The football industry
More recently, Video Assistant Referees (VAR) have emerged, while fan apps bring playing content and commercial products to supporters off the field of play.
Now the sport - if a little tentatively - is starting to dip its boots into the world of crypto-currency and its supporting blockchain technology.
Earlier this year English Premier League club Arsenal became the first major football club to sign a deal to promote a crypto-currency. It reached an agreement with the gaming company CashBet to advertise its CashBet Coin - used for gambling - at Arsenal's home league games.
Crypto-currencies are a medium of financial exchange, a form of digital cash. There are reckoned to be about 1,500 of them in existence.