The STA Group Access Innovation Newsletter - April 13
The STA Group
Shaping the future of sports by bringing together the brightest minds in science, engineering, design, and technology.
News – NBA Announces Record-Breaking Season Across Social, Digital Platforms
With the National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season ending this week, the organization has released its digital and social performance results which show more global viewers of NBA content than ever before. The NBA launched a reimagined app this season - shortlisted for App of the Year at the 2023 Sports Technology Awards hosted in New York on May 18 - which generated over one billion video views, more than triple last year’s total. In addition, the @NBA Instagram account logged in excess of 13 billion video views, the most of any account on the platform.
News – Vodafone Launches New Menstrual Cycle Tracking Technology with the Women’s Welsh Rugby Union
Wales Women are using new menstrual cycle tracking technology during the Six Nations in an attempt to advance the management of period-related symptoms for female athletes. Recent research has found 67 per cent of female athletes believe period symptoms "severely impact" their performances. Now, Vodafone - who is a founding principal partner of Wales Women's and Girls rugby - has added menstrual cycle tracking to their PLAYER.Connect platform, which aggregates data from athletes' wearable devices in real-time, allowing for instant analysis.
News – Tempus Ex Machina Signs Seven-Year Deal with Chelsea FC
Chelsea Football Club has partnered with California-based technology company Tempus Ex Machina across several club operational areas, including its official ‘The 5th Stand’ app, digital and mobile fan engagement and in-stadium fan enhancements. Tempus Ex also has agreements with the NFL American football league and US college sports conference Pac-12, for which it has been shortlisted in the Best Technology for College Sports category at the upcoming 2023 Sports Technology Awards.
News – Ireland’s First ‘Digital Athlete’ Graduates Set for a Career in Sports Technology
The first 20 women to complete the ‘Digital Athlete’ course, organised by Technology Ireland DIGITAL Skillnet and SportsTech Ireland , have graduated this week. Digital Athlete is a new career pathway into the growing area of sports technology in Ireland. Sports tech companies work across IoT, sports performance, data analytics, broadcast, wearable tech, fan engagement, e-sports and sports e-commerce. The ten-week programme aims to provide knowledge and skills specifically aligned to the sports analytics industry through data skills and professional acumen.
News – US Open and US Women’s Open to Stream Live on New USGA App
The United States Golf Association (USGA) is launching a new mobile app that will bring all 15 of its championships, including the US Open and US Women’s Open, into a single digital destination for the first time. The move is to encourage golf fans to keep the all-in-one app installed year-round, while also giving the USGA the opportunity to promote its amateur, junior, and senior events.
Feature – What are the Top Sports and Sports Tech VCs Looking For?
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With more money being investing in sport and sports tech firms than ever before, this Business Insider feature speaks to four leading venture capitalists about what they’re looking for in investments and accelerator participants this year. They say several factors are driving the surge in venture capital for sports and sports tech companies, including a boom in the number of professional athletes who want to invest and, like other investors, prefer to invest in what they know.
Feature – The Technology Powering Adidas Signature Basketball Sneakers for the NBA Playoffs
As the NBA reaches the business end of its season, Forbes take a closer look at how 阿迪达斯 is using shoe technology to fit its athletes style play. Led by a range of under-foot cushioning technologies, but flowing into the uppers, outsoles and shanks, Adidas works with its Los Angeles-based basketball design team to focus the technology throughout their signatures shoes to match the style of game they play on the court.
Feature – Inside the Gas Station: How Sports Technology is helping the New York Yankees
The Athletic goes behind-the-scenes at the New York Yankees’ ‘Gas Station’ training facility which houses an array of technology aimed at helping pitchers become better at their craft. The article notes that handful of Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs have created designated facilities for their tech-heavy pitching development programs, where players utilise a variety of machines including Trackman, Rapsodo and high-speed Edgertronic cameras to improve a pitcher’s mechanics, increase velocity, and ultimately, profit.
Coming Soon: The STA Group LinkedIn Live with Will McIntosh
We are delighted to announce that our LinkedIn Live debut will be taking place with Will McIntosh , President of NBC Sports Next - the presenting partner of The Sports Technology Awards and home to all NBCUniversal digital applications - next week.
At 10:00 ET / 15:00 BST on Wednesday April 19, Will and our CEO, Rebecca Hopkins , will talk to all things sports tech – and take questions from our audience.
Please sign-up by emailing [email protected] and follow our LinkedIn Page to receive further details and notifications.
Tech Chairs: New Episodes Available Now!
ICYMI?The STA Group?has launched a new podcast presented by broadcaster,?John Inverdale?and?Rebecca Hopkins.?The weekly series sees John and Rebecca receive insider insights from tech experts, sports entrepreneurs, elite coaches, industry leaders and champion athletes. In the latest episode Phelan Hill MBE, OLY and Sandra Halliday talk us through how technical and performance sportswear became mainstream.
The STA Group is a multifaceted sports technology business, operating at the heart of sport globally. Sign up for the full edition of the bi-weekly Access Innovation newsletter here:?sportstechgroup.org?and send us your news at:?[email protected].