Sports are stuck in 2015.
Excluding billion-dollar behemoth organizations in the world's largest professional leagues like NFL, MLB, NBA, and EPL who have seamlessly integrated AI into their customer experiences. Across Minor League and Youth Sports organizations, AI adoption lags far behind businesses of comparable size, creating a widening gap in both productivity and customer satisfaction.
Based on internal market research and reports, Sports Thread estimates that the percentage of adoption for attendee experience in Minor League and Youth Sports is light years behind most small businesses in the US. Here’s how smaller organizations compare to U.S. small-business averages.
Adoption of AI by Organization Size
| Organization Type | Estimated AI Adoption for Attendees Experience | National Average for Similar Sized Companies |
|---|---|---|
| Semi-pro / Minor Leagues | 35% | 58% (Reimage Main Street) |
| Youth / Club | 10% | 25% (US Chamber of Commerce) |
Estimated AI Adoption for the Attendee Experience
(Definition: chatbots/virtual assistants, multilingual support, automated ticketing/helpdesk, and
personalized notifications)
Why Are Sports Falling Behind?
Why the gap? There are 3 key reasons why AI is not effectively cracking the Sports market outside of the largest organizations.
- Lack of personnel: According to a PWC report, one of the top hurdles that even large professional organizations have in adopting AI is access to personnel that can implement it.
- Time and resources: Most organizations at the Minor League and Youth Sports levels have limited staff and R&D resources.
- Lack of product in the market: Most of the software suites in the Minor League and Youth Sports do not offer no-code AI tools.
In short, most Minor League and Youth Sports organizations do not have the personnel, time or resources to implement complicated AI solutions to enhance the fan experience.
The Real Cost of Ignoring AI
This is a simple answer, cost. According to the Aspen Institute, one half of U.S. families report they struggle to afford participation costs for their sports. Minor League and Semi-Professional sports have to compete with all forms of entertainment costs from going to a movie to just watching TV at home, if they price out the consumer they won’t fill the stands. As the cost for pretty much everything continues to increase as does the cost for labor. This is putting the crunch on Minor League and Youth Sports to provide a great experience for their consumer while keeping costs down. This is also limiting the scope of business that can be done by these organizations. AI is a powerful tool allowing people speaking any language to communicate with each other. The lack of multilingual support in many areas will heavily limit the customer base.
Fixing the AI Problem in Sports
For smaller organizations to compete, AI tools must be easier and cheaper to adopt. That responsibility lies with the software providers already serving these organizations. Legacy platforms may still function, but as fans expect personalized, real-time experiences, the absence of accessible AI will hurt every smaller organization.
AI shouldn’t be a luxury reserved for billion-dollar organizations. It should be a resource available to all organizations to improve their operations and fan experiences.
Sports Thread’s Solution
Sports Thread has worked tirelessly to bring multiple new AI products to be used by any sports organization regardless of size. Allowing all companies to capitalize on the innovations of AI.
Sports Thread’s latest chat bot requires no-code and can be fully trained using existing FAQ’s and Google Docs. The updating process is as simple as adding a document to the Google doc folder. This 24/7 chat bot can assist customers providing a great experience in any language. All while keeping costs down. The Sports Thread chat bot reduces customer support cost by up to 83% on applicable cases (Yahoo Finance). Allowing Minor League and Youth Sports organizations to focus on providing the best event day experience for their customers.
Citations
- Virtasant: https://www.virtasant.com/ai-today/ai-in-sports-nfl
- Reimage Main Street: https://www.reimaginemainstreet.org/ai-and-small-business-survey
- US Chamber of Commerce: https://www.uschamber.com/technology/empowering-small-business-the-impact-of-technology-on-u-s-small-business
- PWC Global Sports Survey 8th Edition: https://www.pwc.co.uk/hospitality-leisure/documents/global-sports-survey-2024.pdf
- Project Play: https://projectplay.org/youth-sports/facts/challenges
- Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saritasa-partners-sports-thread-launch-160000333.html
