One year after attempting to take on social media giants with its own content platform focused on celebrities, TraceMe is pivoting. The Seattle-based company, co-founded by Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, laid off staff last month and closed its Los Angeles office, CEO Jason LeeKeenan confirmed in an interview with GeekWire this week. The startup is shifting its business from a celebrity content app to a sports prediction game called Tally that offers real cash prize payouts. The app was released for iOS on Friday. The company laid off content-related and celebrity relations staff who were mostly working out of Los… Read More
Vicis is adding another big name to its investor list as the company opens up sales of its high-tech football helmet to all youth football players. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has invested in the Seattle startup via Rx3 Ventures, a new consumer-focused fund based in Orange County, Vicis announced Thursday morning. With the investment, Vicis says it has now closed its $28.5 million Series B round. The round brings the company’s total funding raised to $84 million since spinning out of the University of Washington in 2014. The 100-person company is known for its $950 ZERO1 football helmet, used by players… Read More
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — Technology isn’t just improving athletic performance or changing the way we watch sports. It’s also being used as a real-time analytics tool that is helping front office executives manage stadium operations, improve the fan experience, and ultimately increase the bottom line. SAP has expanded its partnership with the San Francisco 49ers, rolling out a new venue management product this season called Executive Huddle that features a multi-screen dashboard surfacing real-time data related to parking, bathrooms, concessions, ticketing, and more as 70,000 people come through the gates at Levi’s Stadium to watch an NFL game. San Francisco is… Read More
LOS ANGELES — Augmented reality on sports broadcasts isn’t new. In fact, there’s a gold standard: the first-down line for football games, invented two decades ago. Imagine the chaos and confusion in homes and sports bars across the country if they took that away. More recent additions to the genre include the virtual baseball strike zone, and the digital arc tracing the flight of a golf ball. So what about basketball? Can augmented reality provide anything so indispensable that NBA fans would howl in protest if it were taken away? Not yet. But the technology is impressive, and the potential is… Read More
In the wake of Paul Allen’s death last week, it’s too early to know much about the fate of the billionaire’s many varied holdings. And when it comes to the two professional sports franchises the Microsoft co-founder owned — the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers — speculation about who will take over is all that fans have right now. It’s hard to picture Jeff Bezos having any interest in owning the Seahawks — unless the NFL is looking for a team to play on Mars someday. But at least one team owner thinks the Amazon CEO makes perfect… Read More
