AI on the Field: White Paper Pitches a Tech-Driven Game Plan for Indian Sports

A white paper milestone unveiled at WAVES 2025 by Columbia University Prof. Vishal Misra urges India to formally add sports technology to the national IndiaAI Mission, making sport a "fourth pillar" of India's AI revolution. Drawing on insights from the FIFS Sports Data Gameathon-an AI contest run with Google Cloud and Dream11-the paper identifies fantasy sport as a strong platform for democratizing AI innovation and building technical skills.

 

Major suggestions are the establishment of a national sports data repository, the introduction of AI-based sports curricula, and the creation of innovation centers to facilitate public-private collaborations. With India's sports tech industry expected to expand at a fast pace and AI adoption set to contribute $500 billion to GDP by 2025, the white paper contends that affordable, data-intensive platforms such as fantasy sports can spur grassroots innovation and revolutionize both athlete performance and fan engagement

 

Source: SportzPower, Economic Times, MediaBrief