The sports technology sector is like the space race of decades past. What is created to enhance human performance in the sporting arena will have a huge impact on other areas of society.
Great strides are taking place around the world, including here in Ireland.
Each week we will bring you a round-up of the latest stories that are making a stir.
Today we look at an Irish led innovation at Arsenal, a League going into the Tech Service business; a strategic partnership between two Irish Sports Tech companies and the confirmation of Whoops expansion plans for Dublin
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STATSPORTS LAUNCH ARSENAL FAN EDITION
Arsenal fans around the world will have the opportunity to compare their athletic performance with the men’s and women’s senior team players as part of a new initiative with Newry based STATSports.
The launch of STATSports Arsenal FC Edition means aspiring players can now use the exact same technology as their footballing heroes, giving them the opportunity to compare their performance data with our stars, from the academy level to the first teams.
The groundbreaking partnership, which sees STATSports become the official GPS Performance Tracker of Arsenal, will also enable the club to access performance data from aspiring players from all levels of the game, helping track the next generation of talent.
Data can be captured from every session including distances covered, maximum speeds, intensity and fatigue levels.
Aspiring players will be able to review their own data against the data from players at all levels of the club to help them understand where they need to improve.
Read More About the New Initiative
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CLUBFORCE AND OUTPUT SPORTS SIGN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Clubforce, The Galway based sports club management platform has announced a major new partnership with UCD-based Output Sports.
The goal behind the strategic partnership is to further help clubs to improve on-field play and enhance players’ performance by providing them with a means to monitor and track their progress.
Clubforce is the Irish leader in club automation, simplifying payments and providing a communications, promotions and fundraising platform for members, clubs and leagues.
With recent funding the company has more than doubled in size to realise the goal of creating a new Sports Technology ecosystem and indeed a new category that of Sports Participation Technology.
Read more about the Strategic Partnership
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WHOOP CONFIRMS DUBLIN EXPANSION
Sports technology business Whoop has confirmed that it is to lead its international expansion from a new base in Dublin.
Back in August, we highlighted that Pippa Doyle who had been sponsorship lead for Littlewoods Ireland on its Camogie and Hurling partnerships was joining the company in the role of international brand and marketing manager.
Olympic Gold Medallist Rower Fintan McCarthy was part of the announcement about the expansion, pictured above.
She followed Briain Curtin and Brian Kearney who had both previously worked at O2 and Fitbit as part of a strong and growing team based here.
There are currently seven people working from Dublin but that will rise to at least 50 by the end of next year.
The past twelve months have been marked by rapid growth for the company in membership numbers and additional product enhancements to its technology.
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SPANISH SOCCER LAUNCHED TECH SOLUTIONS COMPANY FOR SPORT
LaLiga Tech marked its official launch today by revealing the range of technology solutions the Spanish Football League is making available to the global sports and entertainment industry.
LaLiga Tech claims to be the world’s first company to combine the experience of an international sporting organisation with deep technical expertise.
Through a team of over 140 specialists that have designed solutions for LaLiga over the past seven years, it is now offering these solutions commercially to help accelerate the digital transformation of the industry.
Available as managed services via the cloud, LaLiga Tech solutions are used to create new direct-to-consumer channels, enhance and protect content with real-time data and digitise key management processes. All solutions are interconnected under a single data-based ecosystem, delivering new insights that can be used to drive wider growth across the organisation.
The LaLiga Tech offering
LaLiga Tech solutions are available under three principal areas:
Fan engagement
To help adjust to the digital behaviours of a global fanbase, LaLiga Tech offers solutions for:
- Launching a proprietary OTT streaming platform, including business intelligence tools to analyse viewing patterns
- Creating and managing multi-channel fan engagement campaigns, building a 360° picture of how fans interact with all digital properties
- Building competition apps and web platforms, including fantasy gaming to engage a global fanbase
- Enabling digital venue access with personalised in-venue experiences
Content enhancement
Incorporating real-time data to deliver new insights, LaLiga Tech’s content enhancement offering includes:
- Mediacoach: the real-time match data platform generating advanced in-play statistics for use by coaching teams and broadcast partners
- Content Protection: the LaLiga Tech subsidiary providing global monitoring software and analysis to instantly detect and remove illegal content, be it audiovisual piracy or brand counterfeiting.
- Content Integrity: the software that tracks real-time data from the world’s major betting markets and analyses patterns around sporting events to detect any irregularity.
Competition management
LaLiga Tech competition management solutions bring data analytics to the heart of any organisation through the following:
- Customised data dashboards that visualise performance of any platform across the digital ecosystem in real-time.
- Custom applications that digitise key competition processes, including artificial intelligence tools for optimised match calendars, digital platforms to upload team or kit selections and resources for centrally managing financial processes.
There are many companies offering some or all of these enhancements but having the clout of La Liga behind this single offering does make for an interesting addition.
La Liga Tech
Have you got a story about Irish Sports Technology? Let us know at rob@sportforbusiness.com and be part of the story on Sport for Business
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