Despite widespread reports that NFL television ratings were down this past season, the chief operating officer of the league insists that audience has never been stronger. Speaking at the 2017 GeekWire Sports Tech Summit, NFL COO and former Seattle Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke said with all the new ways people are using technology to watch games and follow the league, traditional TV ratings don’t fully measure the audience. “We believe that there are more people watching and following us than ever before, and we know that intuitively, and then the information’s going out, and you are seeing it in all… Read More
Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has been around baseball for a lot of years, as a player and as an executive. He recognizes, that despite all the tech and data available today, that the game has remained largely unchanged for more than 140 years. But that doesn’t stop Dipoto and the Mariners from trying to implement new ways and new technologies to improve play. He discussed it all at Thursday’s GeekWire Sports Tech Summit. Whether it’s analysis of the spin rate on a pitched ball or the launch angle of a batter’s swing — using devices such as Trackman, Rapsodo… Read More
Technology and data are revolutionizing basketball, from the style of play to how players train and workout. But some of the big innovations in data that are driving more conversations and interest in the NBA and men’s basketball haven’t made their way to the women’s game. Sue Bird wants that to change. At the 2017 GeekWire Sports Tech Summit, the WNBA legend and Seattle Storm star said the volume of stats available for fans and players of the WNBA just doesn’t stack up to the NBA. Bird wants to see the same level of statistics available for past and present WNBA… Read More
The fantasy football craze is over. That’s what Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio said at the GeekWire Sports Tech Summit in Seattle on Thursday during a fireside chat about the future of sports media. “It’s not to say that young people aren’t playing commissioner-style fantasy games at all — it’s just that less of them are,” he said. “NFL fantasy probably peaked three, four, five years ago. It’s slowly dwindling.” Finocchio, who helped launch the sports media giant more than a decade ago, said it’s tougher now for the younger generation to gather a big group of friends to play fantasy… Read More
WNBA legend and Seattle Storm veteran Sue Bird is still going strong 14 years into her pro career, and a big reason for that is the revolution in technology that lets athletes track activity and use it to better train and recover. Interviewed by Q13’s Aaron Levine at the 2017 GeekWire Sports Tech Summit, the nine-time all-star and two-time WNBA champion said she was resistant to technology when she first came into the league in 2002, but as her career progressed, she embraced the trend. Specifically, Bird said she is a big fan of the Whoop, a wearable band that… Read More
