Picture yourself at a car rally. It is a sunny day and cars are hurtling pass the area where you are standing, at somewhat of a distance from the main arena. You are curious about the latest ranking but you cannot hear what is being said on the loudspeaker system because of the noise from the crowd. Do you: a) Move closer to the main arena; b) Ask another spectator if you can listen to his radio; or c) Use your mobile to access the latest event-related information?

If you were Andreas Nilsson from Sweden, your answer would be “c.”  With a group of fellow researchers, Nilsson has studied what happens when spectators at a sporting event are given the technology to interact with event-related information. He discovered that it greatly enhanced their experience at the event.

“The cars hurtle by and seconds later you get the results,” one spectator said after testing Nilsson’s interactive mobile service – the Media Event Platform (MEP) – at a Swedish car rally. “It’s great! It feels very personal and privileged.”

The MEP service was developed after observing people’s information-gathering behavior at the rally. It was designed for Nilsson’s study and combined various sources of event information, allowing mobile users to choose from a number of different channels, ranging from a web browser to SMS.

Nilsson did similar field studies at other Swedish events, including a trotting track (racecourse) and a sailing regatta. Although people’s needs for information varied from event to event, Nilsson found there were three characteristics all spectators shared: mobility, personalization and collaboration.

Nilsson explains his findings by summarizing his team’s observations from the trotting track: “We found that spectators were highly mobile during their stay at the track,” he says. “This mobility stemmed from gathering information from a variety of sources in order to place well-founded bets. When spectators had varied opinions about which information sources they could rely on, they personalized their information by selecting the information sources they trusted the most. They also collaborated with each other to cover a greater set of tips – together they interpreted and made sense of the gathered information.”

Based on the observations from the trotting track, Nilsson created the TrottingPal, a handheld mobile device that allowed spectators to exchange information with each other and access event-related information, such as tips from on-site sport commentators and race results.

Nilsson says the TrottingPal became a successful information service because it made spectators more independent. “They no longer needed to visit the designated information areas to gather information and collaborate with other spectators,” Nilsson says.

Nilsson believes that mobile technologies such as the TrottingPal can make a huge difference in the future. “The biggest benefit is that it will be easier to attract new audiences. For instance, the TrottingPal makes it easier for beginners to understand what the sport is all about and helps them get past the information chaos that exists at tracks today. The faithful trotting audience will also be able to get more out of their visit because they’ll have more information to place well-founded bets,” he says.

To create a successful mobile service for sports fans, Nilsson says it is important to tailor the service to the particular event. “Spectators at a car rally are not interested in the same things as trotting spectators,” he says. “You can’t just package the information in a certain way and think it will work at all events.”

Nilsson says another thing to keep in mind when designing such services is the information sources that already exist on site, such as TV screens and billboards. “The information you provide has to tie-in with existing information sources,” he says. “If there are discrepancies, spectators will abandon the service and never trust it again.”

As for the TrottingPal, Nilsson is confident it will reach commercial stage someday in some form. “There are many interesting business implications for such technology,” he says. “We just have to find out the best way of using it.”

Torunn Hansen-Tangen