360° Video of a Rugby Game in South Africa

Virtual Reality and 360° Video in Sports

Virtual reality and 360° video are incredibly exciting technologies with enormous untapped potential. In the future, immersive media could become one of the largest forms of entertainment and completely transform how people experience live events.

We wanted to explore how virtual reality and 360° video could work within the sports industry. To test the concept, we experimented with filming at a Springbok rugby game to evaluate the immersive experience and determine whether the technology had the potential we believed it did.

Unfortunately, I had to discreetly bring my 360° video camera into the stadium, which means I cannot publicly share the actual 360° footage. However, the results of the test were extremely promising and demonstrated tremendous potential for live streaming sporting events in immersive 360° video.

Image from the stadium showing where the 360° video camera was positioned during the Springboks game.

Our 360° video camera setup at the Springboks rugby match while testing immersive sports broadcasting.

Advantages of Streaming Rugby in 360° Video

Below are some of our findings on how live rugby broadcasts in 360° video could benefit broadcasters, fans, and the sports industry as a whole.

• The immersive experience feels incredibly realistic. When watching the footage in virtual reality, it genuinely feels as though you are physically sitting inside the stadium.
• The experience can be replayed repeatedly. Imagine if the 1995 Rugby World Cup had been filmed in 360° video — rugby fans today could relive the match as if they were actually there.
• It creates an entirely new revenue model for broadcasters. Sporting events could be live-streamed in virtual reality, allowing viewers around the world to purchase virtual access to games they cannot attend in person.
• Fans could experience international sporting events from anywhere in the world. For example, someone in South Africa could virtually attend a rugby match in England or a cricket game in Australia without ever leaving home.
• Spectators could choose premium virtual seating positions around the stadium and even switch between different viewpoints during the match for a fully interactive experience.

E-Sports and the Future of Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is also likely to play a major role in the future of sport and competitive gaming.

As VR technology evolves, people will increasingly compete against each other inside immersive virtual environments. Because advanced VR systems track full-body movement, players interact naturally and physically within the virtual world, making the experience far more realistic and skill-based.

The competition would still depend on skill, strategy, and physical coordination — the better player would still win.

I believed then, and still believe today, that within the next 10 to 20 years people will either participate in sports inside virtual reality or watch sporting events entirely through immersive VR experiences.