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50 free Sports Technology trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Technology in sports changed the games we watch: a 24-second clock rescued basketball, a 1,200-pound machine invented instant replay, and a swimsuit was so fast it had to be banned. Cricket's Decision Review System, football's VAR and tennis's Hawk-Eye now decide matches that used to hinge on one official's eyesight. This trivia about sports technology covers officiating tech, timing systems, equipment breakthroughs and broadcast tricks across cricket, football, tennis, baseball, athletics, swimming and more. Every answer is sourced and explained.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Hawk-Eye, used in more than 20 sports, was first implemented in 2001 to analyse what?
Leg before wicket decisions in cricket
Paul Hawkins developed it in the United Kingdom for television broadcasts. It has since spread to tennis, football, baseball and more.
Q 02Hawk-Eye is advertised as accurate to within how many millimetres?
2.6 mm
Up to ten high-speed cameras, usually mounted under the stadium roof, triangulate the ball's path into a 3D trajectory.
Q 03Which Grand Slam first made official use of Hawk-Eye, with two challenges per set?
The 2006 US Open
Controversial calls against Serena Williams in her 2004 US Open quarter-final had pushed the sport toward electronic line calling.
Q 04Which electronics company bought the Hawk-Eye system in 2011?
Sony
In 2006 a Wisden-led investor group had bought the company for 4.4 million pounds to strengthen its position in cricket and tennis.
Q 05When did IFAB formally write the video assistant referee into the Laws of the Game?
3 March 2018
The system operates under the philosophy of minimal interference, maximum benefit, targeting clear and obvious errors and serious missed incidents.
Q 06The first official match to use VAR, in September 2016, was a cup tie in which country?
Netherlands
Ajax played Willem II in the KNVB Cup. A yellow card was upgraded to red, the first VAR-based expulsion in a professional game.
Q 07At which tournament did VAR make its debut on the global stage?
The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia
Much of the video technology behind VAR is supplied and patented by Hawk-Eye Innovations under licence from FIFA.
Q 08How does a football referee signal an on-field VAR review?
Drawing a rectangle in the air
The review happens at a referee review area beside the pitch, in public view. Slow motion is used only to establish point of contact.
Q 09Whose disallowed goal against Germany in 2010 reopened the goal-line technology debate?
Frank Lampard's
The shot hit the crossbar, bounced well over the line and came back out. FIFA president Sepp Blatter had opposed the technology until then.
Q 10In which month and year did IFAB officially approve goal-line technology?
July 2012
The Laws were amended to permit but not require it. Because of the cost, it is used only at the top levels of the game.
Q 11GoalRef and the Cairos system detected goals using what hidden inside the ball?
A sensor reacting to a magnetic field
Hawk-Eye took the opposite, camera-based approach and now powers 135 of the 144 stadiums with licensed installations.
Q 12Goal-line technology has been used at men's and women's FIFA World Cups since what year?
2014
GoalRef was first used by a match referee at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup, on 6 December 2012.
Q 13Cricket's formal Decision Review System was first used in a Test match in which year?
2008
Umpires had been able to refer some decisions to a third umpire since November 1992, but player reviews were the new element.
Q 21Cyclops was co-invented by Bill Carlton and Margaret Parnis England, who came from where?
Malta
A long serve broke one of the outer beams and triggered an audible signal, while the umpire still called obviously long serves.
Q 22Speedo's LZR Racer suit cut skin friction drag by what percentage over its predecessor?
24%
NASA wind tunnel facilities supported the design, and the suit's look was done with the fashion brand Comme des Garcons.
Q 23From which date were the LZR Racer and similar full-body suits ineligible for competition?
1 January 2010
FINA voted in July 2009 to require woven textile suits and limit their length. Multiple world records fell within a week of the LZR's release.
Q 14Cricket's Player Referral system was first tested in a match between India and which team?
Sri Lanka
The concept had been proposed in 1997 by Sri Lankan-born lawyer Senaka Weeraratna in a letter published in several newspapers.
Q 15The 2017 edition of which T20 competition was the first to use DRS in its knockout stages?
The Indian Premier League
The first T20 tournament to use the system outright was the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20, with one review per team.
Q 16Cricket's Hot Spot system uses which kind of camera to show where the ball struck?
Infrared
Two cameras on opposite sides of the ground pick up the friction heat of contact, which shows as a bright spot on bat or pad.
Q 17The Snickometer, or Snicko, pairs slow-motion replay with what?
A sound waveform from a stump microphone
A sharp spike in sync with the ball passing the bat indicates an edge. It is used alongside Hot Spot in DRS reviews.
Q 18Which UK broadcaster brought Snicko, Hawk-Eye and the Red Zone to cricket coverage in 1999?
Channel 4
Snicko was invented by English computer scientist Allan Plaskett in the mid-1990s. The newer Real-Time Snickometer needs no manual syncing.
Q 19The first computerised tennis line judge, shown in 1974, detected the ball using what?
Pressure sensors under the court
Invented by Geoffrey Grant and Robert Nicks, it used thin mylar sensors under a carpet court and could tell a ball bounce from a foot.
Q 20Tennis's Cyclops service-line system projected light beams how far above the court?
10 mm
It was introduced at Wimbledon in 1980 and the US Open in 1981, and was eventually superseded by Hawk-Eye in the mid-2000s.
Q 24Which swimmer spearheaded Speedo's LZR Racer campaign for the Beijing Olympics?
Michael Phelps
A holographic video of him in the suit was shown in London, Sydney, New York and Tokyo on the day of its release.
Q 25The NBA introduced the shot clock in which year to stop stalling tactics?
1954
The owner of one struggling franchise divided 2,880 seconds of game time by 120 shots to arrive at 24 seconds per possession.
Q 26Danny Biasone, the shot clock pioneer, owned which NBA franchise?
Syracuse Nationals
The team, now the Philadelphia 76ers, won the NBA title in the first season played with the 24-second clock.
Q 27Clap skates attach the blade to the boot by what mechanism?
A hinge at the front
The blade stays on the ice longer as the ankle extends. The Dutch women's team adopted them in 1996-97 and records tumbled, including at Nagano 1998.
Q 28Clap skates were developed at a university in which city?
Amsterdam
Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau led the work at the Vrije Universiteit, though a hinged skate had been patented back in 1894 by Karl Hannes.
Q 29MLB's Statcast tracking system was installed in all 30 ballparks from which season?
2015
It blends doppler radar with high-definition video. Rays hitters were told they would be judged on exit velocity, not batting average.
Q 30Which Statcast component replaced PITCHf/x for official pitch speeds in 2017?
TrackMan
Speeds are now taken at release rather than 55 feet from home plate, so some pitches registered slightly faster than under the old system.