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Freedom251 › Blog › AI in sports

How AI Is Changing Sports: Tracking, Coaching, Officiating and the Fan Experience

By Freedom251 Team · · 5 min read

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AI in sports turns data from wearables, cameras and game footage into analysis that people can use for coaching, tactics, officiating, scouting or broadcasts. It is already part of specific league and tournament workflows, but its outputs are decision support—not proof that athletes will perform better, avoid injuries or win more often.

How is AI used in sports?

“AI in sports” describes several technologies and jobs, not one system. Wearable sensors can record movement-related information; optical tracking uses cameras to locate players and follow their movement; computer vision can estimate body poses from video; and machine-learning or statistical systems can turn collected data into measures and patterns. Coaches, analysts, officials, leagues and broadcasters then interpret those results for different purposes.

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The quality and usefulness of an output depend on what data a system can capture, how it was tested, and what decision it is meant to support. A player-tracking measure, for example, is not automatically a reliable forecast of a future performance or a substitute for coaching judgment.

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What do sports tracking systems need to work?

Tracking approaches differ in their inputs, infrastructure and limitations. FIFA’s 2025 computer-vision challenge says current optical skeletal-tracking systems can require 10 or more cameras per stadium. The challenge explored whether skeletal tracking could instead be extracted from one broadcast camera—a research goal, not an established replacement for multi-camera systems.

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Approach Input and infrastructure What the evidence establishes
Wearable tracking Devices worn by athletes FIFA’s EPTS quality program began safety evaluation of wearable systems in 2017 and added performance testing of wearable and optical systems in 2019.
Optical tracking Camera-based tracking; FIFA says current optical skeletal tracking can require 10 or more cameras per stadium. FIFA’s EPTS program includes performance testing, with public reports describing positioning and velocity accuracy.
Single-camera skeletal tracking Broadcast footage from one camera FIFA launched a challenge in January 2025 to investigate monocular pose-estimation accuracy and promising tracking methods; it is an emerging research path.

The single-camera approach could reduce reliance on specialist camera installations, but broadcast video creates hard technical problems. FIFA identifies occlusion, motion blur, limited visibility of players and camera calibration while the camera is moving. FIFA also says the main broadcast camera, Camera 1, accounts for approximately 70% of footage shown during its tournaments. That figure describes tournament footage, not how much of every match is suitable for tracking.

How do teams use AI to analyze games?

Coaching and technique review

Wearable or optical tracking can give staff movement data to review alongside training and match footage. Computer vision can estimate skeletal pose, which may help analysts examine technique or tactical patterns. Those are potential uses of the data; a tracking result by itself does not show that a particular technique caused a performance change.

Tactics and player contribution

On October 1, 2025, the NBA described an AI-powered advanced-statistics platform developed with AWS. The league says it analyzes player-tracking data and processes optical tracking information 60 times per second. Its announced measures include defensive box-score attribution, shot-difficulty measures and a player-gravity metric.

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These are league- and partner-reported system details. They show how tracking can be converted into new ways of describing contributions and game situations; they do not, on their own, establish that a metric predicts outcomes accurately or should determine a coaching decision.

Scouting and talent identification

Video analysis and wearable monitoring can provide information for comparing athletes or reviewing development. But a model’s conclusions are only as applicable as its data and validation: results from one sport, competition level or recording setup should not automatically be generalized to another. The available examples do not establish that AI can reliably identify future talent across contexts.

Can AI help prevent sports injuries?

Tracking can supply movement information that practitioners may consider when managing training, but the evidence here does not establish that AI systems broadly prevent injuries. An output is not a diagnosis or a guarantee of safety. Any injury-related use needs sport- and system-specific evidence, appropriate clinical or coaching interpretation, and validation for the population and conditions in which it is used.

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How is AI changing sports officiating?

FIFA reports that Semi-Automated Offside Technology was deployed at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. That deployed use is distinct from FIFA’s 2025 challenge exploring whether a single broadcast camera could support skeletal tracking and possible officiating applications. A challenge exploring a use case is not evidence that the approach has been adopted for match decisions.

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The International Olympic Committee’s Olympic AI Agenda, announced on April 19, 2024, identifies judging and refereeing as areas of interest. That establishes strategic attention, not a universal rule for when an AI output can determine a score or override a human official. The available examples do not set out sport-by-sport authority or review procedures.

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How is AI changing leagues and the fan experience?

AI can affect how games are presented and managed as well as how players are analyzed. The NBA’s October 2025 announcement with AWS includes fan-facing live statistics, play search and broadcast or app experiences, alongside its advanced-statistics platform.

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FIBA announced a Genius Sports technology partnership running from 2025 through 2035. Its stated scope includes AI-powered player tracking, coaching tools and analytics, automated officiating and broadcast augmentation for leagues and national federations. This is an announced partnership plan; it should not be read as proof that every tool is already deployed across all participating competitions.

What should teams and fans check before trusting an AI result?

  • Input: Find out whether the result comes from wearable sensors, a multi-camera optical system or ordinary broadcast footage. Each captures different information and has different visibility constraints.
  • Validation: Look for testing relevant to the intended use. FIFA’s EPTS program illustrates the distinction between wearable-system safety evaluation and performance testing, including positioning and velocity accuracy.
  • Conditions: Ask whether the system was assessed in conditions like the match, training session or population where it will be used. Occlusion, blur and moving-camera calibration can affect video-based tracking.
  • Decision authority: Establish who interprets the result and what human review remains, especially when an output could affect a score, selection or officiating decision.
  • Scope: Treat a metric as evidence for the question it was designed to address, not as an objective verdict on an athlete or a guarantee of a future outcome.

These checks matter because a system’s output reflects its input data and evaluation conditions. The IOC’s agenda signals interest in AI applications, but it is not a complete governance code covering privacy, consent, retention, discrimination or human override. Those rules need to be assessed for the relevant sport and jurisdiction.

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What does the evidence say about AI’s impact on sport?

The clearest examples are institutional: FIFA’s tracking and officiating programs, the NBA’s league-described tracking metrics, and announced technology initiatives from FIBA and the IOC. Together, they show AI and related analytics being applied to competition data, decision support and sports media.

They do not establish a general causal result that AI improves athletic performance, reduces injuries, makes decisions fairer or produces more wins. Those claims require evidence about a specific system, outcome and setting—not just the presence of AI in a sports workflow.

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AI in sportsathlete trackingComputer Visionofficiatingsports analyticssports technology

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