Ideas Lab Weekly Updates
The following is recent news with notable & quotable text pulled directly from each article. See the source for more information.
Opportunity in a time of crisis
The last month has seen a flurry of exciting deals. A few worth checking out:
- Pear Sports purchased AI-enabled health coach Performance Lab, which leverages AI to gain insights into athletic performance and then develop a personalized exercise program. Source.
- TrueCoach, a developer of a coaching platform supporting coaches in saving time and delivering a better experience for their clients, was acquired by Transaction Services Group, via its financial sponsor Advent International, through an LBO. Source.
- SeventySix Capital, a sportstech-focused VC shop, recently invested in FORTE, an end-to-end white-label digital technology platform and subscription-based streaming platform for fitness studios. Through innovative partnerships, FORTË enables fitness studios to easily create high-quality content and broadcast it directly to their members. Source.
With COVID-19, video content is all the rage. Just a few examples:
- The Korean league recently announced a partnership with WSC Sports, an AI platform which creates sports shorts automatically and in real time and then broadcast via TV or digitally. Source.
“Soccer is the most watched sport in South Korea…It’s a market with high potential for revenue. One of the trends formed in the wake of the coronavirus is large consumption of video content. Since people still can’t come to the fields, video has become a major part of the puzzle.” — Guy Port, head of Asia Pacific region for WSC Sports.
Yet more reasons to marry AI and sports.
- Researchers look to curling as next sporting frontier for artificial intelligence. An autonomous engineering research group from Hokkaido University gave a lecture on how AI could impact the game of curling as the sole Japanese representatives at a research forum on the use of AI in team sports held in New York in February. Source.
“Going through tens of thousands of throws might see the AI come up with something that is beyond human thought” — Professor Masahito Yamamoto, who has been developing the system for the past six years
- Fascinating examples of how ESPN is using business intelligence (BI) and analytics to enhance the viewing experience for sports fans. This includes five key areas: (1) Tuning into sentiment. Understanding the sentiment of data is pivotal to identifying key issues experienced by fans. (2) Unifying the voice of the fan. Using Domo’s platform, ESPN is able to connect siloed data from conversations happening online, with data coming in directly to Fan Support, and house it all in one place. By unifying these disparate data sources, ESPN is able to map out all of the data to have one unified voice of the fan. (3) Real-time view. ESPN deployed real-time data analytics to understand issues fans were experiencing as they happened, such as lagging, freezing or lost service. (4) Automating processes to identify key broadcast issues. By harnessing BI and analytics, ESPN is able to identify key words regarding the product, the related issues, the frequency of that issue, and the associated sentiment. All of which are then presented in a concise summary that allows leaders to act immediately. (5) Utilise AI-powered alerts to notify problems. Using thresholds, ESPN receives AI-powered notifications and alerts via mobile when a number of issues related to a specific TV provider tips over the set limit. This provides information in the moment, so that customer service leads can collaborate with the appropriate tech/product department to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible. Source.
- Congratulations to Form, a sport technology startup that has developed augmented reality swim goggles for athletes, has raised $12 million CAD in Series A funding. Form’s goggles, which have 16-hour battery life and retail for $199, give swimmers real-time performance feedback, with metrics like split times, distance, stroke rate, and calories displayed directly in the swimmer’s line of sight. The startup uses artificial intelligence to ensure the metrics are tracked and delivered accurately. Source.
- In the world of tennis, video technology company, PlaySight, is providing its automated production tools to broadcast the Exo-Tennis series, an exhibition tournament featuring professional men and women tennis players. The company’s AI-powered cameras are being used to film the event, provide automated graphics, scoring updates and instant replay. The company’s technology minimizes the need for on-site broadcast production employees, which is more crucial than ever given social distancing guidelines during the pandemic. Source.
- And on that note, a great video looking at how data and AI is used in tennis and other sports.
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