Video game elements are becoming increasingly incorporated into modern sports broadcasting as a means of boosting fan engagement and retaining audiences.
As such, a collaboration between some key sporting stakeholders around the Kansas City vs Houston Texans clash in the National Football League (NFL) on Saturday 21 December will take place to bring this experience to viewers at home.
NBC Sports and its streaming subsidiary Peacock will work with the NFL, video game developer EA Sports and sports tech company Genius Sports to deliver the ‘EA Sports Madden NFL Cast’ of the fixture.
Peacock will exclusively stream the event, which will incorporate “video game elements and live action” according to the firms involved. The event will feature graphics, route trees, play cards and player ratings, informed by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Genius Sports’ AI platform Genius IQ.
Hans Schroeder, NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution, said: “We are constantly looking for exciting and innovative ways to present our game, and we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to bring together the Madden game, our Next Gen Stats platform and NBC Sports’ incredible production to create an entirely new way to experience an NFL game on Peacock.
“The Madden game franchise has had an indelible impact on generations of football fans and gamers alike, and we look forward to honouring that legacy with this unique broadcast of a crucial matchup with postseason implications.”
The partnership and product development showcase two things – firstly, the increasing influence of gamification on mainstream sports media production and delivery, and secondly, the significance of AI and data in the modern sports ecosystem.
Sports stakeholders, particularly media but also betting companies, are increasingly aware of how video game elements can improve engagement and retention. Data is, in turn, significant to underpinning this, with added elements like graphics and stats dependent on the data being collected from an ongoing match, or previous matches.
This trend is only projected to continue. In a recent report, sports media and events technology company IMG noted a shift towards direct-to-consumer (D2C) models in sports including a focus on gamification.
Genius Sports is a company that has particularly benefited from the growing value of data in sports. The company is a long-term data partner of the NFL, as well as the English Premier League and Football League (EFL), delivering data from these high-value and high-demand tournaments to stakeholders like media and betting firms.
Commenting on the gamified NFL fixture, the firm’s President ofNorth America, Steve Bornstein, said: “We’re delighted to be working alongside the NFL, NBC Sports, Peacock and EA Sports to help deliver the first-of-its-kind Madden branded alternate broadcast.
“Leveraging GeniusIQ’s groundbreaking technology and the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Madden NFL Cast is a fully immersive viewing experience designed to engage a whole new generation of fans.”
