Why Regen Sports was born
To sharing my curiosity for the tech-powered future of sports fandom as I go
Some context…
I’ve grown up during a time where tech became more integrated into our daily lives. From just devices being used as a means to an end to them becoming essential to how we live our lives today. Although, growing up I was always playing outside. Be it with other kids or by myself. Not much sport was played back then though as that only developed later on just before I started high school. But once I had started, it only became the focal point more so as I got older. We’re talking playing hockey (on grass, not ice), rugby (that didn’t last long), football, cricket, swimming, basketball, and athletics. And if I wasn’t playing a sport at school, I was watching it back home. The older I got, the more expanded my interests became. Boxing, Formula 1 racing, basketball (this is a recent one) became new sports I followed religiously. And it’s become much easier to follow all of them thanks to the advent of social media.
Today, most of my time is split at work where I write for a tech company, and my love for sports. If I’m not writing about tech at work for most of my day, I’m reading up on the latest news and developments around my favourite sports. And that’s how my days are split, write and research about tech for most of the days during the week, then watch and follow sports during the weekends. Because if I’m being honest, I’m not going to be watching tech reviews and the latest tech conferences for hours on end. I could always get a recap of that via the numerous newsletters I’m subscribed to. Instead, I’m on the edge of my seat as I watch intense games of football or pulsating races of F1. That’s what I call an ideal work-life balance (haha).
So why am I telling you all this?
Well, I spend most of my time writing on tech, and I watch and follow sports closely, so I thought of a way to merge the two. My thinking was if I could combine my two interests, that’d be the ultimate intersection for me. My ikigai (Google it if you don’t know what this means), if you will. What I came across excited me very much. And I don’t mean the numbers like market sizes of various technologies in sports, or the investments being made into sports by institutions, etc.
I’m talking about the advancements being made for sports in general and all the parties involved. I found tech that was advancing fan experiences. Tech to help athletes recover faster and train better. Tech that helps stadium development companies better plan and construct new SOTA (state-of-the-art) stadiums/venues. Tech for enhanced streaming and broadcasting. Tech for things I didn’t even know existed up until I actively went searching for it! My point is, the deeper I went down the rabbit hole, the more assured I became that I’d found something here I would keep working on because it is something I genuinely have interests in. Topics that cross both the essential, and interest, requirements on my list.
Moreso, it’s something I believe will continue to get better and as such, make the industry better as all parties involved stand to benefit. Healthier players, more engaged fans, improved sporting performances, bigger spectacles and so much more will result from the merging of emerging technologies and sports. And I plan to be at the center of it all, following and covering it, play-by-play.