Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology news you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is starring on a new augmented reality cereal box. Grocery chain Giant Food has temporarily renamed its Honey Nut O’s brand as “Ovi O’s” in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Customers can scan a box of the cereal using the Snapchat app to play Ovi O’s Slapshot, controlling Ovechkin on their phones as he shoots the cereal at moving targets.
- The first round of the African World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022 will stream for free on FIFA.com and YouTube around the globe. The games will run from Sept. 4 through Sept. 10. Some of the 28 games will stream live, while others will be available on delay. “Bringing this exciting action to a global audience for the first time underscores FIFA’s ongoing digital transformation and its ongoing efforts to support football development in Africa,” explained FIFA in a statement.
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- English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has signed a U.S. streaming deal with Turner’s B/R Live. The team’s weekly highlights program, Spurs TV, will run on B/R Live for the next two seasons. The program includes a delayed broadcast of the most recent match, as well as manager and player interviews and pre and post-game analysis. B/R Live’s soccer portfolio also includes the rights to stream the UEFA Champions League through 2021.
- Online ticket reseller Vivid Seats is reportedly looking to buy StubHub from eBay, according to Bloomberg. Investment firm KKR and private equity firm Silver Lake have also been weighing bids for the ticket exchange. StubHub was acquired by eBay for $310 million in 2007, and eBay could now receive about $3 billion for selling the platform. Vivid Seats is a rival secondary ticket marketplace and is the official ticketing partner for the Los Angeles Clippers.
- A new report by Nielsen claims that Kylian Mbappé has the most valuable social media presence among athletes 25 and younger. The French soccer star generates $1.2 million in media value per branded content post on Instagram, according to Nielsen’s social scorecard. Nielsen’s valuation is weighted in favor of brands targeting female U.S-based consumers who are interested in health and fitness. Rose Lavelle, Naomi Osaka, Matthijs de Ligt, Patrick Mahomes, Simone Biles, and Giannis Antetokounmpo round out the top seven.
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