[Love sports and technology? Sign up for our sports tech newsletter to receive this rundown from GeekWire’s Taylor Soper via email every week.] TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: One trend I like to track is watching how big tech giants are getting into sports — and our spotlight on the Seahawks use of Microsoft software this week was a good example. Microsoft in June debuted its new Sports Performance Platform, a product born out of the company’s internal incubator that helps coaches and trainers gain insight into injury prevention, or analyze the proper workload for a practice regimen. Now the Seahawks… Read More
The Portland Trail Blazers just hired a new manager, but probably not the type you’d expect from an NBA team. The latest 20-year-old to join Portland’s pro hoops franchise won’t be draining 3-pointers or snagging rebounds on the court. Instead, Cameron McAlees will help lead Portland’s new Blazer5 Gaming esports team as its first-ever operations manager. Blazer5 Gaming is one of 17 teams that will compete next year in the new NBA 2K League, a joint venture between the NBA and Take Two Interactive, makers of the popular NBA 2K video game. Each team is associated with a traditional NBA… Read More
In what could be a preview of what watching sports online might be like in the future, the NBA today announced a live streaming deal with Twitch. Starting Friday, the NBA will live stream up to six games per week from its G League — the NBA’s official minor league — on Twitch, the streaming giant owned by Amazon that is known for streaming video game action but is now expanding to other verticals. The G League streams will mimic many features that Twitch’s 15 million daily active users already engage with while watching other people play video games. There… Read More
Microsoft’s hardware has already made its way onto NFL sidelines, as the company’s Surface tablet is used by coaches and players to strategize during games. But now its software — specifically, Microsoft Azure and Power BI — is also increasingly making an impact for top professional teams like the Seattle Seahawks, which use the company’s latest machine learning and predictive analytics technology to help predict and prevent injury. Microsoft in June debuted its new Sports Performance Platform, a product born out of the company’s internal incubator that helps coaches and trainers gain insight into injury prevention, or analyze the proper workload… Read More
Between player protests, concussion concerns, and a ratings decline, it’s been a tumultuous year for the NFL. But there’s no doubt that the league’s media rights still hold incredible value. The NFL and Verizon on Monday announced an expanded multi-year deal worth a reported $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, that will enable Verizon to stream games nationwide on a variety of platforms, regardless of mobile carrier. That’s a big difference from the existing deal between the NFL and Verizon, which had exclusive rights to stream games on smartphones to its wireless customers. It was a way for… Read More
