Verizon’s new streaming hub +play will provide free Netflix access to customers who also subscribe to a partnered streaming service such as NFL+, NBA League Pass, HBO Max, AMC+ or Peloton, among others. The telecom giant announced a beta launch of its +play platform on Wednesday, which will serve as a digital home for Verizon’s internet or cell phone customers to access and manage their various subscription streaming services.
The free Netflix offer — a 12-month premium subscription normally valued at $240 — is only available to those who purchase a subscription to NFL+, NBA League Pass, or another streaming service directly through +play, which is included at no additional cost to existing Verizon customers. Verizon wants +play to serve as a digital space for customers to track and manage payments to their various streaming subscriptions, and it will send notifications to alert users of an ending free trial period, promotional offer, or price change to a streaming service.
Other streaming apps that can be accessed via Verizon’s +play will include Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, discovery+ and A+E Network, as well as content from sports media outlet The Athletic and mental health platform Calm. Verizon is a longtime partner of both the NFL and NBA with deals to deploy its 5G connectivity at stadiums in both leagues.
Fan attending World Cup matches in Qatar have had access to new augmented reality features showing real-time player data through the Stadium Experience tool within the FIFA+ app.
Anyone with a smartphone and FIFA+ can hold up his or her phone and the app calibrates by detecting the pitch. Throughout the match, the AR identifies players, offers metrics on their running speed and shots, recognizes team shape and possession and more. The FIFA+ app also offers additional features such as providing all the same video replay angles that the referee sees when consulting VAR.
FIFA rarely discloses its third-party vendors, but SportTechie has learned that Immersiv is powering the AR technology and Chyron’s TRACAB is providing the optical tracking data. TRACAB was the technology fueling the Electronic Performance Tracking System (EPTS) in 2018 when FIFA first permitted in-game access to the data. Earlier this year, Immersiv demonstrated its tech as part of the NHL Tech Showcase and has been a standing partner of the UEFA Champions League as well.
For this World Cup, FIFA introduced 11 new advanced metrics that have been utilized in broadcast and digital media coverage. Tracking data has also been made available for the first time directly to the athletes through the FIFA Player App; Johannes Holmüller, FIFA’s director of football technology and innovation, posted on LinkedIn that more than 400 players at the World Cup downloaded the app.
By Kevin Hitt
Pro sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL have charitable foundations that help those in need, and esports does, too. The U.S armed forces, along with the United Kingdom’s military esports teams, will team up with popular streamers to compete in Activision Blizzard’s game Call of Duty: Warzone to help raise the profile of veterans looking for work after they serve. The CODE Bowl takes place today in Raleigh, N.C., in conjunction with the Call of Duty League’s first Major of the season, which runs through Sunday at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Now in its third year, The CODE Bowl (which took a year off in 2021 due to COVID-19) will see the United States Space Force defend the title it won in 2020 in an unusual way — by sending the C.O.D.E. Bowl trophy into space. The endowment, along with Activision Blizzard and the Space Force, sent the trophy into a low-earth orbit with a message attached to the trophy: “Come and get it.” While there is a distinct chance another branch of the two countries’ armed forces can win this year’s competition, taking the trophy away from the Space Force could prove challenging.
The Call of Duty Endowment is a nonprofit organization that has helped over 100,000 veterans into better jobs. The Endowment’s has seen an estimated $5.6 billion created in economic value for U.S. and U.K. veterans. Thus far, Activision Blizzard has donated in excess of $40 million to the organization.
“Anybody could win, even though the Army and Navy have full time teams. In the last CODE Bowl, Space Force won,” said Dan Goldenberg, a retired Navy Captain and executive Director of the Call of Duty Endowment. “And for Space Force, I don’t know the true story, but it was probably like, ‘Hey, any of you guys in the office play Call of Duty?’ They had some really passionate and talented players.”
And while the competition is something designed to be fun and boost morale, more importantly, the C.O.D.E. Bowl exists to bring awareness to how veterans often struggle finding good jobs after their service. One area that veterans seem to have expertise in but are locked out in some ways is health care.
The COVID-19 pandemic stretched the ability of the American healthcare system to its limits, yet there were people willing to help but couldn’t. The Call of Duty Endowment estimates that there are tens of thousands of veterans with extensive medical training that simply cannot land jobs because of “bureaucratic red tape” and “a lack of clear regulations, and poorly communicated standards.”
“I remember in the middle of pandemic, I had a guy who’s [had] three combat tours as a combat medic was driving an Uber, and I’m like, ‘man, what are you doing?’ He told me, he’d love to work in healthcare, but nobody in California recognizes my credentials,” Goldberg said.
The Call of Duty Endowment, through the efforts like the CODE Bowl, has been successful in streamlining its services while finding jobs for veterans.
“Our average cost to place of vet a job was $547, which is one-tenth the cost of the federal government’s efforts,” said Goldenberg. “Our grantees place veterans in, quite frankly, higher quality jobs with a higher average starting salary. The average salary is about $64,000, which in the Southern California area may not be a lot, but nationally, that’s a pretty good.”
Smartphone motion capture app Sportsbox AI and optical launch monitor Foresight Sports are integrating their technologies for what they tout as the industry’s first comprehensive swing and shot analysis.
The first product of this partnership is expected to be updated in the Sportsbox 3DGolf app during the first quarter of 2023. Most existing products either track shots via launch monitors or biomechanics via motion capture, but pairing the two will help golfers and their coaches better understand how a change in swing can impact ball flight.
Sportsbox AI initially launched as a coaching product but offers a consumer app as well, 3DPractice. The integration with Foresight Sports will be available to all users, from coaches and golfers to club fitters. Foresight is best known for its GCQuad Launch Monitor, which debuted in 2017 and uses four cameras and a computer vision technique called stereoscopic photometric capture to track ball flight; it partnered with Callaway Golf in July, becoming the manufacturer’s official launch monitor.
Soccer training and entertainment company Toca Football has acquired Total Sports, the operator of seven indoor youth training facilities across Detroit and northeast Ohio. Toca, which announced a 10-year partnership with MLS in October, will outfit its newly acquired facilities with its patented training technologies such as ball delivery machines, smart targets, and a mobile app for data collection and player analysis.
The seven venues from Total Sports average more than two million visitors per year and span a combined space of nearly one million square footage plus 400,000 square feet of outdoor turf baseball and softball fields. Toca is collaborating with MLS to produce a training curriculum that will be integrated into its indoor soccer facilities as part of their partnership geared toward long-term youth soccer development in North America.
Toca owns more than 30 indoor soccer facilities in North America and could expand to more than 250 in the next 5 to 10 years, Toca CEO Yoshi Maruyama told SportTechie. About 40% of players on the US women’s national team have trained at Toca’s facilities. The company was founded by retired U.S. men’s national team soccer player Eddie Lewis and has secured $105 million in total funding, including investment from English soccer star Harry Kane.
Blast Motion has added gamification to its analytic-centric baseball app with the official roll-out of Blast Home Run Derby.
Marketed under the umbrella of “Blast Games,’’ users first attach a Blast swing analyzer or trainer sensor to the knob of their bat, activate the Blast baseball or softball app and then tap the Home Run Derby game card.
Then, after hitting a baseball off of a tee or off of front toss or off of a live pitch, the Blast Motion app will deliver automated feedback on whether the ball carried over a virtual fence. Home runs will be determined via artificial intelligence based on the swing metrics such as bat speed, launch angle, attack angle, vertical bat angle, rotational acceleration and other analytics.
Each round of the Home Run Derby lasts two minutes, and users can pause the game either by tapping the app or verbally saying ‘’time out’’ to their smart phone’s Siri. The time outs automatically end in 30 seconds, and at the tail end of each round, users receive a summary of their performance.
Blast Motion’s bat sensors are utilized by organizations and players on the Major League and NCAA levels, but the company has clearly been trying to appeal to young players. Back in August, Blast released a Personal Swing Trainer for youth baseball and softball players specifically designed to enhance swing speed and swing path.
FuboTV says it was the victim of a criminal cyber attack that disrupted its livestream of Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal between France and Morocco. The outage prevented some FuboTV subscribers from being able to watch the entire match amid in-app loading issues.
“On December 14, 2022, the day of the Qatar 2022 semifinal match between France and Morocco, many FuboTV customers experienced issues accessing their accounts,” FuboTV said today in a statement. “The incident was not related to any bandwidth constraints on Fubo’s part. We were instead the target of a criminal cyber attack. Once we detected the attack, we immediately took steps to contain the incident and worked to restore service to all of our users as quickly as possible. Service was fully restored by last evening. We deeply regret the disruption caused by this incident in the meantime.”
FuboTV reported the issue to law enforcement and is now working with cyber security firm Mandiant to assist with its investigation into the attack. FuboTV sent its first tweet acknowledging its World Cup streaming issues on Wednesday at 2:33 p.m. ET, about a half hour after kickoff between France and Morocco. The company shared a link for its subscribers to stream the game directly on Fox Sports, but many Fubo users received error messages when trying to stream the game through that link.
At the 2018 men’s World Cup, fellow streaming service YouTube TV had an outage that prevented fans from watching the semifinal match between Croatia and England, prompting YouTube TV to offer free service for a week to subscribers. FuboTV is also facing a legal dispute with the New York Jets over claims that its now defunct sports betting subsidiary Fubo Gaming failed to pay sponsorship payments to the NFL team.
Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center, home to sporting events such as the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament, has opened its new 816 Market with Amazon’s checkout-free technology. It is the first sports and entertainment venue in Missouri to host a store powered by Amazon Just Walk Out and Amazon One.
Fans can insert their credit card into entry kiosks to access the 816 Market and then pick items off shelves as Just Walk Out’s in-store cameras and sensors automatically charge their credit cards for detected items upon exiting the store. Shoppers can alternatively register their credit card and palm with Amazon One to scan their palm as a form of biometric entry into the store.
The 816 Market is located at Section 105 on the main concourse in a space that was previously a bar for mixed drinks and frozen cocktails. It is now selling water, beer, seltzers, soft drinks, among other food and beverage products. T-Mobile Center’s hospitality partner Levy is collaborating with Amazon on the market. Levy also runs an Amazon-powered checkout-free store at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field football stadium.
Strive, which makes smart apparel that tracks lower body muscle movements, was publicly endorsed Wednesday via social media by Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday.
On an Instagram post, Holiday wrote: “Being able to know my body is performing during the NBA season & off season is key to staying at the top. STRIVE provides me w/ insights into my muscle performance & that’s why I’ve decided to partner w/ them!”
Holiday becomes the latest pro athlete to sign a deal with Strive, which in September released a product adapted for individual elite athletes called Strive Elite. At that same time, the constantly evolving company added various athletes to its advisory board such as Indianapolis Colts All-Pro Jonathan Taylor and Baltimore Ravens Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews — both of whom also became equity partners in Strive.
Strive Elite, which Holiday implied he will lean on during this NBA season, utilizes Surface Electromyography — as well as sensors inside compression shorts powered by a Tri-Axial Accelerometer — to quantify an athlete’s muscle exertion. It is a non-invasive platform that measures the electrical activity of an athlete’s glutes, quads and hamstrings, for instance, and then grants the athlete an overall muscle data score.
To make sure that athletes also receive accurate positional data, Strive and CEO Nikola Mrvaljevic have incorporated Kinexon’s tracking/sensor technology into the product. Back in June, Strive raised a $6 million Series A and have incrementally added other athletes to its advisory board such as WNBA All-Star Cheyenne Parker, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford and pro tennis player Giuliana Olmos.
Overall, Strive claims to have over 215 elite athlete users and has collaborated with teams such as Kentucky men’s basketball, the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs and Leicester City of the Premier League. Holiday has a business-minded background, having opened the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund in the spring of 2021, which provided up to $1 million in grants to Black-owned small businesses and Black-led nonprofits. His wife, Lauren Holiday, is a former member of the U.S. women’s soccer team.
Digital agencies and LGBT+ advocacy groups have taken to FIFA-sanctioned virtual worlds to protest discrimination in World Cup host country Qatar. Global non-profit All Out collaborated on a protest in Roblox’s FIFA World in conjunction two Swiss agencies, Bandara and Freundliche Grüsse, for a campaign called “Unplay the Hate.” In a separate initiative, All Out worked with AlmapBBDO in Brazil for an activation in the EA Sports FIFA game called “Play with Love.”
“We thought it’s not going to be possible for anyone to protest in Qatar, but then seeing the virtual version of Qatar — FIFA World in Roblox — we thought, ‘Hey, we could have a protest in virtual Qatar because this is the place where also LGBT activists can safely protest,’” says Daniel Gremli, a co-founder at Gremli, which specializes in AR and VR content.
The two Zurich-based agencies contacted All Out, who quickly partnered on the idea. Just before Qatar hosted the first match of the World Cup, 17 characters in Roblox’s FIFA World all put on avatar shirts with a single letter on them. They then arranged themselves in digital Doha to spell out “FIFA Unplay the Hate.”
Gremli says they did not contact either Roblox or FIFA in advance and have not heard from them since. He also says the reaction from others witnessing the protest in FIFA World was minimal but believes it’s a harbinger for future digital advocacy.
“I think it’s just a new way to protest because, as we know, more and more people spend more and more time in virtual worlds,” Gremli says. “So then I think almost automatically activism in these virtual worlds is also going to get more and more important. So I think this is not the last metaverse protest that we saw.”
The other activation from All Out enables gamers on EA Sports’ FIFA franchise to download a digital version of the LGBT+-supporting “One Love” armband for use in the game. FIFA prohibited the real-world national teams from wearing them during the World Cup.
The Brazilian soccer magazine Corner also utilized a digital space to stage a protest by creating a new augmented reality Snapchat filter for fans to digitally transform any flag into the pride flag.
MLB’s World Champion Houston Astros are engaged in a digital upgrade of Minute Maid Park after hiring Samsung Electronics America to modernize the stadium with its newest iterations of display technology.
As part of the deal, Samsung will install an immersive primary scoreboard that includes its latest LED science, as well as other digital enhancements in the center field mezzanine and infield ribbon boards. The integrations got underway shortly after the World Series in November and are scheduled to be concluded prior to Opening Day on March 30, 2023.
Samsung’s digital signage is now being deployed across professional sports, with displays already installed in venues such as Citi Field, SoFi Stadium, M&T Bank Stadium and Chase Center. The collaboration with the New York Mets in 2022 included 12,000 square feet of Samsung Direct View LED displays in the stadium; five levels of LED ribbon boards; 300 Samsung LCD screens throughout the ballpark; an IPTV system powered by Samsung’s MagicIFO software; and twice as many slow-motion replay systems.
For 2023, the Mets will add a new centerfield scoreboard, 1,000 more Samsung LCD screens and two jumbo LED boards on the Promenade Plaza, leading Samsung to call Citi Field the “most technologically advanced ballpark.”