Entering its third year, the Comcast
NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator will expand to a six-month
program, providing founders with more opportunities to collaborate
with leaders from some of the world’s most recognized sports
brands, including NBC Sports, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, Sky Sports, and
WWE®.
Since the first class in 2021, startup alumni
have participated in 90 pilots, partnerships, and commercial deals
with consortium partners.
Today, 10 startups kicked off the third class of the Comcast
NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator, powered by Boomtown.
This year’s companies, selected from over 920 applicants across
40 countries, will collaborate with experts from Comcast,
NBCUniversal, Sky, and Boomtown, along with SportsTech’s advisors,
to improve their products and services and prepare for accelerated
commercial success with program partners and the broader sports
industry.
One of the hallmarks of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech is the
access to leaders and decision makers from across the partner
consortium, which includes four Comcast NBCUniversal sports brands:
NBC Sports, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, and Golf – alongside
NASCAR, WWE, and PGA TOUR, and three US Olympic sports
organizations: U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA Swimming, and USA
Cycling.
Since the first class in 2021, SportsTech startup alumni have
participated in 90 pilots, partnerships, and commercial deals with
consortium partners. This year, founders will be able to explore
more long-term opportunities with partners as the accelerator
expands from a 12-week format to a 6-month program, allowing for
increased time for robust, meaningful collaborations.
"Our alumni from the first two classes of the Comcast
NBCUniversal SportsTech accelerator continue to display a prowess
for delivering impactful technology while unlocking new revenue
opportunities, and I look forward to seeing what powerful
innovations and unique partnerships emerge from this year’s
program,” said Jenna Kurath, Vice President, Startup Partnerships
and Head of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech. "As we evaluated how
to bring even more value to our startups and SportsTech partners, a
clear need emerged - more time collaborating to tackle complex
business challenges. The new six-month format creates additional
space for focused testing and experimentation with a curriculum
designed for business refinement while allowing the
enterprise-ready startups we've selected to continue serving their
existing customers.”
Entrepreneurs will work one-on-one with SportsTech advisors and
participate in a custom curriculum focused on refining their
product and improving their go-to-market strategies, fundraising,
sales, marketing and branding, product design, personal growth,
company culture, and tactics for working at an enterprise scale.
This year’s class will also benefit from a series of unique
excursions and working retreats structured around SportsTech
partner events that will embed founders behind-the-scenes so they
can gain a better understanding of how to deliver innovations that
service these organizations’ operational needs.
The 2023 program kicks off this week in Florida with a roadshow
of partner events, and immersion activations for founders designed
to deepen customer discovery and identify how to align technology
solutions to the business and operational needs of partners. With
meetings at the offices of NBC Sports’ GOLF division,
behind-the-scenes tech experiences at Universal Studios Florida and
the WWE Athlete Performance Center, opportunities to observe how
PGA TOUR and NBC Sports’ GOLF produce professional sporting events
at venues like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, followed by focused
sessions at PGA TOUR’s headquarters and NASCAR at Daytona
International Speedway, the introductory week is designed to impart
startups with critical insights and understandings.
Accelerator mentors will include industry leaders from Comcast
NBCUniversal as well as strategic advisors from the Boomtown
network and the partner consortium, including: Will McIntosh,
President of NBC Sports NEXT and Fandango; Lora Dennis, Executive
Vice President, NBCUniversal Local; James Clement, Director of
Operations, Sky Sports; Craig Neeb, Chief Development Officer of
NASCAR; Rina Thakker, Senior Vice President, Digital Products for
WWE; and Lance Stover, Senior Vice President, New Ventures for PGA
TOUR.
For those interested in applying to join the next Comcast
NBCUniversal SportsTech accelerator and to learn more about the
program’s eight focus areas: media and entertainment, fan/player
engagement, athlete/player performance, team and coach success,
venue and event innovation, fantasy sports and betting, esports,
and the business of sports, visit www.comcastsportstech.com.
The 2023 class of the Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech
Accelerator program includes:
Aircast – Melbourne,
Australia
Aircast provides sports fans direct access to near zero-latency
multi-view video, audio, and data, making them the director of
their own experience.
EINBLIQ.IO – Munich,
Germany
EINBLIQ.IO is an insights and automation platform that enables
media companies to operate sophisticated, excellent,
energy-efficient, and economic streaming services.
FanFest – New York, New
York
FanFest is the easiest way for the biggest names in
entertainment to empower superfans to grow their audience with
interactive shows gated by digital memberships and tokens hosted
live on their digital channels.
FanSaves – Ottawa,
Canada
FanSaves is a digital couponing platform that gives fans
discounts and deals from sponsors of their favorite teams,
increasing fan engagement and activation while tracking important
customer analytics for teams and their partners.
GeoSnapShot – Sydney,
Australia & Denver, Colorado
GeoSnapShot is a Powerful AI media distribution platform that
allows users to instantly share photos from an event and organize
them so they can be found quickly and easily.
Quicc – Wichita,
Kansas
Quicc is a powerful video content management system that
automates video transcription, captioning, searching, and clipping
workflows.
Recut – New York, New
York
Recut helps users create unlimited personalized video content at
scale for fans and audiences.
Rivalry Tech – Houston,
Texas
Rivalry Tech is a food, beverage, and merchandise mobile
ordering platform for high-volume settings, including stadiums,
resorts, hospitals, and entertainment venues.
RIZZARR – Detroit,
Michigan
RIZZARR is a content marketplace that connects brands seeking
purpose-driven digital media with vetted, talented creators
worldwide.
Tickets for Good –
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Tickets for Good helps event partners fill venues and increase
revenues by giving free and discounted tickets to targeted &
validated consumer groups that support the local community.
About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and
technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We
are principally focused on connectivity, aggregation, and streaming
with 57 million customer relationships across the United States and
Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our
Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and
stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal
Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios,
the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks,
Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky
Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and
Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit
www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.
About Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech
Comcast NBCUniversal invests in the best sports tech startups in
the world. We back this investment by providing our startups with a
rigorous, custom curriculum, and we surround our entrepreneurs with
a dream team of sports industry advisors and experts who are
passionately dedicated to helping them succeed. Comcast SportsTech
features a partnership of four of Comcast NBCUniversal’s sports
brands - NBC Sports, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor and Golf –
alongside NASCAR, WWE, and PGA TOUR, and three US Olympic sports
organizations: U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA Swimming, and USA
Cycling. This network of partnerships brings an early lens into
innovation solutions, exclusive access to research and business
insights, and differentiated value to Comcast’s media rights
relationships. The program brings creative solutions to the partner
consortium and to market through the lens of eight core investment
categories: Media & Entertainment; Fan/Player Engagement;
Athlete/Player Performance; Team & Coach Success; Venue &
Event Innovation; Fantasy Sports & Betting; esports; and the
Business of Sports. Visit www.comcastsportstech.com to learn
more.
About Boomtown
Boomtown designs and operates exclusive, custom, and turnkey
innovation platforms that unlock the power of open innovation for
major corporations and organizations. Unlike traditional
accelerators that mainly benefit investors, Boomtown Innovation
Platforms are custom-tailored for corporate development, leveraging
outside innovation to generate business growth and solve vexing
corporate challenges, creating a long term competitive advantage.
Since 2014, Boomtown has successfully executed more than 20
innovation programs and invested in nearly 250 startups, achieving
a portfolio value of more than $1.5 billion. For more information
visit https://boomtownaccelerators.com/
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Media Contact: Louise Eich Comcast Corporation
Louise_eich@comcast.com
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