Sport not only contributes to the health of people but also has a profound economic impact through sports tourism, broadcasting and media rights, sports betting and other channels. Sports-related apps have become an integral part of our lives. These apps do everything from monitoring your heart rate and tracking your progress to managing schedules and inviting your friends to play football.

Web and mobile technologies are also penetrating the business side of sports by helping sports clubs and venues to manage their resources, build stronger relationships with consumers, provide live video streaming, drive value from data analytics and generate more revenue.

Sports-related apps account for around 5% of all apps in the market, which is about 100.000 apps only in the App Store.

Global installations of sports apps are forecasted to rise with 5-15% boost occurring each year.

The time spent on mobile apps: sports apps is the second fastest growing mobile app category that stands at 43% increase in usage sessions over 2016.

The sports app market includes a wealth of players, with top names including ESPN, FOX Sports, LiveScore, Fitbit and RunKeeper. The shift to sports apps is driven by their cost-effective nature. Big sporting events, like NBA playoffs, are also contributing to the market growth. In this respect, live streaming apps and dedicated tournament apps present a compelling opportunity for app developers as such apps make huge gains in downloads during related events.

Wearables, integrity and social media. Sports and fitness apps interfacing with external health and fitness trackers or taking advantage of the inbuilt smartphone functions, like GPS for tracking running distance and speed, are of special interest now. Users also appreciate the integration of multiple activities into one application and they want to share their sports data on social networks.

AR and VR technologies. The sports industry is adopting augmented reality and virtual reality for creating personalized and engaging sports apps. 360-degree cameras in stadiums will soon bring stunning interactive experience to live sports! The technology is still in its infancy but, without doubt, it has a big potential for sports broadcasting, enhancing the experience for sports fans and incorporating into the players training programs.

Gamification. Combining sports activities and game elements helps to drive fan engagement, motivate users to do their best in achieving goals and make it more fun to watch or play sports. There are gamified apps for skiing, golf, football and other sports, e.g. a popular running app Zombies, Run! that adds a gamification factor to running workouts.

To sum it up, winning the game in sports app development requires not just commitment to fans and players, but also leveraging principles of integrity and harnessing the power of innovative technologies. And this is something we can help you with!