Friday, Sept. 20, 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
- Australian gambling operator Tabcorp will become the official betting partner of the NFL in Australia. The multi-year partnership will see Tabcorp and the NFL collaborate to promote a free-to-play NFL Pick’em game featuring weekly prizes and a chance to win a trip to the Pro Bowl. Sky Channel, a Tabcorp-owned Australian broadcaster focused on horse racing, will now air the NFL Network and six hours of weekly NFL RedZone programming. It will also broadcast one NFL game per week every Monday morning in Australia. “We are excited about our growing popularity in Australia and this partnership will help further serve our fans there,” said Christopher Halpin, NFL EVP and chief strategy and growth officer, in a press release.
- Finnish analytics company Wisehockey has signed a league-wide six-year partnership with the Kontinental Hockey League. Wisehockey’s puck and player tracking system will be integrated into every KHL arena for all games this season, having been trialed at the KHL’s 2019 All-Star Game. The KHL spans teams in Belarus, China, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Wisehockey will produce real-time data such as fastest skater and hardest shot, and fans can view the data via the KHL’s website, the KHL app, KHL-TV channels and on the jumbotron inside venues. “The fastest growing field in betting is live betting, and Wisehockey can help to take it to the next level,” said Wisehockey’s head of sales Miska Kuusisto.
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- Sports streaming service DAZN has signed its first U.S. distribution deal with Comcast. All DAZN content will now be accessible via Comcasts’s Xfinity Flex and Xfinity X1 streaming platforms. Later this year, Comcast customers will be able to use voice activation through the Xfinity Voice Remote to start watching specific DAZN shows. DAZN’s U.S. programming includes a live MLB highlights show called “ChangeUp,” a daily talk show hosted by former NFL punter Pat McAfree and premium live boxing and combat sports events.
- Amateur and youth sports streaming platform BallerTV has acquired streaming provider FieldVision. FieldVision’s software and camera system uses AI to autonomously film sports by tracking player and ball movement. This past January, retired NBA star Dwayne Wade joined BallerTV as a global ambassador. “With the rapidly increasing volume of games we broadcast, we need technologies that can scale with us. FieldVision is the only company that has been able to solve autonomous livestreaming of sports in a small, energy efficient package,” said BallerTV co-CEO Aaron Hawkey, in a press release.
- Game developers Colorfiction and Juncture Media were named winners of the Verizon 5G NFL Mobile Gaming Challenge on Friday. The contest called on U.S.-based app developers to create a football-themed game using Verizon’s 5G internet platform. Colorfiction created a game called “Endzone,” in which players must navigate a series of mazes to try to score touchdowns. Juncture Media built “NFL Ultra Toss,” a multiplayer game in which players compete to throw a football into a pickup truck parked at the 50-yard line. Both companies will receive $400,000, and will debut their games at Super Bowl LIV.
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