Over the last few years – and especially during 2020 – fans have more and more opted out of going to games live for the viewing experience at home. Why? As technology has advanced, watching games at home gets better and better every year. Below are some of the technologies that have made home the preferred destination for the game.
Live Betting on Sports
While betting on sports has been popular for decades, the advent of live sports betting has changed the way we wager on sports. When live betting on sports at BetOnline, you want access to all the games and information with as much ease as possible
That makes it more difficult to do it at a live event instead of at home. Sure, not every weekend you will be live betting. But you may opt to stay home a little more often than before if you enjoy live betting on sports as much as you enjoy watching sports live.
The Increasing Size and Decreasing Price of High-End Televisions
When high-definition televisions first hit the markets, very few people could afford them – and with little content available for them, even fewer even wanted one. But as the content available in high definition increased and the prices dropped for a standard 42” 1080p model from $5000 to $500 (even less now), just about every household in North America owns an HD TV.
“Sony KDL-40W2000 LCD HDTV (Logos)” by William Hook is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Owning a 55–60-inch television makes it easier to sacrifice going to the game (or even the movies) as you can get a great visual experience from your couch.
Immersive Experiences
It was in the 90s when technology started to play a bigger role when watching sports. Early returns were hit-and-miss – such as the much-maligned Fox puck tracker. Much has changed since the blunders of the 90s and now technology is an integral part of the viewing experience.
Depending on where you watch and what sport you are watching will give you different technologies. The NFL has added fun features to the game that track how long a power actually ran on the play or the maximum speed the player hit on a long touchdown play.
The NBA has introduced 360-degree cameras, making it possible to spin around the court and get views of all angles of a player nailing a clutch three. NHL games in Canada broadcast on TSN have a 5G View Live on some games – allowing viewers to pick the angles they want and zoom in and out on any play live.
Access to Everything
If you are an NFL fan, you may remember the days when the league would blackout games in your local market, if the team did not sell at least 90% of tickets to said game. You may also remember the days when you only got one or two games per day – your local team and the national broadcast. If all you can watch is your local team, why not go to the game – you are not missing anything else.
“NJ – East Rutherford: Giants Stadium – Jets vs. Bills” by wallyg is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Now, if you subscribe to enough channels and streaming services, you can get every game on any sport you want. Having so many options makes it appealing to watch at home – especially if it is a busy day/night for your favourite sport.
Do Arenas and Stadiums need to Modernize to Keep Fans Coming
Most sports still draw in thousands, if not millions of fans every year. The live experience is not going anywhere. But to make people want to go to every game – and keep paying premium prices – some arenas need to add more modern features to get fans in the seats. What they are, who knows? Could be in-stadium betting, more screens showing sports and data, or just a better experience. I guess we can watch the renovations of current and construction of future arenas and stadiums and see.
