BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN FOOTBALL
o BlazePod & West Ham United Football Club
West Ham United Football Club is working with BlazePod to create a comprehensive reaction training program for its players, with a goal to improve decision making skills, reactions and overall performance while providing accurate data showing progress. Through one-on-one training and education from the BlazePod team, the partnership is creating more effective soccer players who can also avoid injuries and recover from them more quickly.
o DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga
Artificial Intelligence supports live commentary! Football commentators must be good at multitasking: they follow and describe what’s happening on pitch but are also expected to provide relevant background information. For this purpose, DFL runs an editorial support system available to media partners for Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches. The “Commentary Live System“ delivers a wide range of data, from match facts and stats to individual player details.
The new feature “Data Story Finder” (DSF) accelerates the delivery of context significantly and enables commentators to instantly recognise unusual accomplishments or new records. Smart algorithms search for data-driven storytelling, correlating live match data in real time with other match, seasonal or historical data. Example: “Most Pressed Player” shows which player is experiencing especially high pressure from the opposing team while in ball possession. The DSF-ticker says: “Marco Reus experienced pressure 25 times, 110per cent more frequently than the average of Borussia Dortmund”.
The new service builds on Bundesliga Match Facts powered by AWS. Using Artificial Intelligence, this feature captures, calculates and visualises contextual data in real time to help viewers better understand what is happening on the pitch. More than 3.6 m data points per match are converted into Bundesliga Match Facts.
o EE & Cake
EE has been awarded best network for eight years in a row in the UK, coming out as the fastest, most reliable and with the best data performance. EE is also leading the UK on the rollout of 5G, now in 160 towns and cities across the country. We needed to demonstrate this superiority -showing that EE is always a step ahead – by creating an innovative tech-first experience showcasing the strength of EE’s 5G network.
However, in a year of uncertainty, with Wembley Stadium closed to fans, we had to activate EE’s rights as lead partner in a completely new and inventive way. So, we transformed the famous Wembley turf into the World’s first AR Foosball game, powered by 5G.
EE successfully brought 5G Foosball closer to fans , reminding them of the magic of the stadium and EE’s award-winning network capabilities, even when they couldn’t be there. Even better, EE positioned itself ahead of its competitors, by creating an innovative tech-first experience that contextualised the magic of EE’s 5G network. The campaign reached a total of 15m people, via 49m impressions, over 5m views and a VTR of 14.6%, +244% across EE channels. Impressive stuff.
o En2End
Alipay signed an 8-year deal to become UEFA national team football sponsor. Alipay’s first sponsorship deal in football and first Digital wallet for UNTF.
One of Alipay’s sole and exclusive rights for the EUROS competition is to allow guests a behind the scenes experience, pitch-side access and interaction with UEFA Ambassadors. This was undeliverable due to the pandemic. We were tasked with finding a solution which is how this hybrid event was first conceived. We held 2 in person events in a hotel in China which featured VIP Ali Pay guests and a children’s foundation. With a 2-way broadcast to our interactive stations in the player arrival tunnels in the stadiums this hybrid activation blended a former player (UEFA Ambassador) meet & greet, behind the scenes unique access and culminated with current player arrival interaction, which was fully controlled and managed from our offices in Manchester.
We successfully integrated 4 live physical events digitally. By creating this hybrid experience our client has a digital solution that gives them ability to increase the impact on their business objectives and an infinite opportunity of engagement and sales opportunities.
o Imagineear
Imagineear is the leading producer of multimedia content and technologies for self-guided and group-guided tours at major sports clubs, stadia, related museums and sports heritage attractions worldwide. We turn empty stadia into leading visitor attractions, using our content and technologies to create visitor experiences that bring venues to life and take fans behind the scenes on non-event days.
Our work helps manage visitor flow, optimise visitor spend and provide real-time data insights. We provide our sports clients with everything they need, from the design and conceptualisation through to operational planning, and includes bespoke hardware and software solutions in addition to interactive immersive multilingual experiences. This product and service combination deepens the sport, venue or club’s connection with their visitors from all over the world.
With our ground-breaking Multimedia GroupGuide™ technology, group leaders can add unique value to their live commentary, adding dynamic multimedia content, including 360º videos and AR image recognition, all personalised in their group members’ own languages.
Football clients we work in close partnership with include Arsenal Emirates Stadium Experience, the London Stadium and West Ham United FC, Chelsea FC, Wembley Stadium, Liverpool FC, Olympique Marseille, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Manchester United FC and Manchester City FC.
o LiveScore
The ‘LiveScore OTT Automation Engine’ revolutionised the way LiveScore approaches free-to-air live streaming, driving huge value for the brand, football fans, rightsholders and commercial partners alike.
As disruptors within the OTT live-streaming space, and unbiased by existing solutions or investments, LiveScore employed a creative and digital-first mindset that empowered the business to invest in premium rights and deliver them at scale. Leveraging the power of the cloud ecosystem, automated technology ensured LiveScore was able to deliver elite production and live-streaming at a fraction of the manpower and expense of traditional broadcast methods.
At its essence, the ‘LiveScore OTT Automation Engine’ eliminated almost all manual elements of match production, with the world feed, sponsorship content, in-house preview shows and advertising seamlessly integrated with minimal operational heavy lifting.
The exceptional efficiencies of the technology empowered LiveScore to secure a world-class rights deal with UEFA, securing a three-year deal to broadcast ALL 137 UEFA Champions League matches fully free-to-air to football fans in Ireland.
The outcome represented an outstanding benefit to Irish consumers, who previously only had access to 14 free-to-air matches per season via traditional broadcast channels, whilst introducing thousands of fans into the LiveScore product ecosystem.
o Supponor
Supponor AIR™ is arguably the most disruptive technology innovation in the sport industry due to its two-fold proposition: using AI and ML as key differentiators on one hand and driving commercial value on the other. In contrast with many highly innovative technology solutions in the broadcast and media industry, Supponor AIR™ is a direct enabler of increased commercial revenues to the market through its proven reliability in top-tier football leagues across the globe.
o Swanbay Limited
MatchVision+ (Synopsis)
MATCHVISION+ by Swanbay is brand new and different to anything that exists today. We have challenged & improved everything around match highlights, even changing the name!
Swanbay services plug-in to existing platforms immediately enabling users to analyse gameplay, retrieve the action they want to see and create their own action videos by match, by player, over a season or from your entire archive. We instantly create added value to fans, increase dwell time on your own platforms and create a new revenue opportunity from your existing match archive – all with a simple to integrate solution.
Football is currently summarised with both stats and video (highlights as they used to be called) but they don’t match. Our unique technology blends them and lets you decide what you want to see, by making all key events or an individual players contribution to a game instantly viewable either as a bespoke clip or by clicking a match stat.
Swanbay ensures that the 90%+ of a match video that doesn’t make the “highlights” is still available to fans to watch, share and analyse in any way they want.
o Urban Zoo
Urban Zoo are a Sports Technology Company specialising in fan engagement and commercial returns for Football Clubs Our Gamechanger Platform has been built from the ground up together with content, media and commercial teams from Football Clubs in the UK.
We do not operate as a typical agency, our focus is football and all our team are UK based Our customers span all four leagues within UK professional football and also the SPFL Club clients include Celtic, Aston Villa, Everton, Fulham, SUFC, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers, Reading, Forest, Stoke, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Wigan Athletic, Wycombe Wanders and Leyton Orient.
Our Websites and Apps are driven via our own cloud based/headless CMS allows media teams to create rich content to drive up engagement. Gamechanger is responsive and flexible and intuitive to use and is offered to clubs with mixed affordability at a tiered pricing model for all leagues.
As we increase the number of clubs we work with we continue to canvas ideas on how to improve the platform and these ideas are incorporated into our ongoing development roadmap. Once new features and functionality updates are ready, we release these to all our clubs at no additional cost.
Case Study for Villa https://spark.adobe.com/page/pXOmOGEBKOADu/
