It’s no secret that sports are rapidly evolving due to technology. From tracking performance, perfecting athletic movements, eliminating injuries to easier communication, technology has integrated itself into sports and provided data that has never been explored before. To ensure a fairer game, sports such as football have introduced Virtual Assistant Referees (VAR) and Goal Line Technology to provide a level playing field, none of which would be possible without. 

In an exclusive interview with SPOGO, Sidhhant Aggarwal, Founder of SportVot spoke about changing the face of Indian sporting ecosystem, the inspiration behind and growth of the platform, giving exposure to the grassroots, social media integration, discovering new talent and his future goals. 

What inspired you to create SportVot? What has been the growth of this platform from its inception until now?

There is a lack of digital media penetration at the community sport/grassroots level. Grassroots tournaments have a higher recall and emotional value within the community but covering them via traditional forms of media is difficult. This was the main motivation behind starting SportVot. The growth has been phenomenal, we have managed to cover 8000 matches and reach over a million in viewership in just about a year.

How important is it to implement technology at the grassroot level and local sports to not just give exposure but also for community building?

I think it is very important, the more you democratise the access to digital tools the more it will benefit the community at large.

There has been a greater implementation of technology in sports in recent years than ever before. Do you envision more and more technology to be integrated into sports at the highest level in the future?

I think technology will become an integral part of the sport ecosystem. The current COVID pandemic has made technology adoption at all levels mandatory. Obviously, the pandemic has impacted the physical well being of people and we have lost a lot of people to this but apart from that it has impacted the livelihoods of many and especially the folks involved in the sports ecosystem. The only positive that one can take from this is how it has made us digitally aware and I hope this will help us all in the long run.

What are the different types of services SportVot offers? How important do you consider social media integration in your services?

SportVot offers leagues, teams/sports bodies and local broadcasters cost effective live coverage and data solutions. Our virtual studio helps you digitise your entire tournament right from multilingual live streaming, instant highlights, digital scoring to fixture management(you can know more at https://products.sportvot.com.) Social media integration is one of the most important features of our product. It lets athletes and sports professionals share their SportVot profiles i.e. your stats, match highlights with a wider set of audience on other platforms. You can think of Sportvot's athletes' profiles as something like Linkedin profiles for working professionals.

Do you think that by adopting such a platform at the highest level will help professional sports bodies discover new talent and highlight the deficiencies at the grassroot/local level?

Definitely it will. We are already working behind the scenes with a few franchises of various sports. We have seen some early success in helping the franchises widen their scouting network, as it will give the talent more visibility. But I must admit this is still in the nascent stage and we will know better once we are out of the pandemic completely.

What are the various grassroot initiatives and local sports that have made use of SportVot? How much of an impact did it make?

Various organisations have made use of SportVot. We have covered over 20 different sports with organisations like, DSO games under the MYAS in Maharashtra, Barca Academy in India, Maharashtra Kabaddi Association, Youth Football CFCI to name a few.

Is technology in sports still at an infancy stage? What are your goals and aspirations for the future of SportVot? 

Yes technology is still at an infancy stage but I feel we are on the right track and adoption is increasing day by day. We at SportVot are here to make technology adoption in sports easier, disrupt grassroots sports consumption and change the way sports talent is discovered.