Technology and insight to keep the sector moving

Technology has become a major part of how we play sport or participate in physical activity and outdoor recreation. Apps such as bounts and MapMyRun and wearable devices like Fitbit are becoming ever more popular with sports lovers who are keen to monitor their performance whilst doing physical activity.

In our Fit for the Future report last year, we argued that the sport and recreation sector should do two things in this area. Firstly, exploit technology “more effectively to deliver efficiencies and improve the customer experience”. Secondly, “ensure it understands its customers better” so that it is able to better “compete with alternative forms of entertainment”.

The Government’s sports strategy endorsed our analysis, saying that the ability of technological devices to capture data and encourage people to get more active will “define the world of sport and physical activity in the coming decade”. The strategy commits the Government to ensure that the right conditions are available for technology to thrive in sport and help encourage organisations to make physical activity data publically accessible.

Fortunately, the sport and recreation sector has been taking note and is starting to grab hold of this opportunity. In particular, more and more organisations are starting to gather insight and data about users to try and find out what motivates them to do sport and physical activity, what would make people who are currently inactive participate and to evidence the impact of their sport. Even now, some organisations are even releasing their data online for all the world to see.

This trend towards gathering and releasing data on participation rates on sport and recreational activities is an extremely welcome development. It will enable the sector to fulfil the aim of the Government sports strategy to use physical activity to create a ‘fitter, healthier and happier nation’ by giving us a direct insight into what we are doing when we are physically active. Knowing this information can help sports organisations make decisions and can help to fuel innovation in delivering pioneering programmes.

Sport England, for example, has gathered insight and data into why people play sport and what they feel about it to help inform their decision making. The data collected helped to shape the award winning #thisgirlcan campaign. This can be seen to have filtered down regionally, as London Sport has also released participation data of programs they run in London to help increase their impact. 

Apps such as OpenPlay, MyLocalPitch, OpenTrack and Bike Hub Cycle Journey Planner use open data to inform their users about opportunities for them to participate in sport. Apps like these help to break down barriers to participation, as they help to resolve problems such as a lack of knowledge about facilities or the best cycle route available.    

However, not all of the data that could be used for this purpose is available. This hinders the ability of digital innovators to use insight into people’s physical activity habits to build tools that encourage more people to become more physically active. Sport and recreation organisations who haven’t already done so should consider both collecting participation data and making it available to all, in order to enable both themselves and others to create innovate physical activity programmes and products.

Sport and recreation organisations are also working with digital innovators to use the software they have created to boost participation in their own activity. For example, both the Lawn Tennis Association and the Rugby Football Union, have teamed up with the fitness app bounts to encourage more people to take part in their sport by offering them rewards through logging their activity in bounts’ app. While Sustrans have a partnership with BetterPoints that rewards people who cycle to work. 

Interestingly, when measuring the impact of the partnership with bounts, the LTA found that use of its tennis courts increased when people played in conjunction with the reward app. 66% also revealed they would play tennis if they were rewarded through meeting their targets on their bounts app. This demonstrates the effectiveness of such partnership working with apps that reward physical activity for the sector.

The opportunities and rewards for sport and recreation organisations to work with the technology and insight sector to increase their participation levels and help meet the laudable aims of the Government’s sports strategy are clearly achievable. The whole purpose of our tech and insight month is to encourage the sector to explore this arena. Now it’s up to the sector to go and seize this opportunity to learn more about its users and boost its participation levels.

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