Sports Tech’s Evolution Is Starting to Feel Like ‘Rollerball’
Today’s guest columnist is Rick Burton of Syracuse University.
Remember the 1975 movie Rollerball? The original version with James Caan, directed by Norman Jewison?
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The premise suggested professional athletics had evolved to a point where only one competition (the titular sport of the movie) was played globally, and the biggest international corporations sponsored a handful of teams.
Sport, perhaps, had taken the place of mutually destructive warfare. Science fiction? Yes, but it wasn’t as prescribed as The Hunger Games.
A subplot of Rollerball, though one not comprehensively pursued, was how technology could keep the best athletes in the big games. That’s what really mattered to the Executive Committee in the movie.
I thought about that premise the other day while watching the NFL playoffs and witnessing crunching hit after smashing tackle. How interesting that an increasing amount of the investable money in contemporary sports is going into maximizing human potential and mapping human functional systems. That’s a fancy way of saying, “Keep them on the field and operating at elite capacity.”
To be sure, this data management of humans as violent entertainment is valuable.
It’s why we are seeing increased investment behind startups and well-heeled giants unlocking the mysteries of specific game-based physiology. If we can build better bodies and prevent our best athletes from breaking down, we’ll all benefit.
There’s also good money over on the mental side of the tracks, where the science of bringing players to their psychological ceilings is accelerating rapidly. This is the sector that is less interested in the muscles below the neck and focused on the brain.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against any of these expenditures.
The gladiators in ancient Rome were well-trained and measured for their strength with swords, nets, spears and tridents. The best ones lived. The lesser ones died. The crowds ate it up.
But all of that, we’re led to believe, was for the emperor’s pleasure. Today, there are many emperors, all capable of pointing their unscratched, top-floor thumbs upward or down.
Again, this is not to cast blame or suggest malfeasance.
The TV networks, streaming giants, league commissioners, team owners, player unions and willing fan bases are committed to increased performance. If the spectators demand a faster, more brutal game (in person or digitally), who can be blamed for providing this profitable spectacle?
This brings us to that key word. Profitable. Or words like return on investment, mergers and acquisitions, equity and stock prices. Bank.
Making bank is what all parties desire. Even the fans.
They are now investing via their fantasy football leagues or the many sports wagering platforms like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and ESPN Bet. Like everyone else, the spectators want to harness the upside of the game.
It’s why, in the not-too-distant future, we may care less about the yellow first down line superimposed on the televised field or whether a ball crossed a goal line and a lot more about whether Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson are “maxxed.” If we can’t know what they’re thinking, we’ll at least want to know their physical and mental health is optimal.
Virtual and augmented reality will soon provide a range of statistics on our Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest headsets. Game broadcasters and streamers, too, will eventually start showing human data in the margins of the screen. They’ll also do it with the ball, puck or shuttlecock.
Think of it: Before the kicker lines up to knock down the winning field goal or penalty kick, the viewers (and their super-empowered emperors) will want to know the odds of a successful kick. How are the kicker’s leg muscles? How is her mind? Is there still enough time for me to get some last-second action on this outcome. Is my “edge” up to date? Am I all right on the backdoor cover?
We are racing toward that day and place where science and technology are required components of the game-viewing experience. It will not be enough to know who the players are or what number they are wearing. Going forward, we’ll want real-time heart rate, oxygen exchange, blood pressure, eye acuity, muscle health, mental stability and a comprehensive biological and psychological rating for each player.
And we, the fans, won’t be alone. The coach, the owner and the executives in the VIP boxes will want the same—and they’ll get it first.
In Jewison’s Rollerball, the final game had no rules, no time limit.
I think we’ll always have regulations and fixed time constraints, in large part, because they generate data. What will matter in the future is discovering the next great revenue sources for dominant leagues.
Sport wagering is doing that now. Amassing sport data is here but still embryonic. Are artificial bodies (as a technology) next? After all, we already have AI. Why not AB?
It’s certainly logical.
The sports business has always been great at uncovering great new revenue sources. Traditionally, it happened with the invention of new media (radio, TV, internet).
In the future, maybe we cut out the athletes. It would reduce overhead thus leaving more for the owners, distributors and the Executive Committee.
Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and COO of Playbk Sports. He is the co-author of numerous sports business books including Business the NHL Way, 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes and Invisible No More (the story of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh).
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