New View: How AI-Powered Video can Unlock Opportunity for Grassroots Sport 🎥
From improved visibility for players to streamlined coaching, video technology is revolutionising grassroots sports. Beyond these significant benefits, could it also make the game more enjoyable?
Not yet a subscriber? Join over 2,000 sports business leaders, from Formula 1 to the Premier League, that read Sports Pundit every week to get impactful industry insights.
BIG IDEA
The Big Idea is brought to you by the Global Institute of Sport!
The Global Institute of Sport is the leading destination for Master's degrees, executive education and professional qualifications in sport around the world.
They count world-famous stadiums and surrounding venues among their state-of-the-art campus facilities across the globe, including London's Wembley Stadium, Miami's DRV PNK Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ready to master the global sports industry? Enquire today about their in-person and online courses.
While much is made of the disruptive potential of technology in professional sports, its transformative impact at the grassroots level is less acknowledged.
Historically, for instance, capturing sports action has been a privilege of the professional leagues.
For the past hundred years, filming sport meant using a manually-operated camera, requiring an operator and often scaffolding for high vantage points—costs that made it prohibitive for most teams lower down the pyramid.
Veo Technologies (among others) have innovated a straightforward yet revolutionary solution to this problem: an automated camera that encompasses the entire field and utilises AI to zoom and pan to the action with no human intervention needed.
As Henrik Teisbæck, Co-Founder and CEO of Veo Technologies, explained recently on the Sports Pundit Podcast: “You bring the camera to the field, press record, and it does all the filming for you.”
This not only democratises sports broadcasting but also enhances coaching and player development by automatically detecting key moments and providing match and player highlights. Not to mention that this also provides clubs with more inventory from which to sell sponsorship against…
Since its inception, Veo’s cameras have recorded over two million games, illustrating their wide-reaching impact.
As Teisbæck remarked at the launch of their latest camera, “that's two million opportunities to learn, two million unique moments to share and enjoy.”
This technology bridges the gap created by physical distance, allowing parents, friends, and fans to participate remotely.
The utility of video technology isn’t confined to football - it could be equally effective in rugby, lacrosse, volleyball, and ice hockey. Its benefits remain consistent across all sports: improved visibility for players, streamlined coaching, enhanced spectator engagement and monetisation opportunities.
One potential pushback, and a common critique of AI, is the fear of it replacing human jobs. Some may ask if it is putting camera operators up and down the country out of business. The answer is likely not.
“It is grassroots sports where nobody has the resources to build a scaffold and sit filming themselves so in that sense, we are not taking away jobs [from camera operators],” asserted Teisbæck.
On the contrary, Veo’s approach may actually facilitate job creation by enabling new roles which were previously unfeasible.
“If you want to learn how to become a video analyst or data analyst or assistant coder, that previously was only a job you can get in the Premier League clubs because they had all the data and video, but now you can be a video analyst in a in a grassroots club if you want to. I think in essence we are bringing a lot of opportunities for new roles in the sport.”
There is a case for it increasing opportunities for players and scouts, too.
“Normally in youth sports scouting happens very locally. It is maybe the neighbouring club that scouts you. But with video, suddenly you can have a youth player from Italy being scouted to a third division club in Austria and that would never happen if you hadn't had videos,” Teisbæck explains.
Where this gets even more interesting is the broader implications that come with the democratisation of sports broadcasting, such as increased sports participation, another area Teisbæck is passionate about.
“Sport is a beautiful way of breaking down cultural barriers. We really need more sport, and we need kids to come away from screens,” he notes.
“I think we can play a role there by actually helping them [as] when they watch their mates score a great goal or [make] a tackle or whatever happens in that game, it brings awareness and makes the sport more fun. We're very mindful about that. How can we build a product for the players in the space that are not necessarily the best under-19 team in the world.”
Illustrative of this commitment was Veo’s launch of the People’s Puskas, which celebrated 23 of the best goals captured on a Veo camera in 2023. That is 23 moments of magic that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
It really is a great example of why these cameras are not just about filming the next generation of professional athletes, but about trying to foster a healthier world that values physical activity and community.
Ultimately, video has become society’s connective tissue. And through the lens of Veo’s cameras, grassroots sports now has a platform from which to be seen, shared, and enjoyed like never before.
Not yet a subscriber? Join over 2,000 sports business leaders, from Formula 1 to the Premier League, that read Sports Pundit every week to get impactful industry insights.
THE PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Henrik?
We discuss transitioning from software to hardware, manufacturing in Copenhagen, differentiating from the competition, placing emphasis away from the professional game, the opportunity for women’s sport, and much, much more.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and I’d love to hear what you think!👇
The Sports Pundit Social Club (SPSC) is designed to bring together a diverse collective of executives, founders, investors and athletes from across the sports industry.
This month, we’ve got three events coming up in Manchester (Weds 17th), Los Angeles (Weds 17th), and London (Weds 24th) with each acting as a happy hour, following on from highly attended conferences in each city.
RSVP for Manchester (Wednesday 17th April) 👉 Here
RSVP for Los Angeles (Wednesday 17th April) 👉 Here
RSVP for London (Wednesday 24th April) 👉 Here
Please note: Sports Pundit has no official affiliation with Ticketing Business Summit, CAA World Congress of Sport, or SportsPro Live.
JOB BOARD
Media & Sports Partnerships Specialist - Snapchat (London, UK)
Senior Engagement and Partnerships Manager - Manchester City FC (Hybrid, UK)
Head of Growth - Middlesex Cricket (London, UK)
Manager, Club Strategy - Major League Baseball (MLB) (New York, US)
Director, Business Development and Deal Execution - National Basketball Association (NBA) (New York, US)
Do you have a job you’d like to promote to the amazing readers of this newsletter? Email me 📩
The Big Idea is brought to you by the Global Institute of Sport!
The Global Institute of Sport is the leading destination for Master's degrees, executive education and professional qualifications in sport around the world.
They count world-famous stadiums and surrounding venues among their state-of-the-art campus facilities across the globe, including London's Wembley Stadium, Miami's DRV PNK Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ready to master the global sports industry? Enquire today about their in-person and online courses.
Next month I’ll be heading over to New York as we relaunch the the Social Club in collaboration with Maxwell, a social club set in the heart of Tribeca.
I’m really excited to come out and meet as many of you as possible so please RSVP early and feel free to drop me a note if you’re around.
RSVP for New York (Wednesday 22nd May) 👉 Here
RSVP for London (Thursday 30th May) 👉 Here