Football, like a lot of sports and games, continues to embrace technology. Within the game itself, technologies like VAR and goalline technology are designed to minimise errors, encourage a smoother game, and generally improve the game itself.
Teams and players rely on technology to help analyse opposition, improve their game, and determine tactics for games. Fans have long enjoyed a close relationship with technology in the game, too, with games originally broadcast on TV and more recently streamed online, including statistical overlays and live analyses.
Fan engagement and experiences are also further enhanced by initiatives like fan tokens, dedicated fan engagement platforms, and football simulation games that continue to enjoy massive popularity. There are many other ways fans can use modern technologies to help enhance or improve their experiences.
1. Fan Engagement Platforms
Fans love to interact with their favourite teams and players. It makes them feel like they are part of the game and that they really do matter to the team they have generally invested a lot of time in. As well as waiting outside the ground to try and grab player autographs and turning up to fan days and events, technology has helped improve this side of the fandom experience, too.
Fan engagement platforms are platforms that enable team followers to directly engage with teams. Social media websites can work in this way, but dedicated fan engagement platforms offer increased benefits to both parties. Teams and players can better tailor the experience their fans enjoy, and they can even use the data and information gathered by the platform to help with marketing and other business efforts.
A lot of these platforms use gamification models to encourage greater engagement. Likes, shares, comments, and other forms of engagement can provide the fan with points, and when they accumulate enough points, these can present the holder with gifts or other exchanges.
2. Football and Sports Themed Online Games
Beyond fan engagement platforms, football fans are also using football and sports-themed online games to further connect and engage with the sport. There is a wide variety of sports-themed games for dedicated fans to choose from, like fantasy football platforms, interactive video games like Football Manager, and EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), along with engaging sports-themed casino games that can also be found online. Sports-themed casino games often include titles like slots and engage players all around the world. In places like the UK, where football is highly popular, football-themed casino games are very sought after. Similarly, in places like the US and states like Michigan and Florida, online sports-themed casino games are also popular. A variety of casino sites are available in FL and across the US, some of which cater to football fans with themed game options. Beyond the UK and the US, other countries where football is popular, like Brazil and Argentina, also enjoy football-themed casino games.
By playing online football-themed games, dedicated football fans can stay engaged before matches or even during the off-season. These games are often highly immersive, and some even provide a way for gamers to connect with one another, further connecting fans across the globe.
3. Fan Tokens
Fan engagement platforms have also evolved. In particular, the introduction of blockchain and cryptocurrencies has seen the scope of engagement platforms increase hugely. Fan tokens are a form of cryptocurrency.
Rather than being used as a transfer of value, however, they are bought by fans. They can come with certain privileges. For example, holders may have the right to take part in certain votes, such as choosing the design of the team’s kit. Or, the holder may be entitled to take part in a question and answer session with players, or get money off merchandise or match tickets.
Generally, the more value holders get from the tokens, the more popular they become with fans. The teams and players themselves also benefit. Not only do fan tokens create more of a connection between them and their fans, but the initial sale of the tokens can create substantial capital to be invested in the team itself.
4. VR
Virtual Reality technology has started to gain prominence, especially in gaming, but also in other forms of entertainment. Today, fans can enjoy guided VR tours of sites and locations. It is even possible to watch some sports from your own home, but viewed as though you were sitting in a stadium, or sitting pitchside.
And, with the rise of fan tokens and dynamic experiences, the ways that VR and AR can be used will continue to increase. VR headsets have become more affordable, and the steady increase in VR popularity has also seen more publishers launch their own content. The money involved in sports, and especially in football, means we will continue to see advances in this area.
AR is even more accessible, with AR platforms and dedicated AR content available via mobile phones and other mobile devices. Consider the popularity of Pokémon GO combined with the football functionality of FUT, and it could create a dynamic augmented reality game that takes the world by storm.
5. Social Media
Social media certainly isn’t new. SixDegrees.com is widely considered the first social media platform, and it launched in 1997. By that timeline, Facebook is a relative newcomer, having gone online in 2004. More recently, TikTok launched in 2016. And, while social media platform popularity ebbs and flows, with some major platforms like MySpace having all but disappeared, many of these platforms continue to flourish because they provide unique ways for users to interact with one another.
Not only is this interaction useful as a means for friends and colleagues to stay in touch, but it can also prove very useful for clubs, groups, and players to keep in touch with their fans.
Many football fans follow their favourite teams and players on social media, and for their part, teams and players post regular updates and launch fresh content to feed their supporters’ passion.
