CANNES — ADWEEK House and EY Studio+ co-hosted a group chat at Cannes Lions where leaders discussed the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and data on fan experiences in sports. Industry figures from sports, media, technology, and marketing participated in the discussion.

Roman Di Somma, head of international talent at CAA Sports, stated that emotion is central to sports. "One of the greatest things about sport is the emotion, right? Because the emotion cannot be scripted, it's authentic, and that's what fans love. The key challenge for us is to use data not to fabricate the emotion, but to remove all the filters that are in between the audience and the emotion and serve it so that it can enhance the live experience of a sport," Di Somma said.

Laurence Buchanan, global leader of EY Studio+, noted that stories derived from data drive fan engagement. "It's not the data, it's the story that the data tells, and that's the thing that's driving engagement with fans," Buchanan said. He also commented on the loyalty within sports fandom: "Sport has a really unfair advantage, which is the loyalty of the customer. The challenge of sports and fan experience is fragmentation."

Louise Johnson, global CEO of Fuse, suggested that fans are interested in gaining more knowledge about sports, rather than seeking algorithms. "Fans don't wake up and go, 'Oh, hey, I want a sports algorithm.' They want to know more about sport," Johnson said.