Real Madrid Creates Digital Replica of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for Fans
By Andrew Cohen
Real Madrid has created a digital replica of its Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in which fans can navigate their avatars to view 3D replicas of the venue’s halls, museum and trophy room. The app includes a real-time automated text and voice translator for fans from all over the world to communicate.
The La Liga soccer club developed its Real Madrid Virtual World in partnership with Spanish company Astosch Technology. The app can be viewed on smartphones or tablets via downloading from the App Store, Google Play or China’s Huawei AppGallery.
In a separate metaverse activation, the Real Madrid TV streaming service partnered with AR glasses maker Nreal in January to let fans watch matches via an augmented reality display.
TendedBar to Debut Two Self-Service Cocktail Stations at PGA’s AT&T Byron Nelson Tournament
By Andrew Cohen
Automated bar service TendedBar is expanding its presence on the PGA Tour as it debuts two self-service cocktail stations at this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson tournament. Fans at TPC Craig Ranch in Texas can pick from more than 100 drink options on TendedBar, which uses facial recognition to process orders.
The Tour first used TendedBar at San Diego’s Farmers Insurance Open in January. Fans upload a selfie, ID and credit information to TendedBar’s web app and have their face scanned by the machine to confirm their identity during orders. The touchscreen-based machine can automatically pour 14 drinks per minute for a faster beverage ordering experience at venues.
TendedBars will operate near the 17th and 18th tees at the AT&T Byron Nelson. The company’s machines were also used during Jacksonville Jaguars home games last season and at Allegiant Stadium during the NFL Pro Bowl in Las Vegas.
Amazon Prime Video to Release Docuseries on Extreme E’s Inaugural Season
By Andrew Cohen
Amazon Prime Video will release an Extreme E docuseries titled “Race for the Planet” that chronicles the off-road electric SUV racing league’s inaugural 2021 season. The five-part series will release on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland this summer.
Extreme E was started by Formula E founder Alejandro Agag, and it races in locations specifically chosen to highlight local climate change issues. The Prime Video series will give a behind the scenes look at Extreme E’s five 2021 races held across locations such as a desert in Saudi Arabia and tundra climate in Greenland.
Sports production company NEO Studios, owned by the Eleven Group, will produce the series. Extreme E began its 2022 season in Neom, Saudi Arabia in February and has four more races scheduled through November, concluding with a race held at the Punta del Este seaside resort in Uruguay.
Meta Partners with NBA for Virtual Reality Fan Engagement Games, Activities
By Joe Lemire
The NBA and Meta have partnered to make NBA Lane, the league’s fictional neighborhood used in promotional content this season and an interactive destination in Horizon Worlds.
Horizon Worlds is the virtual-reality-based metaverse developed by the company formerly known as Facebook. NBA Lane is hosting several games and activities for visitors, including a free-throw shooting contest, low-gravity dunk contest, a chance to take selfies with a virtual Larry O’Brien Trophy and a place for communal viewing of NBA content on a big screen.
This activation is available to users in the U.S. and Canada through June 30. The NBA and Meta have collaborated on prior VR projects, including making some League Pass games available to Quest users through Horizon Venues. Meta announced last week that Horizon Venues would soon be folded into Horizon Worlds and subsequently retired as a standalone platform.
UFC Champ Amanda Nunes to Offer Personal Training in Digital Gym in Partnership with The Sports Metaverse
By Joe Lemire
The Sports Metaverse has launched a presale for real estate in its digital world and partnered with two-time UFC division champion Amanda Nunes in which she will offer training in her metaverse gym.
A full public land sale is planned for June, with the Sports Metaverse announcing the first five brands to purchase space: Phat Fish Fantasy, Own the Moment, ThriveFantasy, Beyond The Game Network, and Press Sports. Nunes is creating her own digital gym in which her 3D avatar will offer MMA coaching.
This is the latest venture from SportsIcon, a graduate of the 2021 Techstars Sports Accelerator that previously released a batch of NFTs that included interaction with and training lessons from pro athletes. The company’s executive team has experience at Sony, Doom, Playstation Home, and Nvidia. It rasied a $5.5 million seed round with investments from Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, retired NBA player Andrew Bogut, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and the rapper Nas. Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku partnered with SportsIcon last November.
Terra, the cryptocurrency company that signed a $40 million partnership with MLB’s Washington Nationals in February, had its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) trade at less than 30 cents on Wednesday. Terra’s UST is meant to maintain a 1-to-1 peg with the U.S. dollar as a so-called “stablecoin” intended to serve as a less volatile form of cryptocurrency.
On Tuesday amid the coin’s rapid market plunge, the Nationals tweeted a “crypto 101″ video from their official account that was presented by Terra. The 45-second video details perceived benefits of cryptocurrency such as “cryptocurrency can’t be counterfeited or double-spent […] and allows for secure transactions with no middle-man.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned the collapsing value of TerraUSD during her testimony on Tuesday for the U.S. federal government to pass a regulatory framework for stablecoins. “A stablecoin known as TerraUSD experienced a run and declined in value,” Yellen said according to MarketWatch. “I think that simply illustrates that this is a rapidly growing product and that there are risks to financial stability and we need a framework that’s appropriate.”
The food and beverage club located behind home plate at Nationals Park was renamed The Terra Club in February as part of the team’s five-year deal with Terra. As part of that deal, MLB said that UST could be accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early the 2023 season.
SAS Builds AI-Powered Batting Cage for Youth Baseball, Softball Hitters
By Andrew Cohen
Software analytics firm SAS is set to open The Batting Lab in Cary N.C., a batting cage for little leaguers that contains sensors and computer vision cameras to track their stance, swing and ball flight data. Cary-headquartered SAS aims for the cage to help educate kids about analytics and data literacy.
More than 50,000 data points are collected on each swing inside The Batting Lab. Feedback is shared in real-time via in-cage screens on its floors and walls. Batters will see data on how to improve their weight distribution, hand position and core movements. Swings from youth players are compared to The Batting Lab’s optimal swing model that SAS created after analyzing thousands of swings from North Carolina State University’s baseball and softball teams.
NC State partnered with SAS in 2020 to study fan behavior and identify potential donors. SAS will also offer an online Data Playbook for kids to improve their swings and gain data literacy at home through analytics tracked by The Batting Lab.
AT&T, Quintar Partner on Second-Screen AR Activations Inside Venues
By Andrew Cohen
AT&T and augmented reality startup Quintar are collaborating to develop AR experiences for fans attending live sports events. The AR activations will run on AT&T’s 5G network, which is currently installed at more than 40 venues.
The partnership will focus on second-screen AR activations inside venues. Last week, the PGA Tour acquired a minority equity stake in Quintar as it became the league’s official mobile AR developer through 2024. Quintar has created shot data graphics for the PGA Tour AR mobile app since 2020, and it partnered with SharpLink Gaming last year to make an AR-focused sports betting platform.
AT&T is the title sponsor of PGA Tour events such as the AT&T Byron Nelson and Pebble Beach Pro-Am. AT&T also operates StatsZone, a feature that displays game stats in augmented reality on apps for the NBA, WNBA and Chicago Bulls.
“Augmented reality is about to transform from a tool that has only been used to deliver marketing gimmicks around the game to a highly personal, naturally simple, and indispensable companion to watching games,” Buddy Scott, Quintar’s SVP of platform products and experiences, said in a statement. “The Quintar platform, which delivers accurate long-range AR visualization, combined with AT&T 5G, transforms attending home games into powerfully meaningful in-game, on-the-court AR metaverse experiences.”
LA Kings First NHL Franchise to Tap Volumetric Video Capture for Immersive Fan Experience
By Joe Lemire
The Los Angeles Kings, in partnership with Tetavi, are the first NHL franchise to use volumetric video capture to create an immersive fan experience for the metaverse.
Tetavi’s portable volumetric capture studio was set up last month at the Kings’ practice facility, the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. Kings players Anže Kopitar, Phillip Danault, Adrian Kempe, Viktor Arvidsson, Trevor Moore and Alex Iafallo, as well as mascot Bailey, were recorded with the first videos airing during the Kings’ first home playoff game on May 6 at Crypto.com Arena.
Israeli-founded Tetavi uses 3D video and machine learning algorithms to produce its volumetric video. Serial entrepreneur Miky Tamir—who previously founded SportVU, Pixellot and Track160, among other companies—is a co-founder and the chairman of Tetavi.
$62.5M Series B Funding Round for Self-Checkout Kiosk Company Mashgin
By Andrew Cohen
Mashgin, whose self-checkout machines are used at more than 30 sports stadiums, has raised $62.5 million in Series B funding to now value itself at $1.5 billion. Venture capital firm NEA led the funding, which will accelerate Mashgin’s expansion and help the company scale internationally.
Stadiums with Mashgin’s self-checkout kiosks to process food, beverage and retail transactions include Citi Field and Madison Square Garden in New York, Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, Honda Center and SAP Center in California, Seattle’s Lumen Field, Denver’s Mile High Stadium, Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and NRG Stadium in Texas. Mashgin’s machines are installed at more than 800 locations across venues, airports and convenience stores.
Fans place their items on the machines for self-checkout and electronic payment. Mashgin says its computer vision correctly identifies 99.9% of items it scans. The company’s machines have to date processed 35 million transactions worth $310 million in sales.
Premier League Expands Smart Mouthguard Study on Heading Impacts
By Andrew Cohen
The Premier League is expanding its study on the health impacts of heading in soccer by outfitting 12 clubs with Protecht sensor-embedded mouthguards supplied by Wales-based sports technology company Sports & Wellbeing Analytics (SWA). The 12 clubs play across the Premier League, English Football League and FA Women’s Super League.
Liverpool and Manchester City began equipping players with SWA’s Protecht mouthguard last season. The expanded study will see players from 12 clubs wear the smart mouthguards during training sessions. Sensors in the mouthguards track the frequency of hits to the head and the force and direction of each impact.
The data will be used to monitor a player’s training load and inform the Premier League on its future heading guidelines for players. As part of its research with SWA, the Premier League developed neck strengthening programs for players after discovering a potential relationship between neck and shoulder strength and head acceleration.
SWA developed Protecht in collaboration with mouthguard manufacturer Opro. Premiership Rugby clubs Harlequins and Gloucester and Welsh rugby club Ospreys also wear the mouthguards as part of head impact-monitoring studies with SWA. Harlequins rugby player Danny Care previously spoke to SportTechie about what he’s learned from wearing Protecht in training.
“I don’t get into the big collisions, so these were just running to the line, passing to someone, getting hit. The force that was having on my neck or on my head, which I wouldn’t classify as a collision, for me was mind-blowing,” Care said. “To see the g-force that some of our big lads were hitting people with or getting hit, and the rate of knots that their neck was going back was mind-blowing, really, of how physical the sessions can be.”
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