Immersive technology for sport official training and assessment: A scoping review

Developments in technology permit the display of realistic competition footage from an immersive perspective, marking a promising trend for the training of sport officials (i.e. referees, umpires, judges and time/scorekeepers). Research summarizing the use of immersive technology for sport officials is currently absent in the literature. As such, the aim of this study was to synthesize the research utilizing immersive technology as a training or assessment tool for sport officials and highlight gaps in the current literature. Following a scoping review protocol, five databases were searched. Ten articles from eight countries were included. Most of the studies positioned immersive technology as a useful training tool to optimize sport officials' decision-making. The studies employed a total of 16 different technologies, ranging from 360º video footage to competition broadcast video. Noticeably, there was a lack of diversity among the studied participants, as all sport officials were male and interactors (i.e. team-based sports). The findings indicate that research on immersive technology for sport officials, although promising, is still in its infancy.