Big Data Analyses and New Technology Applications in Sport Management, an Overview

Technology has profoundly changed our lives, especially in the past two decades. The introduction of the internet and PCs, first of all, cell phones and later smartphones, has changed our daily habits, leading us to be always connected for many hours of the day. Changes that have affected all fields, not least sporting activity, always focused on performance maximization. Technology in sport has made great strides, allowing both amateurs and even more professionals to use innovative technical solutions that can improve performance: first of all during training and then, consequently, in official competitions. Innovations both in the field of materials, but above all in terms of tools for verifying correct training through the collection of a large number of data, turned into carefully analysed useful information. There are sports that have benefited most from these new technologies, based on their particular characteristics. This research focused on a systematic analysis of the most important technologies that are currently allowing great progress in sports performance and in the impartiality of competitions through the analysis of the collected data. In particular, the research highlighted three particular areas of interest: a) video assistant data collectors; b) Wearable technologies; c) Scouting tech-based techniques.