Innovation Award
WINNER
The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and Vodafone
DFL and its partner Vodafone have developed a 5G stadium application that allows spectators at the stadium to receive, among other things, match statistics and the players’ individual values directly on the display of their smartphones.
The application makes use of the official match data collected by the DFL’s subsidiary Sportec Solutions and thus allows fans to access over 3.6 million data points per match.
Using an intuitive interface, fans are now able to receive data like the current speed of a player, the success rates of his passes, team stats, the lineup and will in future be able to access even further insights.
The application was premiered in a first showcase in September 2019 during a live Bundesliga match in Wolfsburg and is a first use case of how 5G will impact the world of sports and media.
SILVER
LaLiga – Vizrt and EA Sports
Through partnering with VIZRT and EA SPORTS, LaLiga became the first league in the world to create virtual fans with crowd audio for live matches, creating the impression of full, lively stadiums while fans could not physically attend.
With an aim of maintaining the high-quality of its match broadcasts and not losing international audience, LaLiga created an ambitious project that involved creating images of groups of fans of each team from LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank. These were then adapted to the specific structure and shape of each stadium in the competition to create a digital image that could be placed over the empty stands. It added fan audio to this, which is based on recordings previously made by LaLiga inside Spanish stadiums.
The virtualised broadcasts were an immediate success with global audiences jumping by 48% when LaLiga returned on 11th June 2020. These innovations have continued to prove exceedingly popular with viewers, as 9 out of 10 spectators choosing to view the matches with the virtualised fans and audio option.
BRONZE
Standard Chartered & Octagon
Standard Chartered united the past and present to inspire and educate the next generation of Liverpool FC fans by showcasing LFC’s most successful manager, Bob Paisley, in what would have been his 100th Birthday year (2019/20 Season).
The beauty of technology is to provide human connections. Through the use of smart technology, both voice technology and CGI, we were able to allow Bob Paisley to once again walk on the Anfield pitch, tell unheard stories alongside Ian Rush and interact with today’s players and Manager, Jürgen Klopp.
Working extremely closely the Paisley Family and LFC, ‘Project Stand Red’ became a campaign that preserves a tremendous legacy that will continue to inspire the next generation of football and demonstrate the Bank’s commitment to bringing global fans closer to the Club they love using innovation and technology.
Project Stand Red is a campaign that built human connections, inspired the next generation of football fans and demonstrated the Bank’s commitment to bringing fans in all corners of the globe closer to the Club they love – using the same type of innovative technology that made the brand a fintech leader.
