There’s a common belief among sports enthusiasts that older means better. Too often we opine for the good old days, ignoring the rose-tinted glasses which colour our perception of tough time overcome. While there can be arguments to be made for the purity of old age, the contemporary sports world is also full of examples where the opposite is true. It’s a great time to be a player and a fan, and today we want to explore why.
The Skill is Better than Ever
Nothing beats a good coach, but we can all agree the difference between a learned coach and a merely enthusiastic one can be vast. With the internet and video services like YouTube, it’s possible to view play and coaching tips from the pros easily, and as many times as we want. If a player or a team has a weakness, this kind of research can prove indispensable, and it wasn’t really available before the internet age.
While not possible for a necessarily physical game like football, we also can’t forget the many forms of competition that players can engage in and practice online. One of the most common examples of this is found in bingo online games. These rooms like Sinful 7s and Fishin Frenzy offer just as much online as they do off, so it’s a great way for fans to both learn and continue to engage.
No TV? No Problem!
For fans, the big advantages of the tech age come from how easy it is to engage with viewing and analysis. For decades, big sports channels like ESPN were essentially the gatekeepers to many of the biggest matches. In terms of big-budget spectacles, this can be fantastic, but not all of us watch the biggest matches, and not all of us have the biggest bank accounts to keep subscribing.
Thanks to dedicated websites, social media, and streaming systems (again) the number of ways we have to watch and the number of games we can watch continues to skyrocket. Add to this the greater availability of 4G and 5G, and now it’s possible for average people to stream games that would never otherwise be viewable unless in person (legally, of course).
Similar benefits apply to the side of statistical analysis. While we have and still rely on the big channels and newspapers for odds, tech closely integrated into games has streamlined this part of the equation, big time. Now, we can easily check out everything we need easily, searching for even the most obscure information that we need and don’t need to know. Curious about who was the top scorer for Man City in the 88/89 season? The answer’s just a Google search away (it’s Paul Moulden with 17, by the way).
There are some aspects of sports and competition that tech will never be able to capture or replicate, that much is undeniable. What’s also undeniable is that those who refuse to look at technological solutions at all for legacy’s sake are doing themselves and their competitors a disservice. It’s a big world out there, and if don’t evolve with it, we’re only going to miss out.