AI in Sports Industry – Examples, Use Cases and Future Predictions

Are we just witnessing a revolution where AI replaces coaches, training centers, and sports analysts? Although “replacement” may sound bold, AI has already become essential for the sports industry. The AI in sports market was valued at $1.2 billion in 2024 and is estimated to register a CAGR of 14.7% between 2025 and 2034.

The integration of sports analytics with AI technologies enhances various aspects of the sports industry, such as player performance and injury prevention, making data-driven decisions crucial for modern sports management. CEOs and investors see AI as a lever to distinguish their products among thousands of mobile apps. And, given the unlimited potential it brings to the table, Artificial Intelligence indeed is a promising tool to penetrate market niches and build a high-value company.

So let’s dive into the world of AI in sports and consider whether and how it can revolutionize the industry.

Overview of AI in Sports

The sports industry has transformed significantly with the adoption of Artificial Intelligence. AI revolutionizes operations for sports teams, leagues, and organizations, enhancing player performance analysis, fan engagement, and overall experience. By integrating AI, teams gain a competitive edge and improve player performance.

AI analyzes vast data, providing previously unattainable insights. For instance, it tracks player movements, offering detailed performance metrics for informed coaching decisions. This data-driven approach enhances player performance and develops effective training programs.

AI also transforms fan interaction with sports. AI-powered virtual reality and augmented reality offer immersive experiences, bringing fans closer to the action. AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants provide personalized content, enhancing fan experiences.

Benefits of AI Used in Sports

Through machine learning algorithms and historical data analysis, AI offers real-time insights and predictive analytics, optimizing decision-making processes. This technology not only boosts performance and safety but also transforms fan experiences and sports journalism. Learn the most important benefits of AI in sports.

Enhanced Player Performance

AI-powered tools track player movements, techniques, and biomechanics, giving coaches a detailed breakdown of strengths and areas for improvement. With this data, training programs can be tailored to each athlete’s needs, helping them refine their skills and reach peak performance.

Injury Prevention

One of AI’s biggest advantages is its ability to predict and prevent injuries. By analyzing biometric data, movement patterns, and fatigue levels, AI can spot early warning signs and suggest preventive measures – like adjusting training loads or recovery routines – to keep players in top shape. 

Wearable tech takes this a step further by monitoring sleep quality, muscle recovery, and hydration levels. AI then translates this data into personalized recommendations, helping athletes recover faster and reduce their risk of long-term injuries.

Advanced Game Strategy

AI-driven analytics allow teams to break down vast amounts of historical and real-time game data. By studying opponent tendencies, formations, and play patterns, teams can fine-tune their strategies and make more informed decisions. During games, real-time insights help coaches adapt quickly, giving their team a competitive edge.

Improved Fan Engagement

AI-powered virtual reality and augmented reality technologies deliver immersive experiences, bringing fans closer to the action. They offer virtual stadium tours and overlay real-time stats during live games, enhancing fan interaction and satisfaction.

Additionally, AI-boosted chatbots and virtual assistants also enhance the live event experience by helping fans navigate stadiums, find amenities, and access real-time updates. Meanwhile, AI-driven content recommendations ensure fans get personalized highlights, news, and merchandise offers that match their interests.

Optimized Team Management

Managing a sports team is about more than just coaching – it requires smart decision-making based on real-time insights. AI helps organizations analyze player performance, fitness levels, and game statistics, leading to better lineup selections, training schedules, and long-term planning. This data-driven approach improves efficiency and gives teams a strategic advantage.

Real-Time Game Analysis

In sports, quick decisions can make all the difference. AI processes live game data in real time, tracking player movements, ball trajectories, and tactical shifts. This gives coaches instant feedback, allowing them to make in-the-moment adjustments that can turn the tide of a game.

Smarter Talent Scouting and Recruitment

AI is revolutionizing the scouting process by analyzing vast amounts of player data, from performance metrics to biomechanics and game footage. This allows teams to identify promising talent with greater accuracy and reduce the risk of recruitment mistakes. AI-driven scouting helps uncover hidden potential and ensures teams invest in the right players.

Building Stronger Fan Loyalty

Personalization is key to keeping fans engaged, and AI makes it easier than ever. By analyzing fan preferences and behavior, AI delivers tailored content – like customized highlight reels, exclusive offers, and interactive experiences – that keep supporters connected to their favorite teams. This kind of engagement strengthens fan loyalty and keeps excitement levels high year-round.

Use Cases of AI in Sports Apps

Some of the above benefits are available only to the most prominent sports organizations. We’re all familiar with the advanced statistics the NBA offers or intelligent systems tracking offsides in football games.

However, AI is also slowly pushing its way into the sports apps used by smaller organizations and regular end users, taking their sports effort to a whole new level. Sports analytics, powered by AI, helps organizations make data-driven decisions ranging from player selections to game strategies.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

AI-Powered Performance Tracking

As a software development company excelling at crafting sports apps, we delivered an AI sports Flutter mobile app that supports football coaches in the remote training of young players. The idea is that players record their practice, and the system, supported by Artificial Intelligence, automatically detects movement and suggests corrections.

Still, coaches have access to videos, performance analysis, and recommendations the app gives, so it’s not meant to replace but to support the staff. They can leave comments in text or directly connect with the player during the practice.

The built-in AI analyzes one’s training session in real-time and collects all sorts of data. For example, it can detect posture, movement, and basic training patterns. How can this app change sports? What business value does it bring to the market? We see an AI football app of this kind…

• Improves coaches’ efficiency, as they’re able to train more players remotely,
• Increases the quality of coaching by identifying errors invisible to the naked eye and aggregating them in one place,
• Gives sports clubs and scout talents a chance to relatively easily and cheaply discover gifted players and potentially obtain or sell them at great prices,
• Saves sports clubs a lot of money, and the larger the scale of the club’s operation, the greater the savings,
• Makes professional training much more accessible to young people with little money.

The recipient of this application can be sports clubs and training centers for young football players. You can find more information about the app’s technical details and future possibilities in our Flutter mobile app case study.

AI-Based App For Personal Trainings

Artifit is an AI sports app designed for home workouts, offering real-time feedback without the need for a personal trainer. Utilizing a smartphone camera, it recognizes movements of key body joints, identifies exercise mistakes, and provides tips for improvement. The app records training data like time, reps, and common errors, making workouts safer and more personalized.

Via https://artifit.app

Artifit targets amateur users, aiming to supplement, not replace, personal trainers. The app supports fitness coaches by providing AI-driven insights while recommending consultations with specialists for validation.

Impact of AI-Based Home Workout Apps:

• Provides accessible workouts for those lacking experience or resources for a personal trainer,
• Offers personalized exercises by analyzing user data such as age, weight, and height,
• Enhances safety and quality of home workouts, reducing injury risk,
• Acts as a unique selling point for gyms and trainers, attracting more clients with cutting-edge technology.

AI-Powered Chess Supercomputer

Stockfish was founded in 2008 (!), and its task was to improve human players’ skills through computer training. Today, we know that it’s the strongest chess engine supported by Artificial Intelligence, and it has revolutionized the game of chess.

Stockfish analyzes the situation on the chess board and detects the best possible moves available to both players. So it works identically to the two previous applications, examining the existing situation and suggesting the best solutions.

Stockfish (and other AI-based chess engines) changed the sport by eliminating many suboptimal strategies that the old-school players used in the past. In the chess community, it’s called the era of “romantic chess”, meaning openings and positional strategies that arose before the engines and got brutally verified by them.

Interestingly, Stockfish is an entirely free and open-source system. It’s available in mobile versions both for Android and iOS.

Who can benefit from Stockfish and similar apps?

• Chess coaches using AI solutions to analyze their students’ practice sessions and actual games,
• Chess amateurs and professionals who want to improve their skills on their own,
• Chess organizations using Stockfish for game analysis and game commentary (which is already happening; all commentators are checking players’ moves on Stockfish during the game).

Best AI Sports Apps Examples

HomeCourt

HomeCourt is an AI-powered basketball app that uses advanced computer vision to track player movements and provide real-time feedback. The app captures data such as shot accuracy, speed, vertical jump, and dribbling skills, offering valuable insights to players and coaches. This helps in refining techniques and improving overall basketball performance.

Strava

Strava is a popular AI-driven app for runners and cyclists, providing detailed performance analytics and social features. The app tracks various metrics like distance, pace, and elevation, while also offering personalized training plans. Strava’s community aspect encourages users to share their progress and compete with others, enhancing motivation and engagement.

Hudl

Hudl is an AI-powered video analysis platform used by athletes and coaches to improve performance. The app allows users to upload game footage, which is then analyzed to provide insights on player movements, strategies, and techniques. This data-driven approach helps teams and individuals make informed decisions and optimize their game strategies.

Zwift

Zwift is an AI-driven virtual training platform for cyclists and runners, offering immersive workouts in a simulated environment. Users can participate in virtual races, group rides, and training sessions, all while receiving real-time performance data. Zwift’s engaging platform keeps users motivated and helps them achieve their fitness goals.

Sleeprate

Sleeprate is an AI-powered app focused on optimizing sleep for athletes. By analyzing sleep patterns and providing personalized recommendations, the app helps users improve their rest and recovery. Proper sleep is crucial for athletic performance, and Sleeprate ensures that athletes maintain peak performance

Who and How Will Benefit from Artificial Intelligence in Sports Apps?

The sports industry has many participants: professional athletes play on the field, led by coaches. Fans watch games at home or live, and some bet on them. Finally, sports analysts comment on the game. And let’s not forget about the amateur athletes who exercise at the gym or at home and about their fitness coaches.

AI and machine learning are also transforming sports journalism by streamlining the reporting process and providing comprehensive coverage and in-depth analysis of both major and local sports events. All the sports industry participants use mobile apps to track their progress, follow scores or analyze games. What if we boosted their apps with the use of Artificial Intelligence?

Athletes

• Faster progress: Both professionals and amateurs can make use of AI to help them exercise more effectively. Just record the session, and allow algorithms to do the magic for you. AI can detect bad techniques, suggest corrections, and save all the data, creating a private repository that helps you track your learning progress.
• Fewer injuries: People who exercise at home want to do it healthily and safely, but sometimes can’t afford a personal trainer. Professional athletes also want to keep injuries to a minimum and quickly identify potential injury risks. In both cases, Artificial Intelligence can easily catch bad techniques in real time and suggest specific improvements, supporting injury prevention.
• Greater regularity: AI can, at the right moment, like when it notices a mistake or omission of training, send a notification to facilitate a return to exercise, e.g., a new set of exercises or a bit of training advice.

Coaches and Sports Centers

• More thorough training and faster progress: Artificial Intelligence and machine learning can catch what the human eye can’t – with consistency. So AI is an excellent support for coaches in detecting things that are difficult to see for a human, which means not just mistakes and blunders but also exceptional skills and hidden talents of their students.
• Better team tactics: AI can support the training of both individual players and entire team performance. Coaches using AI-based apps can analyze the training and matches of their teams, as well as the results of opposing teams, and make better tactical decisions based on such analyses.
• Efficient coaching: AI in sports training will allow coaches to observe the practice of many players simultaneously without leaving the house. Of course, at this stage, we’re not talking about a complete replacement of live training sessions but rather about additional remote support.

Sports Organizations, Clubs, and Stadiums

• Increased engagement: What are the chances of the team winning the match? What are the chances of overtime? What is the probability of a football player hitting a penalty? Fans love all sorts of stats, and TV stations and reporters can access all this sports analytics at their fingertips thanks to AI.
• Faster and safer ticketing: Security during sports events can significantly improve thanks to the introduction of AI technologies and face recognition. Any sports stadium can utilize a system that uses Machine Learning algorithms and AI to eliminate bad guys, detect weapons, or speed up the process of checking tickets at checkout.

Sports Entrepreneurs

• Nail a business niche: For a sports (and any other) app to be commercially successful, it must be unique. Artificial Intelligence allows users to do amazing things that classic mobile apps simply can’t. Hence, if wisely used, an AI system can be a fantastic market differentiator and an advantage over the competition.
• Precise forecasting: Sports betting is a game of numbers, and analyzing many data and drawing conclusions from it is an area where Artificial Intelligence excels. AI can help sportsbooks calculate odds of certain sports events better and, ultimately, earn more money.

What Is the Future of AI Apps in the Sports Industry?

The world of sports and business is already going hand in hand with AI. So the only question is, what’s next?

First, suppose we produce more accurate sensors and collect more data. In that case, AI will have even more material to learn from. This will mean that, according to the “what you get in, is what you get out” principle, it will deliver more accurate conclusions from an ever-widening spectrum.

If this scenario proves true, AI will develop in two dimensions. First, in breadth, as more and more sports will reach for the help of Artificial Intelligence. And also in depth because the intelligent solutions we already know today from popular sports will be more precise.

With the development of intelligent tools, the pool of their recipients will undoubtedly increase, giving tech startups an open field to fill business niches. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence to new markets is just a matter of time.

AI in Sports Betting and Sports Forecasting

As a sports betting apps company, we keep a close eye on Artificial Intelligence use in online betting. AI enhances the accuracy of predictions by analyzing historical data and player statistics. This leads to more precise odds calculation and betting strategies, benefiting both betting companies and users. AI-powered sports betting apps provide valuable insights, improving decision-making and increasing profits.

How will AI develop the sportsbook field then? We already see such benefits for betting companies using AI:

• Calculating odds more accurately (hence better margins and profits),
• Increasing the involvement of users by providing them with AI-boosted sports app features like tipsters,
• Understanding user behavior better, e.g., what sports they follow, how often they bet, when they have the money, time, or mood to play,
• Based on the above data: more customized products, messages, and notifications.

We assume this field will grow more and more advanced, offering sports betting businesses the edge they need to acquire even more wagerers.

Until then, why not discuss your idea of using AI in the sports betting industry? We have a vast experience implementing AI into a variety of software solutions and we know how to make a betting app that drives engagement and revenue. Contact us to learn more.