Yesterday, EON Sports VR, a virtual reality sports training and fan experience company, announced its partnership with the University of Miami to bring college sports first VR channel to the Hurricane fans.
Virtual reality has been making splashes across the sporting industry recently. From the Home Run Derby, to the Olympics and even playing a role in coaxing former Oklahoma City Thunder forward, Kevin Durant, to join the Golden State Warriors.
The new Miami channel hopes to give fans an immersive, behind-the-scenes experience via a completely customized VR experience. Of the included footage, practices, scrimmages, huddles, and interviews will be featured, amongst other Hurricane moments.
“We’re thrilled to partner with the University of Miami and commend them for taking a bold step in utilizing virtual reality to improve the fan experience,” said Brendan Reilly, CEO and founder of EON Sports VR. “Professional and student athletes have used our technology to improve their performance on the field and we are excited to bring that same mindset of fans. I dreamed of experiences like these growing up and I cannot wait to experience what the U’s athletes are doing in practice.”
The University of Miami plans on unveiling the VR technology to fans in early October. At a price point of $29.95, the UM-branded VR headset is an affordable option to watch the coverage of men’s and women’s sports.
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“We’re incredibly excited to be working with EON Sports to put this virtual reality channeltogether. At the University of Miami, we strive to be on the cutting edge of digital, video, social, and web technologies and EON and their team have helped immensely in that endeavor,” said Jason Layton, Miami Senior Associate Athletic Director for Communications and Sales. “After an investment in broadcast and video production, we wanted to expand into other ventures, including 360º video and we’re able to do that with this immersive product. As we look forward to an October launch, we’re excited to show off what our team has been working on in conjunction with EON Sports.”
Obviously the most appealing part about VR for the average user is the ability to feel like you are “in the action”. Imagine the possibility of witnessing UM legends, Ray Lewis or Michael Irvin. I am not saying it is possible now, but if it was 30 years ago, then bad boys of “The U” would really be on the map.
Multiple professional greats in the sporting world have come out of the major league hotbed that is the University of Miami. With VR, the experience of being a student or fan and witnessing your collegiate team from a closer and more realistic perspective is incredibly appealing.
As virtual reality continues to be applied to the sports industry, the University of Miami will now be an interesting use case for other teams to monitor.
If VR comes to one of my favorite teams, you can bet that I will be the first standing in line for the release like I was waiting for a pair of new Jordan basketball shoes to drop.