Hanoi (VNA)꧟ – Over the past years, many areas have been making changes to keep up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and sports are not an exception.

In June 2020, the Prime Minister approved the national digital transformation programme by 2025 with a vision to 2030, aiming to turn Vietnam into a digital country. The National Sports Administration under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been taking steps to help achieve the goal under this programme. The administration said it has set up a data integration centre and developed software for common use such as a management information system, an email system, a software for managing athlete database, and a software for managing the database of athletes’ performance results. The administration has also paid attention to IT personnel so as to boost IT application and infrastructure development, it noted. In recent years, sports fans have become more familiar with tournaments applying high technology, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Many large virtual running, walking or cycling races with the support of advanced equipment have been organised. At the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) held in Vietnam in May, new technologies were applied to some sports. For example, electronic starting blocks, electronic score boards and even the video assistance referee (VAR) technology replaced traditional equipment in track and field events. For shooting events, athletes competed at a completely new arena where electronic targets and devices were used instead of paper targets and manual scoring. E-sports may be the clearest demonstration of sports development on digital platforms. Playing e-sports has gradually become popular in Vietnam over the past years, but it was not until the sport was included in major and professional tournaments like SEA Games that it won people’s recognition. Do Viet Hung, Secretary General of the Vietnam Recreational and Electronic Sport Association (VIRESA), said the association had worked closely with domestic game distributors and other partners to make thorough and all-round preparations for e-sports competitions at SEA Games 31. At the Games, there were eight e-sports categories with 10 events held continually in 10 days, attracting the participation of 485 athletes and coaches, along with over 120 assistants from 10 regional countries. Nearly 900 people, including technical officials and international and national referees, engaged in the organisation of e-sports competitions. These statistics can partly reflect Vietnam and other countries’ attention to e-sports, Hung said. When every social aspect is gradually adopting digital transformation, changes could also be seen in sports to join the common trend, believed to be crucial for sports development in the current context./.