There was a lot of news last week. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Donald Trump, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison announced a 500bn initiative to expand infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence dubbed Stargate. On its heels came a press release from Meta vowing to expand its capital expenditure to 65bn in the coming year to expand its data centers.

Based on sports type, the football segment held the highest market share in 2020, holding more than one-fourth of the global artificial intelligence in sports market, and is projected to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. This is attributed to adoption of IoT devices such as sensors, GPS trackers, and computer vision algorithms to track movement of players and balls. However, the basketball segment is expected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 35.0% from 2021 to 2030, owing to usefulness of AI in-game analysis for identifying trends and analyzing innumerable variations of plays such as pick-and-rolls.

In 2020, the sports market for artificial intelligence was estimated to be worth $1.4 billion. By 2030, it is expected to have grown to $19.2 billion, with a CAGR of 30.3%. In terms of market share by sport, football accounted for more than one-fourth of the global artificial intelligence in the sports market in 2020. Whereas, in terms of regions, North America held the largest market share in terms of revenue in 2020, accounting for more than one-third of the global artificial intelligence in sports market. By 2030, it is anticipated that North America will continue to hold this position of dominance.

Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Artificial Intelligence in Sports Market by Component (Software and Services), Deployment Model (Cloud and On-premise), Technology (Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Data Analytics, and Others), Application (Game Planning, Game Strategies, Performance Improvement, Injury Prevention Sports Recruitment, and Others), and Sports Type (Football, Cricket, Tennis, Basketball, Baseball, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030." According to the report, the global artificial intelligence in sports industry US$1.4 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach US$19.2 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 30.3% from 2021 to 2030. Rise in demand for monitoring and tracking data of players, demand for chatbots and virtual assistants to interact with followers, and requirement of real-time data analytics to improve performance drive the growth of the global artificial intelligence in sports market. However, lack of trained & skilled professionals and high cost of implementation and maintenance restrain the market growth. On the other hand, rise in demand for AI to make future predictions create new opportunities in the coming years.