Artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually shaping how sport is played, organised, governed, represented, and experienced. From machine learning and predictive analytics to automated decision-making and generative AI, technological developments are introducing new possibilities across sporting environments. Increasingly, AI is being used to inform athletic performance, coaching practices, talent identification, and injury prevention, with its wider application extending to sport management, broadcasting, journalism, sport business, and fan engagement (Balsinhas-Dias et al., 2026; Galily, 2026; Kozman et al., 2026; Zhou et al., 2025). These developments raise important questions about how technological systems are transforming established sporting practices as well as the opportunities and consequences associated with their adoption.
To this extent, the relationship between sport and AI extends beyond questions of technological application and/or efficiency. As AI becomes embedded within sporting organisations and everyday sporting experiences, it invites reconsideration of the social, cultural, economic, political, and ethical conditions through which sport is produced and understood. Notably, questions concerning human agency, expertise, embodiment, identity, fairness, inequality, and institutional accountability become especially pertinent when decisions, which were previously associated with human judgement, are mediated by algorithmic systems (Houterman, 2023; Pashaie et al., 2026; Terason et al., 2026). At the same time, the development and use of AI by existing commercial interests and regulatory arrangements suggests that its consequences will also differ across sporting contexts and populations.
These developments, therefore, raise fundamental questions about the meaning and experience of sport. What happens to sporting expertise when performance can be increasingly modelled and predicted? How might AI affect established understandings of athletic achievement and human capability? Who benefits from the introduction of AI technologies, and whose interests or experiences might be marginalised? How do athletes, coaches, administrators, spectators, and other sporting stakeholders understand and negotiate the growing presence of AI? What forms of governance and accountability are appropriate when technological systems inform decisions with sporting, financial, or personal consequences?
In answering these questions, this edited collection seeks to bring together critical and interdisciplinary scholarship on how artificial intelligence is reshaping sporting cultures, identities, and experiences. It is concerned with AI as a social and cultural development, examining the relations of power and lived consequences that accompany its use in sport as well as its cultural, social, political, and ethical implications. By examining AI as a technological development embedded within particular social and institutional conditions, the collection will advance understanding of how sport is influencing, and being influenced by, developments in artificial intelligence.
The collection welcomes contributions from scholars working across the humanities, social sciences, sport sciences, computer science, sport engineering, health sciences, and related fields. Relevant disciplinary perspectives may include sociology, philosophy, computer science, psychology, anthropology, history, political science, economics, law, criminology, geography, media and communication studies, education, management, physiology, biomechanics, and data science. Contributions may be theoretical, conceptual, empirical, methodological, or practice-oriented. Chapters may also examine professional and elite sport, grassroots and community participation, youth sport, disability sport, recreational physical activity, esports, and other relevant sporting contexts. International and comparative perspectives are particularly encouraged, including research that considers inequalities in access to, and experiences of, AI technologies across different geographical and socio-economic settings.
Abstracts may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- AI, sporting cultures, identities, and everyday experiences
- AI, embodiment, and the meaning of athletic performance
- AI, expertise, coaching, and athlete development
- AI, gender, race, class, and sporting inequalities
- AI, disability sport, access, and belonging
- AI, athlete wellbeing, surveillance, and care
- AI, sporting ethics, fairness, and trust
- AI, officiating, authority, and experiences of justice
- AI, governance, institutional power, and accountability
- AI, labour, and the political economy of sport
- AI, sports media, representation, and digital cultures
- AI, fandom, affect, and supporter communities
- AI, online abuse, platform cultures, and sporting publics
- AI, sports betting, gambling cultures, and harm
- AI, grassroots participation, and community sport
- AI, education, and the production of sporting knowledge
- AI, esports, and changing forms of sporting competition
- AI, sporting histories, and imagined futures
These themes indicate the scope of the collection and are not intended to constrain its intellectual direction. Proposals concerned with technological or performance innovations are welcome where they examine how such developments reshape sporting relations, identities, or experiences. Prospective contributors are welcome to enquire about the suitability of a proposed chapter before submitting an abstract.
Submission Guidelines
Prospective contributors are invited to submit a word-document, containing the following information, to Dr. Jack Black (j.s.black@lboro.ac.uk):
- An abstract of approximately 300-500 words identifying the proposed chapter’s central argument or research questions, its disciplinary or theoretical approach, and its contribution to understanding sporting cultures, identities or experiences in relation to AI.
- A provisional chapter title.
- A short biographical statement of approximately 100 words for each author, including institutional affiliation where applicable.
- Contact details (email) for the corresponding author.
Proposed chapter length: 6,000-8,000 words, including references (subject to publisher requirements).
Abstract submission deadline: 19 January 2027
Notification of acceptance: 2 February 2027
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Full chapter submission deadline: This will be confirmed once Bloomsbury have assessed the proposal.
