Since the pandemic, the world of sports and fitness has experienced significant change. Although many thought the digital trends of the lockdown days might die down, sport tech trends are still growing today. Whether it be for remote coaching, sporting bets, AR in stadiums, or e-sports, this market is experimenting with use cases for professional athletes, amateurs and fans alike. As a result, the global sports technology market is expected to be worth $42 billion by 2027.

What is Sport Tech?

Sport tech refers to the application of technology to the realm of sports. A significant portion of sport tech solutions focuses on professional sports and athletes: improving the fan experience, connected stadiums, better athlete training, improved play by play and score monitoring, etc. However, sports technologies have also helped transform how we as individuals practice sports and fitness. Adoption of new sports and fitness technologies was boosted by the pandemic and has further benefited by the renewed consumer focus on staying healthy, being fit and having fun in the process. In this infographic we present key trends and figures illustrating how sport tech has impacted consumer health and fitness.

Why is Sport Tech growing in popularity

More convenience fosters consistency

Consumer interest in tracking health and fitness with technology is growing year by year. In 2021, Europe saw 290 million health and fitness app installs. Indeed, digital health and fitness solutions have continued to experience demand even post-pandemic. In 2021, it’s estimated there were 105 startups worldwide dedicated just to connected fitness. These startups were able to raise $3.4 billion that same year.

One of the biggest reasons behind the enduring success of digital sports and fitness is the ability for consumers to work out at their convenience without needing a gym. As a result, they’re able to work out or partake in a sport more often than they would otherwise. In fact, according to Les Mills’ 2021 Global Fitness Report, individuals that use digital fitness services tend to train 22% more than those who only train at a club. Furthermore, working out remotely doesn’t mean foregoing the assistance of a coach or trainer as many AI coaching solutions have emerged to assist users during their workouts, for example by correcting their form.

Tracking health and fitness boosts morale

Aside from using technology to help them work out, consumers also use digital tools to help monitor their exercise and overall health. It’s estimated that by 2026 there will be 323 million users of fitness/activity tracking wrist-wear. For those wondering why smart watches have grown so popular: 44% of GenZ see improvements in their physical and emotional health when monitoring their health with the support of technology.

Wearable technology has also seen popularity in other areas than smart watches. Smart clothing presents benefits for professional athletes and amateurs alike. Instead of having to wear a gadget, it can be more comfortable and sometimes more accurate to wear smart clothing monitoring your health vitals thanks to IoT. However, adoption is still moving at a relatively slow pace due to factors such as pricing, availability and awareness of the benefits for consumers.

New use cases for employees

It’s also worth noting that employees increasingly expect their employers to promote sports and fitness at work. A study by Gymlib and Opinion Way showed that in France, 59% of employees are unhappy with the solutions their company has implemented to practice sports. This is often the case for younger generations, such as Millennials, of which 73% reportedly want access to free digital workouts from their employer.

Gamification for consumers

Sport tech has also helped bring users a gamified version of their favourite sports for them to play at home or at the gym. Indeed, augmented and virtual reality technologies offer the ability to create fully immersive and interactive digital sports. Users can play these sports with varying levels of equipment at their disposal.

Startups developing innovative Sport Tech solutions

In our infographic we chose to highlight three startups, though there are of course many more that illustrate how rich the sports technology market is today.

• Playfitt is a fitness game in the form of an app that encourages users to stay active by tracking and rewarding their activity levels

• Liteboxer has created a fully immersive VR and hardware-based solution for users to workout at home in a gamified, fun and engaging manner. The startup’s flagship solution enables users to box at home

• Prevayl sells a line of smart clothing on a B2B and B2C basis. Its clothing is designed to hold a proprietary sensor that can be added or removed to the item being worn in order to collect health data from the user