 2 and video 1 shows that the feature of this device. It collects between 800 to 900 information such as acceleration, direction, position and impact of collisions with other players in a second (Smith, 2016). This device analyses biomechanical, tactical, post game behaviour to perform better for the next matches (Perform better, No Data). This device leads the athletes to rest and recover effectively and can help to make appropriate strategies for each player with better performance (Smith, 2016). Also Southampton FC could reduce the number of injured athletes by using GPS training system and injured players could recover faster since they use GPS training system (Smith, 2016). 

Figure 2: Catapult Sport's OptimEye S5

Source: Perform better (No Data)

Video 1: Information about the Catapult 

Source: YouTube (2014)

 Not only the Leicester City FC but also many sport teams such as 7 NFL teams, 5 NBA teams, 14 universities, 54 soccer teams, 23 rugby teams, 26 Australian Football teams and 22 rowing teams use the Catapult devices and analytics programmes (Catapult sports, No Data). Most of all, figure 3 indicates that this technology immediately gives information such as heart rate, calories burned, arms waived, hands clapped and jumps to the coaches' and fans' mobile phone (Catapult sports, No Data). Also, fans who engaged well with their phone get mobile apps coupons for pro shop and upgraded tickets  to the next sport event. Sports clubs who use Catapult technology can increase fan engagement and experience through it (Catapult sports, No Data).  

      

Figure 3:Coaches and fans can get the information through their phone.

Source: YouTube (2014)

In addition, Leicester City FC used social media well to gather more fans in 2015. For instance, the result table of social media ranking (figure 4) shows that the team was top in 2015 even though their score was 10th position in 2014 (Sport social media index, 2015). 

Figure 4: Social media index 

Source: Sport social media index (2015)

 The marketer in Leicester City FC used social media marketing before the season start in 2016 and the team received the prize about the social media. over 30 million Twitter followers of Leicester City FC reacted to the contents since the season started. Also, Leicester City FC fans around the world and other football teams' fan could easily access the contents about the information about Leicester City FC through the social media. The participant rate of the fans also could increase the team's revenue. For example, 5.84% of Leicester City FC fans followed Samsung which is famous for smartphone in 2015. At that time, the Leicester City FC had no sponsors who are related to mobile technology.

 Sport technology could enrich sport teams and athletes by increase performance. Also, the sports technology market is growing a lot. Seikaly (2015) mentions that the sport and fitness wearable market for professional athletes and regular consumers will be worth $14.9 billion by 2020. Also, the apps for wearable sport technology revenue was $850 million in 2015. in the wearable sport technology, various kinds of business and sport teams are participated in this industry. Therefore, sport company related to sport technology could increase their brand image and more regular people could use those kinds of sport technology devices. (neeeed to add fan engagement)

Justification

Reference

McLaren, D. (2014) Leicester City top social media league table of British sport teams. [online] Available at: http://digitalsport.co/leicester-city-top-social-media-league-table-of-british-sports-teams. [Accessed: 24 February 2017].

Catapult sports. (No Data) Athlete and fan analytics! The new weapon in sports. [online] Available: http://www.catapultsports.com/uk/media/athlete-and-fan-analytics-the-new-weapon-in-sports/. [Last accessed 21th Mar 2017].

YouTube. (2014) Newcastle United FC mastering Catapult. [online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikNUv-OMfKs#action=share. [Last accessed 21th Mar 2017].

Seikaly, F. (2015) In 6 years the sport and fitness Wearables market is estimated to be worth $14.9 Billion. [online] Available at: http://www.sporttechie.com/2015/09/24/gadgets/in-6-years-the-sport-and-fitness-wearables-market-is-estimated-to-be-worth-14-9-billion/. [Accessed: 24 February 2017].

Sport social media index. (2015). Premier League. [online] Available: http://www.sport.socialmediaindex.co.uk/files/vantage/ssmi15-premier-league-football1.pdf. [Last accessed 24th Feb 2017].

Performbetter. (No Date) Catapult OptimEye S5 athlete monitoring system. [online] Available at: http://performbetter.co.uk/product/catapult-optimeye-s5-athlete-monitoring-system/. [Accessed: 23 February 2017].

Smith, N.K. (2016) The wearable tech giving sports teams winning ways. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36036742. [Accessed: 23 February 2017].

Leicester City Football Club. (2016) Leicester City See Significant Increase in Social Media Followers. [online] Available: http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/leicester-city-see-significant-increase-in-social-media-followers-2948695.aspx. [Last accessed 23th Feb 2017].

Leicester City Football Club. (2014) Around 35,000 Foxes fans painted the town blue on Bank Holiday Monday as the Leicester squad paraded the Sky Bet Football League trophy through the city streets. [online] Available: http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/050514-city-streets-turned-blue-1531470.aspx. [Last accessed 22th Feb 2017].

ITV. (2016) Leicester City victory parade: More than 240,000 fans turn out to celebrate club's Premier League triumph. [online] Available: http://www.itv.com/news/2016-05-16/leicester-city-victory-parade-city-turns-to-celebrate-clubs-premier-league-triumph/. [Last accessed 22th Feb 2017].