LaSource Newsletter - November Sports & Tech Round Up
Hello everyone,
It's time to dive into the latest news of November! While the World Cup kicked off two weeks ago, sports organisations have not ceased to innovate and integrate new technologies.?Let's review together what happened this month, from media and entertainment to web3 initiatives.
??? Trending news
The League has recently launched a private equity division to invest in startups. According to Bloomberg, the NBA has already nearly 20 companies in its portfolio, with stakes totaling US$1 billion. Each NBA franchise will own 1/30th of ? NBA Equity ?.
???Our take:?
For more than 10 years, NBA has been punctually investing in startups while engaging massively with them to improve their performance across all sectors. With this new arm, the NBA aims to position itself as a strategic investor getting more return on investment and control with startups and new technologies collaborating with the league to grow the sports and its business worldwide.?
?Indeed, a tier-1 league as the NBA provides so much benefits to an early and growth stage company (brand equity, market credibility, test environments, market fit, access to teams/players, etc.) that it seems logical it unlocks more value for them beyond enhancing the game as they have done so over the past years. The risk will always lie with the investment and bet you made over companies. But given the NBA's unique position to test products, the market fit and scalability, it seems to be a winning formula minimising such risks.
OneFootball launched a new product, the OneFootball TV app, which offers its community a new way to watch and engage with their favourite content on TV screens.
???Our take:?
Such a move to a cross-platform strategy enhances OneFootball's footprint in the media landscape even more so, as it will give fan access to live pay-per-view matches from Bundesliga, Serie A and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. This new offer will also enable sports organisations to leverage their sponsorship deal as OneFootball is committed to sharing relevant information on fan consumption (profile, location, interest, etc.).??
Lastly, this new pay-per-view model is complementary to current media deals for rights holders, who could find a way to diversify their revenues by segmenting their audiovisual offerings with new players. All these reasons make us think this is a clever move. In any case, we will closely pay attention to the figures and first outcome to assess its impact on the sports media landscape.?
For this 2022 edition, FIFA decided to take technological innovations further by implementing new projects to improve the fan experience, player performance, and the game itself. In this latest article, we go through these main innovations and new technologies used during the competition to provide a World Cup in line with our time.
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??? What's up at LaSource?
As part of our partnership, we will support the Ignition competition, rewarding the most innovative solutions aligned with Sports Tech and Digital Transformation. If you are an innovative startup, don’t miss the opportunity to present your solution to the industry’s sports-tech giants and be eligible to receive a $100K Growth Support Package.? Startups operating in Fan Engagement, Media & Consumption, Data & Analytics, Commerce and In Venue sectors, can APPLY until 12th January 2023; you can also register for the tech directory listing HERE.
We are pleased to announce that we have officially launched our demo environment page, LiveLike Play, improved our chat moderation capabilities, simplified our leaderboard process, and more.
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