Games without frontiers: what can we expect from the world of sport over the next decade?

Machines may be out to destroy the world on the big screen, but sport in the 2020s will face a more human threat to its wellbeing than invasive technology. As ever, it’s all about the money, writes Vithushan Ehantharajah

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Whenever throwing forward to how the world might look, movies are greats points of reference. Partly because they’re all quite off.

Sometimes they’re too ambitious, like Back to the Future II and floating skateboards in 2015. An understandable punt in 1989, sure, but the closest we’ve come are those hands-free Segways which require as much skill as brazenness to ride in public. When it comes to the next few years, the original Terminator brings less jovial and more grim tidings.

In James Cameron’s sci-fi epic, the 2020s are when the machines finally took over, laying waste to mankind right the way through to 2029 when Skynet is finally defeated. The initial disaster arose through humans trusting technology too much. But if there is a fear the likes of Google and Alexa are plotting from their deep-rooted positions in society then never fear – sports fans are here.