Each Tuesday the Sport for Business Sports Tech Corner highlights areas in the development of sport and technology that are relevant to the commercial world of Irish sport and the sporting interests of Irish business. The Sport for Business Sports Tech Corner is supported by our friends in AIB.
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MICROSOFT REACHING FOR BOUNDARIES DOWN UNDER
The use of data to inform decision making is becoming normal in sport and the latest major sporting body to row in with a technology partner is Cricket Australia with Microsoft.
The technology giant has a history of working to improve performance in Formula One and the NFL and is now broadening its horizons to include the data rich world of Cricket.
Australia is the first cricketing nation to integrate the company’s team and player performance platform into its decision-making processes across game strategy, player fitness and recovery and team selection.
“Cricket is one of the richest sports when it comes to using machine data,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella announcing the deal.
“But how could you harness the power of data to even start having a more intelligent informed conversation about performance of teams, performance of players?”
Predictive analytics provide an insight previously only thought possible in the ‘gut instinct’ of a coach and is fast becoming an essential tool for any major team.
With Microsoft’s EMEA Headquarters right here in Dublin it is perhaps worth a call from Cricket ireland to see if there is a desire to roll out the technology and the relationship with a northern as well as a southern hemisphere team…
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RETAIL TO SOCIAL THROUGH TECH
It’s not always about the big teams and the professional leagues. A Partnership deal signed this week in the US has seen Dick’s Sporting Goods, a US equivalent of Lifestyle or Elverys here in Ireland, become the official technology partner of Little League Baseball and Softball.
Added to that was the purchase of a company called GameChanger which provides league and score update software for teams and leagues.
Grassroots sport is fractured. There is no doubting it’s hold though on the consciousness of kids and families, and with GameChanger in use by 165,000 teams across the US and Little League Baseball and Softball laying claim to 3.4 million players it’s a market that will have value.
The play from the retailer is to diversify its own offering but also to promote the still necessary purchase of gear and equipment through them as opposed to rivals.
It’s stock price has risen 64 per cent since the start of the year so there is obviously something that appeals to investors in the blend of old school sport with new technology.
Read more about Sport for Business Coverage of Sports Retail
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A SPORTS TECH ACCELERATOR FOR DUBLIN?
Sport for Business has had a strong response to its call for a new Sports Accelerator for Dublin and will be meeting a number of interested parties on December 7th to explore how this might look.
We want to build a programme that will bring together early stage companies in the health and lifestyle sector with partners that can help them scale.
Could one of the ideas to emerge be a Sports Hackathon in Ireland, based around the Six Nations in Rugby, the All Ireland Finals in GAA or Qualifiers for the World Cup in Soccer? Or could one of our retail companies explore new technology that has yet to break through?
Click here if you are interested in joining us for an exploratory discussion
Join us each Tuesday for the latest in Sports Tech News relevant to the Irish market.
Sport for Business’ Sports Tech Corner is supported by AIB
