Sports organisations of all sizes are excited about how AI can improve productivity, creativity and efficiency. The first instalment of a three-part series with Stats Perform examines how the BBC used AI-driven insights to transform its coverage of Euro 2024, engaging fans and offering more meaningful insight.
The sports industry is rightly excited about the impact of AI.
A recent study commissioned by Stats Perform uncovered two major findings – that enthusiasm for intelligent technologies is widespread within sport, and that this optimism is shared among organisations of all sizes.
Indeed, more than 60 per cent of sports-focused companies are “very excited” about the potential of AI to help build their audience, while AI’s impact on productivity, creativity, and efficiency was cited by large, well-resourced organisations all the way down to small, multi-person companies.
One area where AI is already having a significant and obvious impact is broadcasting and fan engagement, something that was in evidence during the BBC’s coverage of the Uefa Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Germany earlier this summer.
AI-powered Euro 2024 coverage
As the UK’s public service broadcaster (PSB), the BBC has played a pivotal role in covering events of national importance for UK audiences for more than a century, with sport a key component of its output.
It has been at the forefront of technological development, adopting new innovations to improve the audiovisual quality of its coverage and to enhance its presentation, and to bolster its growing suite of digital services.
At Euro 2024, the BBC played a major role in bringing the most important moments of the tournament to life. Its expert insight was crucial in helping supporters of all nations better analyse team and player performances and gain a greater understanding of the events unfolding on the pitch.
AI is now an important part of this mission. The BBC were one of the heaviest users of Stats Perform’s OptaAI Studio toolset at Euro 2024 this summer, using AI-driven metrics to enhance its coverage across multiple channels, including live broadcasts, studio shows, online articles, social content and more.
Coverage that gets fans *thinking*
Prediction and anticipation are at the core of what makes sport so appealing to humans. Sport is often described as the great unscripted drama, because none of us really know what will happen in the next play, the next period, or the rest of the game. We have no idea what the implications of a goal, a missed chance, or an individual result might be for the rest of the competition or season. But we all love to think about it and discuss it.
The role of predictions in pre-event coverage continues to grow at breakneck speed and Euro 2024 was no different. There were hundreds of broadcasters, publications, digital applications, and betting companies using OptaAI predictions to get fans thinking about the tournament in different ways.
BBC Sport used Stats Perform’s popular Opta Supercomputer predictions to preview how AI thought the group stages, and the tournament overall, might unfold based on previous performance data. These predictions helped the BBC’s efforts to get fans thinking about Euro 2024 long before the opening match between hosts Germany and Scotland kicked off in Munich, building anticipation, strengthening the connection between fans and the on-field magic, and enhancing the BBC’s role in bringing the games to life throughout the tournament.
Providing fast, meaningful, memorable context to the action
Context in sport is everything. But providing this context during a live game involves striking a complicated balance between speed and accuracy – both of which are important.
Stats Perform’s OptaAI Studio bundle of products, which includes the Opta Live live-game assistant, helped the BBC provide immediate context that made performances and standout moments more memorable and jaw dropping, whether they were major milestones or interesting details. It’s what we describe as ‘the Magic in the Detail’.
By leveraging AI across our vast Opta database, tools like Opta Live can quickly craft easy-to-understand, illuminating insights throughout each game and across an entire tournament. This gives producers, commentators, and graphics controllers more opportunities to incorporate valuable context into their analysis of any moment, elevating their storytelling power.
Contextual stats and milestones delivered at the right time can make even seasoned commentators go “wow” and spread like wildfire among fans, whether it’s in everyday conversations or viral social media posts. This effect helps raise player profiles and makes matches more watchable. The more fans understand about what they are watching, the more enjoyment they gain from it – and that even extends to Fifa World Cup Golden Boot winner and current BBC anchor Gary Lineker.
Explain the significance of meaningful off-the-ball moments and performances
AI is helping create more varied and meaningful insights that deepen the ability to see beneath the surface of a game. Opta Vision is our most comprehensive data offering, using computer vision techniques to record every on and off-the-ball movements of every player on the pitch.
At Euro 2024, Opta Vision helped the BBC to highlight patterns involving players who didn’t have possession of the ball, such as ‘presses’, ‘pressures’ and ‘line breaking passes’, deepening fan engagement and perceived mastery of certain skills among players.
Such analysis in the media remains nascent, but its value is obvious. It helps the BBC provide more reasons for fans to tune in earlier to pre-game programming and to stick around for post-match analysis once the final whistle has been blown. The expanded insight and stories now at the fingertips of producers and commentators, make their analysis unmissable.
The BBC’s coverage of Euro 2024 proved that AI can be a huge asset in creating high-quality coverage by unlocking new ways to analyse sport and for professionals to engage new audiences.
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