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The Future of Sports 2.0

Continuing the conversation: identifying challenges and opportunities in the sports industry.

Following 2015’s groundbreaking first edition of The Future of Sports 1.0, we scoured the frontiers of technology and sports science to produce a new edition featuring thought-provoking scenarios in ten new focus areas, including neurocoaching, globalized sports fandom, and machine medicine, garnering coverage in major publications including USA Today for the second time in as many years.

The Goal

ONE

Keep Delaware North, a century-old concessions, resorts and hospitality company at the forefront of the conversation on the future of the sports industry.

TWO

Material that’s challenging, thought-provoking, inspiring and even unsettling, sparking conversation at every level of the sports world, and beyond.

Execution

Research & Writing

For Version 2.0, we expanded our outstanding team of journalists, designers, futurists and technologists, and are proud to have assembled this even more ground-breaking report on the trends, challenges and threats facing sports as we know them today.

This edition features a new array of focus areas, detailing which aspects of these seemingly far-out scenarios are already happening, which ones are right around the corner, and how some prescient organizations are capitalizing on them.

Additionally, we instituted a Gen-Z Research Team, a team of three 15-year-olds charged with investigating video games, fantasy sports, social tendencies and global expansion.

Design & Illustration

We’re proponents of giving different types readers multiple ways to digest content. The challenge with the Future of Sports was to create a document applicable to sports executives, tech experts, team owners, sports management majors, industry professionals and everything in between. Whether you’re a diagram geek, have an attraction to infographics, or adhere to a linear “cover-to-cover” read, it’s all at hand.

The Results

USA Today — Embracing future of sports, and a new reality

The rate of change is so fast that being in front of this and being nimble is the key to operating our businesses. Because if you’re behind, you’re way behind.

Jerry Jacobs

Co-CEO, Delaware North

The Future of Sports 2 cover (top left), and two spreads from the report, The Epic Battle(top right), and Globalized Fandom (bottom)