Is there any kid out there, who never dreamed of flying like a superhero? If there is any similar experience indistinguishable from reality, then it is the first-person view drone-racing – part virtual reality, part engineering design, part video game. A community of enthusiastic engineers, gamers, entrepreneurs, and fans have successfully tried to bring it to the major sport. Their journey started in Australia and later, the idea covered the whole globe, from Australia to the USA and UAE. In three years, the race organizers have raised tens of millions of dollars and attracted the attention of big-league TV and entertainment networks. By 2016, the drone racing had the sponsorship of Mountain Dew and broadcasting partners such as Discovery Channel and online streaming platform Twitch. In August 2016 another broadcasting giant ESPN broadcasted the racing event in New York. Having shown such growth, many people believe that such sports can easily overthrow such wealthy grandpas like football, soccer, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Just imagine how excited it will be to take one of those beautiful Russian girls out on a racing.
How does it work? The pilots control drones via an FPV device (first-person view goggles) that make them see everything the little drone sees by means of a small tiny camera onboard and a joystick that controls the racing drone.
There is no such thing as a blueprint when it comes to building a sport from a scratch, especially nowadays when it seems that all the good sports ideas have already been put into the business. Then what makes drone-racing any special and how big can it get?
The main benefit of drone racing is that is completely safe, unlike any car race. With cars, you can only drive the road, while drones take you to the sky making it more exciting. It welcomes handicapped, young or old people, basically everyone who is enthusiastic about piloting a drone. And before some of you say “ah, it is for nerds”, let me ask you a question, do you love Star Wars or Superman movies? Search for those videos on YouTube. It looks like you are actually driving a speeder bike from “Return of the Jedi” or racing with Anakin in “Phantom Menace”. As Nicholas Horbaczewski (Founder of the Drone Racing League) puts it: “Every person under the age 50 either wants a drone or has a drone. We are about to raise a generation of pilots”.
However, drone racing is a niche sport for now. It is only at the beginning of its struggle for a major audience. In terms of production value, there are some disadvantages of being a drone-racing fan. Drone pilots use video with a standard definition from the drone cameras to their FPVs to decrease delay and thus, achieve better results. Big league sports viewers are unlikely to tolerate such quality loss, as it is possible that in 5 years even HD quality can become a history with new qHD technologies shining in our living rooms.
Watching it live can also be tricky due to a small size of the drones. You need to have a sharp eyesight to distinguish all the drones. Besides, many people prefer to watch a stream from home seeing what the drone pilots see.
So, does drone-racing has a bright future? Certainly! Because ESPN has a trained eye for such sort of things. They were the first time to broadcast poker tournaments and now millions of people around the world watch it weekly. However, patience is the key here. Nowadays, the entertainment market is stuffed with all sorts of excellent quality products and entering the market requires quite an effort. With time, some investments, promos and solid work from enthusiasts, such effort shall pay off tenfold eventually.
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