Nine Technology Innovations That Have Made Sports So Much Better for Fans

By Thomas Wailgum

Technological innovations in sports have had a dramatic impact on athletes and their abilities to compete. Much of that can be attributed to advances in equipment, training and the venues themselves.

But the athletes aren't the only ones who have "gained a step" from technology. Today's sporting fans have access to gluttonous amounts of statistics, news, transactions and in-depth data sources that provide visibility into every aspect of the games. In fact, it could be argued that a typical business user's "dashboard" is nowhere near as complete or easy to use as an average fan's "dashboard." How much access do business users have to real-time data about every competing company in their industry, every employee and partner of those competitors (from the CEO on down to the intern), and every single business arena they play in?

Here are nine technology innovations that have greatly enhanced the fan experience—and made business users everywhere extremely jealous. Feel free to add your comment to the mix, including any sports innnovation we might have missed.

Professional Golf's ShotLink

Since 2001, The PGA Tour's ShotLink has been collecting data on every shot by every player at every tournament (about 32,000 golf club swings for each four-day PGA Tour event, according to USA Today). The system measures where golf balls start and land, and all the ground covered in between—driving distance to the fairway, how well each player putts from different measurements on the green and much more. ShotLink uses a combination of high-tech lasers and PDA-toting volunteers to get all that data, which is used by TV broadcasters and fans on PGATour.com or those accessing via mobile applications.

Source: PGA Tour

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