SINGAPORE – Imagine standing on the Parc des Princes pitch as French superstar footballer Kylian Mbappe sprints past you at over 30kmh before collecting the ball and placing it into the top corner – all this as the crowd roars from the stands.

And you would not even need to leave the comfort of your sofa to soak in this experience. This is what watching sport could look like in the future with the development of technology and the emergence of the metaverse, say experts.

Sebastian Lancestremere, Global Sports Innovation Centre (GSIC) president and chairman of the board, said: “I think there are going to be blended experiences both online and offline so you will get more statistics and possibilities.

“Probably with tiny wearables, you will be able to have a first-person view as though you were a player or on the pitch or from different angles.

“Hopefully that experience will expand into the people who are outside the stadium with different types of virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality devices, so the vision will be that a stadium that hosts 60 to 70,000 people now can host 70 million or 80 million people or many more.”

Lancestremere was speaking on the sidelines of the GSIC Summit Apac, which was held at the Singapore Sports Hub on Jan 16 and 17.

The two-day event saw members of the global sports industry discussing topics that ranged from fan engagement to the metaverse and e-sports.

Software developer Virtex has already created an immersive experience for fans in e-sports that involves a virtual stadium which enables spectators to enter the games’ battlefield. Fans can opt to watch the action from a seat in the Virtex Stadium, or get into the thick of the action by following their favourite players up close.

Game titles such as Valorant and League of Legends already use the technology for competitions and the company is now venturing into traditional sport, with co-founder and chief operations officer Christoph Ortlepp saying it has done some live tests and demonstrations with European football leagues.

Noting that its co-founder Tim Mcguinness wanted to make these in-stadium experiences accessible to fans around the globe, Ortlepp believes these virtual realities will not replace the real-world experience for now.

He said: “It adds to it, it will get people more excited to go to the actual venue because you’ve been there virtually and once in your lifetime, you want to see it in the real world.

“Our very long-term ambition is to make this the best experience because you don’t have any limitations to what the fan can do and how you can work with the game environment, but in the short term no one can take away the uniqueness and authenticity of the real event.”

Smart stadiums that incorporate advanced technologies have also become more common as sports entities explore ways to provide a personalised experience for fans during match day.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, which cost £850 million (S$1.4 billion) to build and was opened in 2019, has a retractable pitch to allow the venue to be used for different sports such as football, rugby and American football.

Teams have built applications that make information like statistics and scores available to fans at a touch of their fingertips, but National Football League team Las Vegas Raiders take it further by providing access to events, parking information, directions and real-time information on food and beverage concession lines.

Digital efforts are also part of Kallang Alive Sport Management’s (KASM) plans to enhance the experience for patrons of the Singapore Sports Hub, as it looks to grow its space from 35ha to 89ha over the next few years.

The first step would be having a good 5G infrastructure in place, said Andrew Low, KASM group head, technology and data, while discussions for other initiatives are ongoing.

He said: “We want to reimagine how these three segments of sports, entertainment and lifestyle can be in play within this space...

“There are various touch points we are talking about today that we hope will develop in the coming year or two.”