The sports industry has weathered every technological disruption thrown at it. TV didn’t kill stadiums, the internet didn’t kill broadcasts, and streaming didn’t kill linear deals. Each wave instead redistributed value and forced organizations to rethink what they were selling and to whom. Those that adapted unlocked new models: The Premier League’s embrace of satellite TV turned it into a global property worth billions, while Netflix’s move into live sports signaled a future beyond legacy distributors.
AI is the next inflection point, but it is different from everything that came before. For the first time, the technology doesn’t just change how sports are distributed. It changes how fans discover, follow, and experience the games themselves.
Proprietary research from Horizon Sports & Experiences makes the challenge clear: More than 75% of sports fans are aware AI is being used in their sport, but fewer than half say they understand how it works. When adoption outpaces comprehension, skepticism fills the void. That skepticism is not just a communications problem; it’s a commercial one. Organizations that deploy AI without closing that gap risk eroding the fan trust that underpins every sponsorship, media deal and ticket sold.
The excuse is gone: From data points to fan profiles
For years, the fragmentation of fan data has offered the industry a convenient alibi. Ticketing data sits with Ticketmaster. Merchandise data with Fanatics. Stadium operations, streaming platforms, fantasy products — each touchpoint has generated its own intelligence, siloed and controlled by a different partner. Even the most sophisticated organizations have been operating with a partial picture of their own fans.
AI removes that alibi. The fan who buys tickets through one platform, streams games through another, and engages with content through a third is no longer measured as three separate data points. For the first time, those signals can generate a single, coherent fan profile. But unifying the data is only the first challenge. Turning it into decisions organizations can act on, in real time, is the harder one. How that capability develops, and who owns it, will be as consequential as the data itself.
That makes transparency the immediate imperative. Our findings show nearly 70% of fans express concern about how AI uses their personal data, and only about 30% believe sports organizations are transparent about their AI practices. The industry is gaining the capability to know its fans more precisely at exactly the moment those fans are most attuned to how that information gets used.
Why sports is the highest-stakes arena
Most industries serve consumers. “Sports’” serves fans, and that distinction matters more than it might appear. A consumer switches products. A fan’s relationship with an athlete, team, league or sport is tied up in identity, community and memory in ways that no other commercial category can claim. An AI blunder in sports isn’t just a product failure. It is something far more personal.
And it’s that same intensity that makes sports the most powerful proving ground for AI in any commercial sector. The data richness is unmatched: viewing behavior, attendance, ticketing, merchandise, betting, fantasy and social engagement. The feedback loops are immediate. Organizations operating in this environment will learn faster than anyone else what AI can and cannot earn permission to do.
Get it right and the commercial upside is significant: deeper engagement, stronger data and more durable sponsorship value. Get it wrong and the backlash will be loud, public and lasting.
What the data says
Fans draw a clear line, and organizations need to know where it is. Support for AI runs 60%-70% when it is used for stats, personalization, and reducing friction. It drops by more than 20 points the moment AI feels autonomous or like it is shaping outcomes. The implication is direct: AI earns acceptance as an assistant, not a decision-maker. The moment it appears to cross that line, it loses people.
There is also a meaningful opportunity in the resistance itself. Fan skepticism toward AI tracks closely with familiarity, not ideology. Fans who understand how AI works are far more likely to view its use in sports positively. That means the fan bases most resistant today are convertible through better communication, not more technology. Organizations that treat transparency and education as a commercial strategy, not just a PR obligation, are expanding their addressable market.
The pattern is familiar
The organizations that leaned into television built national audiences that underwrote decades of growth. Those that embraced digital early built the fan relationships and data infrastructure that now anchor their most valuable sponsorship conversations. The streaming pioneers found not just a new platform, but a new commercial model built on engagement depth rather than raw reach.
AI follows the same logic. The winners will not be the organizations that collect the most data. They will be the ones that build the intelligence to know what it means and the discipline to act on it in ways fans recognize as being in their own interest. Deeper personalization means longer fan relationships and stronger sponsor targeting. Better experiences drive conversion. Transparency drives trust at scale.
Trust is the only asset in sports that cannot be bought. It can only be earned. The organizations that earn it in the AI era will not just survive the disruption. They will define what comes after it.
Kerry Bradley is senior vice president of strategy at Horizon Sports & Experiences.
