Sports industry trends in 2026: AI operation tools, fan engagement, and good vibes

This year marks a turning point for the sports industry as its goals and needs intersect with technologies. The main industrial trends are still about improving fan engagement and finding new revenue streams. Sports companies cannot ignore AI, at the same time, not using it too much for everything: sports audiences are one of the most human-seeking. 

Let's see in detail what sports companies should do to be in trend in 2026, the year combining the Olympics and World Cup, multiple global disruptions and love to Heated Rivalry. 

How is industry changing

Global audiences are growing, yet the competition for these new audiences has become increasingly intense. At the same time, we see post-globalisation everywhere, and of course, sports cannot be outside this. As Deloitte shares in their report, “Global ownership groups are extending their reach and influence and blurring the boundaries between sports entities, media, and commerce,” but at the same time, many markets try to separate from the leaders and develop their own businesses and local markets. 
As new sports options emerge, customers’ attention increasingly gets fragmented, compelling leagues to offer more to keep them engaged. There’s also a general increase in engagement for women’s sports; it has increased twice again last year, and everybody sees—there is no ceiling for growth here. 
Also, when it seemed almost impossible, small media projects, like some hockey TV shows from Canada, influenced the interest in sports for people who weren’t curious about it. Thus, even when we expected that sports couldn’t have a bigger audience, it is growing again. 

Sports technology trends 2026: Global overview

The latest trends in the sports industry in 2026 range from interactive fan apps, like Real Madrid’s one, to revenue management platforms for teams and AI-based athlete performance analytics tools. Let’s list the main trends to get an idea of what is crucial to proceed with. 

Trend #1: AI helps with operations and personalised fan experience

Talking about AI in the industry, we should remember that much of the work done by AI tools is not visible to the fans. Companies and enterprises actually do what we all maybe should do with AI: augmenting repetitive and time-consuming (as we call them boring routine) tasks, like automating entries and reconciliations in finance and automating outreach for season ticket renewals with all of the corresponding processing handled seamlessly. 
The NBA basketball league has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on an AI-based system that turns billions of digital data points into insights delivered straight to the NBA fan app. Also, the NBA presented a tool to make game scheduling easier. 

As for personalised fan experience, the biggest case was presented by the English Premier League and Microsoft. In 2025, they started to create a Premier League Companion, a new digital tool, powered by Microsoft Copilot with the usage of Azure OpenAI. It was taught with the info based on 30 seasons, 300,000 articles, and 9,000 videos. 

Also, they add Microsoft AI within the app and website’s Fantasy Premier League to give a personal assistant manager to every fan. This AI tool will access a user’s fantasy gameplay, stats, and previous decisions to provide recommendations for greater fantasy squads. 

Trend #2: Female sports are growing (and will be!)

Engagement for women’s sports events has grown rapidly, particularly in basketball and football (as the highest numbers are shown in North America, we may be able to use the word soccer, but we won’t). The WNBA basketball league averaged 1.3 million viewers for regular-season games in 2025, up 6% from the previous year. A May 2025 Chicago Sky vs Indiana Fever game averaged 2.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season game in 25 years. Increased viewership helped the WNBA secure a record-breaking, 11-year $2.2 billion media rights deal that kicked off in 2026.

The women’s sports growth has been trending since 2021, but the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris boosted it significantly, organising an unparalleled platform for women athletes. According to research by non-commercial organisation Women in Sport, 41% of boys were inspired by women Olympians and successful women athletes, showcasing the impact of women role models in engaging both young boys and girls with a passion for sport.

Numbers always lead to higher investments, and the growth is visible in North America and Europe, but it is not sustainable enough. As experts note, women's sports need not be a one-year investment, but a venture capital that will help them develop broadly. Considering the potential which is obvious here, we hope to see such a shift shortly.

Trend #3: From rented platforms to own communities

Over 65% of people who do sports nonprofessionally share their activities online. Many more watch and comment on sports online. The 2024 Olympics were a perfect and transformative case study, with TikTok becoming the unofficial commentary hub. The EURO 2024 TikTok hub showed that fan reaction edits, duets, and explainers often outperformed official clips. Many platforms, clubs, and enterprises adopt these trends and build their own communities—not to give their audiences to TikTok, but to work with them directly while collecting first-party data.

Heineken’s Social Screen activation allowed fans in South Africa to synchronise their phones to form one giant collective screen during a UEFA Champions League event. League 1 launched the app League 1+. La Liga representatives highlight that they need their fans and don’t want to lose them on YouTube or elsewhere. They use everything from second-screen approaches to personalised data-driven recommendations to gather all their fans inside their own infrastructure and allow them to talk and discuss everything internally.

Trend #4: Social viewing

This trend is an obvious pairing to the previous one: if people want to comment and connect, they want to watch sports together. The sports audience is the most fitting for co-viewing experience: fans are meant to watch games together in the stadium, and it is not a new idea to transform digital experience to the digital stadium. So, this trend is not new but still is quite trendy—last year SVG Europe, Joshua Barnett, from After Party Studios, presented new approaches to sports co-watching and how important, and challenging though, to content international audiences at these events.

This year, Formula 1 shared that they still continue with their watch parties, which are pairing live broadcasts with a communal, high-energy atmosphere. The fan experience is much more exciting compared to streaming races from home.

The NBA, NFL, NHL, and other major leagues host similar events. And of course, the mentioned second screen experience is the core of the watch parties. People want to watch and want to comet, so due to this idea they are doing both at the same time.

Trend #5: Phygital venues—between stadium and home

Let’s start by explaining what phygital sports are. As the term suggests and the Phygital World Community states, it combines physical activities with their digital counterparts to create engaging and immersive hybrid experiences for participants and spectators. Currently, the WPC oversees four core ranking disciplines: phygital football, Phygital Basketball, Phygital Dancing, and Phygital Shooter. There are also several non-ranking disciplines. For example, phygital football combines physical football with digital technology to create a hybrid experience.

Stadiums supporting this idea are no longer just physical venues or only digital platforms. They have become digital hubs where physical presence merges with virtual experiences.

The Intuit Dome, a new basketball arena and home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, illustrates this trend perfectly. It features a high-definition, wraparound scoreboard that both showcases game action and displays key player statistics. Want to know which player has the highest points? Check. Who leads in rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage? How about a player’s height, wingspan, career point averages, and more? Fans can see everything right on the screen.

Trend #6: Monetising fan engagement

Sports leagues and clubs are creating new revenue channels beyond ticket and merchandise sales. With fans demanding more interactive experiences, clubs seek opportunities to cash in by fulfilling this demand. Leagues now offer their own streaming apps, giving subscribers exclusive content not streamed on TV, like the NBA app with personalised content. Online shops selling exclusive branded apparel are integrated into live streaming, enticing fans to buy merchandise as they experience live matches. Stadiums feature sports simulators to generate year-round revenue. There are many more avenues for clubs to generate income, centred on innovative fan experiences. And of course, fantasy games which allows users to combine their perfect squads and perfect leagues, now available in almost all club and league applications and websites.

Gamification is widely used as a major monetising opportunity. Sports brands, often inspired by video games, add various ways for users to earn rewards. The UEFA app demonstrates this trend perfectly. Users engage in fantasy football leagues based on real players’ performance and compete to win tournaments. Fans test their soccer knowledge in the Quiz Arena and compare results with friends. Players forecast competition results and see who gets near-accurate predictions. These fun mechanics keep players attached to the app and the UEFA ecosystem. The more they play fantasy leagues, the more real matches they engage with.

Trend #7: For the sake of good!

Do well, be good was a millennial idea which is no longer relevant today, but brands still try to continue doing good (and thank them for this!). It happens, as Deloitte noted, because they want to be associated with positive impact and perform a role in community engagement. On the other hand, non-commercial sports organisations, or even clubs, whose brand is strongly associated with a positive impact, can partner with non-sports commercial businesses, providing them with this positive impact. Forbes shares the example of World Bicycle Relief (WBR) partnering with Buffalo Bicycles and global hotel chain citizenM to support mobility solutions for underserved communities. Of course, citizenM used this as an opportunity to expand their customer base, but the good deal was done, and everybody benefited with it.

Trend #8: Athletes as creators 

The creator economy is booming, with the influencer market size growing from $1.7 billion in 2015 to $33 billion in 2025, according to Statista. This influencer marketing boom doesn’t cover just conventional social media influencers. Athletes have become influencers in their own right, giving fans exclusive backstage content and recommending products to drum up sales.

A recommendation from the right athlete can boost brand sales massively, so companies are willing to commit huge sums for sports-themed influencer marketing campaigns. Sometimes, brands enlist the whole squad to promote products to their social media followers. In other cases, individual athletes partner with a brand to promote their products. Some athletes have taken to building their own brands, such as LeBron James’ Blaze Pizza chain and Cristiano Ronaldo's CR7.

To build large followerships, athletes post a steady stream of content on their social media pages, from locker room conversations to interviews, personal activities, and team-bonding events. This content builds closer bonds between players and fans, and fans become more willing to heed player recommendations.

From insights to actions

With Watchers, you can follow many of the main sports trends: own your fan community, work with influencers directly on your platform or website, and provide your audience with a co-watching experience. We are experts in community building, and sports communities just wait to be built or developed. Book a meeting with us to get insights on this and to discuss how you can elevate your brand and more closely connect with sports fans.

FAQs about sports industry trends 2026

What are the most important sports technology trends in 2026?

AI tools used for operations, scheduling matches, and personalised fan experiences can be named the most important and growing faster technology this year and one of the principal market trends.

Why should sports brands move fans from Discord or TikTok to their own platforms?

Moving fans from third-party platforms like Discord to the company’s website or app gives more control over community engagement data and allows direct interaction with the community. Fans also enjoy a seamless experience when they access content and interact on the same app instead of juggling multiple tools.

How does AI improve fan engagement in 2026?

AI enables clubs to create personalised content based on each fan’s in-app behaviour. AI tools analyse players’ data and generate unique insights for fans, keeping them engaged on the app. AI also helps fans stay updated with sports stats and news during the game. The future of sports depends largely on AI advancements delivering personalised content and improving engagement for teams and leagues.

References and sources

2026 Global Sports Industry Outlook | Deloitte

AI AND COMPUTER VISION IN FOOTBALL: HOW ANALYTICS IS CHANGING THE GAME | Barça Innovation Hub

WNBA Smashes ESPN Viewership Records Throughout 2025 Season | Only Women's Sports

NBA and AWS announce new multi-year partnership to power the next era of basketball innovation | NBA Inside the Game

How Heated Rivalry sparked boom in ice hockey ticket sales | Independent 

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese help Indiana Fever vs. Chicago Sky game break viewership record | Hawk Central

L.A. Clippers hope fancy new Intuit Dome will help them challenge Lakers' fandom supremacy | NBCNews

Statista. (2025, November 19). Global influencer marketing value 2015-2025. | Statista
WNBA hopes to cash in on rising popularity with media rights reevaluation after 2028 season | CNBC
NBA Invests in Startup Using AI to Make Scheduling Games Easier | Bloomberg

The Premier League transforms the fan experience with AI | CIO