FIFA 23, the most recent and also final installment in the successful EA Sports video game series, features not only a female athlete on the cover and women’s club teams for the first time but also implemented its HyperMotion2 technology to improve the graphics and gameplay of matches between women’s teams.
HyperMotion2 animation is the product of latest iteration of the XSens -powered motion capture data . Prior to FIFA 22 , two Spanish pro men’s teams played an entire match in mocap suits to help EA Sports animators better render the athletes’ fluid motions and technical skill. In preparation for FIFA 23 , EA Sports commissioned similar exhibitions featuring motion capture technology—this time for one men’s match and one women’s match.
These new data sources helped provide more than 6,000 distinct animations taken directly from real-world, on-field gameplay. Machine learning algorithms ingested 9.2 million frames of motion capture data, taken from the 11 vs 11 matches as well as some 5 vs 5 drills.
TendedBar , the automated cocktail machine that uses facial recognition to process drink orders, will be implemented at Empower Field at Mile High for Denver Broncos homes games this upcoming NFL season. The stadium began using TendedBar at concerts earlier this summer in partnership with Aramark Sports + Entertainment and will debut TendedBar’s new digital age verification tool when for Saturday’s Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at Mile High.
Concerts at Mile High this summer have offered three TendedBar stations —each 10-feet long—at locations such as Section 110 on the lower level, Section 517 on the upper level, and the West Club. The typical beverage-dispensing station includes four touchscreen units that fans can operate to select cocktail combinations across 10 liquors and 18 mixers at a time. Fans scan a QR code on TendedBar’s screen to begin the enrollment process on their mobile devices, which includes uploading a selfie , photo of their driver’s license and credit card information. The new digital age verification tool compares a fan’s selfie with their driver’s license to confirm their age before ordering alcohol.
TendedBar made its NFL debut last season during Jacksonville Jaguars home games at TIAA Bank Field, and it was also deployed at Allegiant Stadium during the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas. The PGA Tour also begun offering TendedBar at tournaments starting with January’s Farmers Insurance Open . TendedBar is not the first automated concessions service to reach Mile High, as the stadium also debuted Zippin’s autonomous checkout-free stores during the 2020 season.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has entered the digital collectible world. The Hall of Fame has selected Candy Digital as its official licensee of digital collectibles under a new product line called the Baseball Legends Series . Fanatics-owned Candy Digital is already the official digital collectible partner of MLB, MLBPA and WWE, among others.
Candy Digital CEO Scott Lawin spoke at SportTechie's Horizon Summit. You can read more here.
The first iteration of the Baseball Legends Series is the 2022 Hall of Fame ICON Series. On sale beginning August 2, there will be two digital packs available. There will be 1,500 available 10-packs selling for $249 apiece, with each guaranteed to have at least one digital ICON with a rarity of at least Rare (the third tier of out of five). There also will be 5,000 packs with four ICONs apiece selling for $99 each with at least one collectible graded as Uncommon (second tier). In all, there are 30 Hall of Famers included in the ICON series, including Ken Griffey Jr., Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, and Ryne Sandberg.
Candy Digital will offer free digital collectibles to all attendees of this weekend’s Induction Weekend in Cooperstown, NY . Each blockchain-minted keepsake will include names and photos of all 2022 inductees: Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva, Bud Fowler, Buck O'Neil, and David Ortiz.
Future plans for the Baseball Legends Series include the use of 3D scanning technology to capture treasured baseball artifacts from the museum’s archives in digital form.
UK-based data capture and analysis company Skylab is partnering with Lexington Sporting Club to provide player performance analysis for the USL expansion club. The company’s software will analyze video of matches and practices across Lexington’s senior teams, academies and potential recruitment targets to generate performance evaluation feedback on those players.
The club will also rely on Skylab to conduct playing style reviews and trends from other teams across USL League One, which is the third tier of men’s soccer in the U.S. behind MLS and the USL Championship. Kentucky-based Lexington SC is slated to play its inaugural season in 2023.
Skylab’s website says it previously provided performance analysis services to an English Premier League club and a professional cycling team.
SeventySix Capital has invested in Asensei , an AI fitness company that develops sensor-embedded training apparel and a motional analysis coaching app. Asensei’s software can integrate into existing products to provide form feedback on exercise movements. Asensei already partners with brands such as pilates machine Reform RX, climbing machine CLMBR and strength training machine Speede .
Asensei launched its smartphone-based computer vision motion capture software in December to compliment its existing line of smart apparel products. Last year, Asensei reported raising $5.1 million in total funding and reaching nearly 100,000 downloads of its coaching app. The company’s existing investors include former NFL QB Mark Sanchez and KB Partners.
Venture capital arms from owners of the Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Pirates are among the investors in SeventySix Capital. The firm’s investment portfolio includes sports tech startups such as immersive camera provider C360, bat sensor developer Diamond Kinetics, fitness content streaming app Forte, social betting app Lucra Sports and augmented reality company Quintar.
FC Barcelona has minted the first NFT in club history and is making the token and a special club membership available for sale via auction at Sotheby’s New York on July 29. This is the first of 10 planned non-fungible token s in production from the LaLiga powerhouse.
The audiovisual token depicts Johan Cruyff , the namesake of Barça ’s stadium for its women’s and academy teams, scoring arguably the most famous goal in club history. On Dec. 22, 1973, Cruyff was said to fly through the air , with his right leg extended, to score a key goal against Atlético Madrid.
The NFT is called In a Way, Immortal and is the result of more than 10,000 production hours from 40 members of the team at BCN Visuals . The digital studio rendered the goal in molten gold animation, with a 30-piece orchestra providing the original soundtrack on a 40-second video clip. Inclusive in the auction lot are four still image NFTs of the project.
In addition to NFT ownership, whoever wins the auction also becomes a Barça Digital Ambassador with exclusive privileges to attend training sessions, meet and greets and other hospitality. Bidding is available online as well as in person, and the purchase price can be paid in several cryptocurrencies.
Fox Sports debuted a camera attached to the home plate umpire’s facemask for its broadcast of last night’s MLB All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. Canadian company RF Wireless Systems designed the camera with the help of Major League Baseball. The camera captured shots of the umpire’s point of view through both live footage and play-back replays during the broadcast.
RF Wireless approached Fox three years ago to begin testing iterations of its Ump Cam, which Fox successfully tested at an MLB approved laboratory for live in-game use but the pandemic delayed its debut until last night’s All-Star Game. Fox again tested RF Wireless’s umpire camera during this year’s spring training and 2021 Arizona Fall League with support from the MLB Umpires Association.
A memorable shot from last night’s Ump Cam debut came when AL All-Star Alek Manoah threw a pitch to batter Joc Pederson that he foul-tipped into the home plate umpire’s facemask, with the visceral point-of-view ricochet shown during the live broadcast.
“We knew it looked great and synced as we expected, so we got on the air live as fast as we could. It's really a special experience seeing how fast these pitchers are throwing, how dynamically that ball moves and what a hitter, catcher and umpire all must do in a split second,” Brad Cheney, VP of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports, wrote in an email to SportTechie. “There were so many amazing segments last night that were live and played back including a ball being fouled off the left side of the last just inches away from the camera. We were able to play this back and utilize our XtraMotion system to create a Super Motion clip of this non-Super Motion camera, bringing more clarity to the ball / mask collision.”
While this was the first time Fox placed a live camera on an umpire for a broadcast, the network showed a similar view when it attached a camera to the catcher’s facemask during last year’s Home Run Derby. That wearable camera was provided by ActionStreamer, which Fox also worked with to equip USFL players with helmet cams during the football league’s inaugural season this past spring. RF Wireless’s umpire camera product is trademarked and patented by the Ontario-based company under the UmpVU name.
Kevin De Bruyne’s elite youth soccer tournament, the KDB Cup, used Veo’s emerging AI technology to livestream games to 104 countries for free.
Veo’s novel streaming service, Veo Live—powered by the new Veo Cam 2—led to almost 45,000 live or on-demand viewers and 20 million impressions through social media and daily recaps over the two-day premier U15 tournament in Belgium. The Veo app also provided participating players and coaches with match highlights and game analysis.
By deploying Veo’s AI sports cameras across two adjacent pitches, all 30 matches from the KDB Cup in late May were able to be livestreamed without the need for human camera operators. The championship game, won 3-1 by Barcelona over Real Madrid, garnered 2,000 viewers, and the Veo Live app generated 10,000 app installs overall.
Just this month, Veo raised $80 million in Series C funding in hopes of expanding its automated cameras throughout the U.S., after receiving $24 million of Series B funding in January of 2021. The company has over 15,000 clients across 80 countries, including teams in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1. The NBA also used Veo cameras to help scout players prior to the 2020 draft.
Fitness technology company Proteus Motion, maker of a 3D resistance training machine, has raised a Series A round of $8.5 million that was co-led by Acies Investment and HBSE Ventures.
Athlete investors joining the round include Blake Griffin (through his venture fund Blake Griffin Enterprises), former NBA player Matthew Dellavedova and recently retired MLB pitcher Jon Lester, a three-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. They join MLB Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau and former MLB pitcher Chris Capuano, who all invested previously.
Proteus Motion’s version 2.0 machine is in use by tens of thousands of users across 41 states and parts of Canada, so founder and CEO Sam Miller said the plan for the funding is to scale its business and enhance its software packages.
The hardware is in use by a number of elite athletes—headlined by MLB’s Miguel Cabrera, Giancarlo Stanton, JD Martinez and Justin Verlander, the NBA’s Damian Lillard, golfers DeChambeau and Jon Rahm and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes—and the New York-headquartered startup features a six-member team of trainer ambassadors, including Eric Cressey, the New York Yankees’ director of player health and performance.
“What we've been doing with them is now basically building into the software parts of the elite trainers’ logic and brain so that it becomes a little bit more automated,” Miller told SportTechie. “And so what that means is instead of just [presenting] data that trainers have to figure out what to do with, we're turning that into insights and recommendations that are entirely through the software.”
The first iteration of this AI-powered feedback is expected to launch within the next eight weeks, Miller said, adding that it should unlock more usability for a wider audience. Proteus Motion is already making inroads in general fitness and physical therapy setting and, with the new intelligence, “can now be really used and engaged with for any type of individual to understand their physical strength,” he said.
The fledgling USFL credits Perch, an AI-powered weight rack, for helping its players train more safely and efficiently during its past inaugural spring season.
Developed by three former MIT students, Perch combines a compact 3D camera with machine learning to produce a foot-long device that calculates a weightlifter’s sets, reps, velocity and power output. The product—consisting of a battery pack and a smart tablet—can be attached via Velcro to any weight rack, and, once the user logs on to the tablet, the 3D technology can provide the athlete and their coaches with workout data via a mobile phone or the web.
Before this past season, the tech-conscious USFL first installed Perch on seven weight racks inside its core training facility at the Birmingham (Ala.) Jefferson Convention Complex. All 400 player from the league’s eight teams congregated there and, through the AI, were monitored performing deadlifts, squats, bench press and power cleans, among others. Each players’ data was then stored and evaluated to help them plan future workouts that ideally help them stay healthy and more powerful.
Perch has been adopted by an expanding number of teams and leagues, including the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers from the NFL, the Orlando Magic from the NBA, the Philadelphia Phillies from MLB and LSU football and Kentucky men’s basketball from the SEC. The smart weight rack is also being utilized at military bases, high school weight rooms and fitness centers.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of smart weightlifting products and gyms have escalated as athletes return to gym environments. The Techstars sports accelerator out of Indianapolis has mentored EvenLift , which is based on AI technology similar to Perch, and RepOne , which inserts sensors inside weights. Dak Prescott is backing the smart home gym OxeFit , and former NFL star Vernon Davis has invested in the another smart home product JAXJOX .
Online sportsbook PlayUp has lost its appeal seeking a temporary restraining order against its former US CEO Lalia Mintas, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared on Monday. The federal court’s decision upholds the US District Court of Nevada’s ruling in January that overturned a previous state-level court decision that granted PlayUp’s restraining order against Mintas.
PlayUp, an Australian-founded sportsbook that hired Mintas in 2020 to lead its U.S. operations, made allegations last year that Mintas sabotaged PlayUp’s negotiations to be sold to cryptocurrency firm FTX for $450 million. The lawsuit claimed that Mintas made disparaging remarks about PlayUp’s internal operations to FTX to disrupt a potential acquisition. The Nevada court ruled that there was “substantial evidence” that her comments were not the reason the acquisition failed and that Mintas was the “scapegoat” for the deal collapsing, which has been upheld by the Ninth Circuit.
Mintas now serves as a consultant for companies in the sports betting and crypto industries. PlayUp, which launched a watch and bet offering with Major League Rugby’s streaming service earlier this year, announced in June that it is considering strategic alternatives including a possible sale of the company .