With every update, VR is expanding the horizons of spatial and sensory experiences. Experimenting with mass-friendly iterations of extended reality is a natural extension of these capabilities, and nothing sells to a worldwide audience quite like sports. A nascent niche in comparison to gaming or cinema, VR sports offers the appeal of a captivating atmosphere with a sense of community few other activities can match. Combine this with the option of elevating the experience to a fully remote one – unconstrained by proximity to sports facilities, expensive equipment, or affordable events – and we have a winning proposition in our hands.
Here are five ways in which sports can flourish in VR:
VR Sports as Games
Video games pertaining to sports, such as NBA or FIFA, are some of the world’s highest revenue pulling games and enjoy a near-fanatical following. For fans, emulating their favourite athletes on the field is an exciting prospect – which VR can make possible in the truest sense. VR’s role as an empathy generator plays a big part in making it the best contender for hosting sports-based games; with the immersive technology, fans can play as – and feel like – actual athletes. With improving haptic devices and sensor technology, VR users can play arena sports in their living rooms.
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Nintendo’s Wii gained massive popularity by operating on the principle of providing a realistic sports emulator. VR tech takes this a step further, replacing big screens with fully immersive virtual environments. The difference in the quality of the experience is staggering, stepping up from simply playing the game to living the game. This edge is being capitalized upon by V20 Cricket, a VR-based arcade game that takes players to the most famous pitches in the world to live the experience of being a world-famous cricketer being cheered on by a crowd of thousands. The game combines the usage of a haptics bat, VR headgear and a multicamera setup to realistically gauge user movements to replicate them perfectly inside the simulation.
The thrill of immersion finds its use in simulations of extreme sports as well. While skiing and rock climbing in real life are highly risky activities, they can be easily attempted in VR. The use of VR not only makes it possible to sample these experiences from the comfort of our homes, it also creates a safe training environment for newbies.
VR Sports in Streaming
Sports viewership in VR has the potential to create far more enriching experiences for fans, especially given the soaring prices of quality stadium tickets for live matches. It gives the audience opportunities to watch their favourite sports with a perfect view of the field of action yet stay in the comfort of their home – all the benefits of live edits and sports commentary matched with a semblance of premium stadium seating. Making it easier for wide audiences to watch matches in such close range without burning a hole in their pockets changes the game for the masses as well as the die-hard fans who gain a unique opportunity to observe their star players up close and personal.
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Meta owned Oculus has been securing VR live stream deals with the NBA and MLB since 2020 and has offered multiple previous seasons of MLB for fans to download and stream on the headsets. Created by melding together multiple camera footages, the VR Livestream experience is only going to get better as Meta has announced the launch of Horizon Venue, VR events hosting and participation platform.
VR Sports Fantasy League
With the rise in viewership of sports championships around the world combined with online discussion forums, sports fans can’t stop dreaming to make their own roster of athletes. Fantasy sports have risen from a niche hobby of sports fanatics to a full-fledged betting system run in tandem with the championships – there is money to be won by the fans who create the team with the highest-scoring players. To make the best decision for creating the most unbeatable team, fantasy players tend to hound down player statistics and news to make the most informed move.
With VR, every match can be watched with visual overlays with more information about the different aspects of the game. Along with the increased stats for the fans, VR will enable comparative plays by running multiple simulations of different players.
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New sports with VR
Whether this means unlocking entirely new avenues of sports analysis through movement tracking and 360-degree field views or lending a hand to referees for extremely accurate calls, it beyond refutes that the viewership of sports is at the brink of a long-awaited evolution. But even more so, gamification of popular sports for the masses to participate in can create a whole new landscape for how we approach sports as an industry and community.
By creating virtual spaces for people to participate in mass driven sports, or adding more active elements to e-games and e-sports, increasing the accessibility of this universe can open the doors to innovation from perspectives we may not have been able to explore before. A close example of such new sports entering the zeitgeist is Hado. An AR-sports game that combines fantastical powers with athleticism and reflexes, is fast becoming popular in countries such as Singapore and Japan. It is similar to volleyball, yet more fast-paced and involves offensive and defensive maneuvers – creating an entirely new game to experience.
VR Sports Training
In the professional world, VR can assist in remote coaching for professionals on the go, giving trainers access to their drills and practice sessions with highly accurate movement tracking and simulations of games to train tactical and strategic skills where the on-field practice may not always be feasible. This would also facilitate solo practices catered more specifically to the skills or areas that players would like to isolate alongside holistic training- such as a cricket batsman practising against a simulation of multiple pitches from different angles, helping him build the skill of tracking the speed, bounce, and angle of every shot while playing against real players.
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The Stanford based startup, StriVR, has already shown a lot of adoption by NBA, MLB and NASCAR teams for taking the training of their athletes to the next level. With the tailor-made drills and a complete modifiable environment, athletes can now practice complicated maneuvers perfectly. It reduces their injury risks as well as provide a complete measurement of their movements and vitals, making the job of the sports scientists and specialists’ job easy.
With the vast possibilities for use cases of VR in sports spanning across genres and industries, the potential for VR is bordering on limitless. So as we redefine entertainment technology and mass entertainment for the future – it may also be time to rethink how we look at, define, and participate in traditional sports as well.