Atos delivers digital services to 2023 European Games
Global IT consultancy Atos has delivered data-driven digital services for the latest edition of the European Games, which took place earlier in the summer. The firm partnered with the European Olympic Committees to improve athlete and fan engagement.
Nacho Moros, Atos’ chief operations officer for major events, commented, “The European Olympic Committees (EOC) were keen to boost innovation and engagement for these European Games. We are proud to have worked with them on new solutions and new features that will inspire the whole Olympic Movement. We are looking forward to 2027 to keep improving the technology behind the European Games.”
Founded in 1997, Atos is a French multinational professional services firm, headquartered in Bezons, France. The firm’s worldwide offices offer support for clients with high-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and cybersecurity services.
Digital transformation is touching every corner of the economy at present, and sport is no different. As a result, recent years have seen top sporting bodies increasingly turn to Atos for support with their use of technology – from supplying timing, scoring and results technology to the organisers of European Championships athletics events, to helping the 2018 Winter Olympics to be the first such event run entirely via the cloud.
As a longstanding supporter of the Olympic movement, Atos worked alongside the EOC – the governing body for Europe’s National Olympic Committees – to leverage digital technologies which could make the European Games 2023 the most accessible yet. The event held in Kraków and the regions of Malopolska and Silesia in Poland was supported by a team of more than 400 Atos experts in the country, as well as 25 additional experts in Madrid.
Serving sports
The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from European nations and several transcontinental countries. The event in Poland was the third since its maiden outing in 2015.
Atos served as the IT integrator, responsible for securely capturing, processing and distributing data for all sports events. Services provided included overseeing the event’s ticketing platform, from ticket sales to access control; venue services, such as timing, scoring and automated streaming for 14 sports, which produced 1,100 hours of video in 33 different feeds without any onsite staff; and updating live results and schedules, distributed on all channels.
The services Atos helped supply were integrated into a data-driven digital platform, a comprehensive, one-stop solution designed to meet the needs of athletes, spectators and volunteers. Overall, 40,000 sport fans used the platform to seamlessly buy tickets, view results or watch video content, on mobile or desktop. The mobile app was downloaded by nearly 12,000 users on Android and iOS.
Meanwhile, the EOC and Atos also hoped to enhance the experience of the nearly 7,000 athletes competing in Poland. A dedicated section of the platform allowed athletes, National Olympic Committees and member federations to easily share customised video clips of their performance on their social media channels. Over the course of the event, more than 725 video highlights were produced and distributed daily by the Atos team, reaching an audience of around 30 million viewers
Speaking on Atos’ work, Chair of the Coordination Commission for the European Games 2023 Hasan Arat declared, “Atos has a unique expertise in digital services for sports and major events. We are proud of the innovations we have implemented together to enhance the experience and the engagement of athletes and visitors at the European Games 2023, contributing to the great success of the event.”
Atos will also continue as the official digital technology partner for the 2027 edition of the European Games. It is one of a number of ongoing sporting commitments for the firm – which is also partnering UEFA national team football until 2030.