Startups spent six months participating in
newly expanded custom curriculum in collaboration with a
prestigious roster of sports partners, including the Premier
League, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, and WWE, to enhance their technologies
and explore business opportunities
Founders will showcase their innovations during
a startup spotlight event today at the Sports Business Journal
DRIVE conference in St. Louis
Comcast today announced that the 10 companies chosen for the
third class of the Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator,
powered by Boomtown, have secured 25 pilots, partnerships, and
commercial deals while participating in the customized program.
Over the past six months, the 10 companies collaborated with
experts from Comcast, NBCUniversal, Sky, and Boomtown, along with
SportsTech’s advisors, including NBC Sports, NBC Sports Next, Sky
Sports, Comcast Spectacor, and GOLF, as well as Premier League,
NASCAR, WWE, and PGA TOUR, and three US Olympic sports
organizations – U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA Swimming, and USA
Cycling – to hone and advance their readiness for commercial
success.
During the Startup Spotlight event – taking place at the SBJ
DRIVE conference in St. Louis today – these founders will continue
to showcase the product-market fit of their technologies and
discuss how some of the leading sports organizations are now
applying these solutions to solve critical business challenges.
“Each startup team selected was enterprise-ready and given
unique access to decision-makers from some of the top sports brands
in the world,” said Jenna Kurath, Vice President, Startup
Partnerships and Head of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech. “The
relationships formed working one-on-one with sports leaders are
invaluable and our founders took every opportunity to test and
refine their technologies to deliver business value. Seeing our
founders use their learnings from the program to gain deep customer
insights to scale their businesses and find sustainable product fit
in the market has been exciting. We are proud of what these
entrepreneurs will continue to accomplish as we bring fans closer
to the sports moments that matter.”
This year’s cohort has also benefited from a series of unique
excursions and working retreats structured around SportsTech
partner events:
- The program began with a week-long partner roadshow experience
in Florida designed to deepen customer discovery, taking founders
into behind-the-scenes experiences at Universal Studios Florida,
NASCAR’s Daytona International Speedway, and the WWE Athlete
Performance Center while also showcasing how PGA TOUR and NBC
Sports’ GOLF produce professional sporting events, like the Arnold
Palmer Invitational.
- In Atlanta several months later, the partner consortium
gathered with the 2023 class to present business results from
proofs of concepts and pilots underway. Additional experiences at
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, NASCAR’s Talladega Super Speedway and The
Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park provided real-world exposure to see how
their products and technologies could add value.
SportsTech participant companies participated 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.
The 10 startups were vetted and selected through a highly
competitive process that evaluated over 920 applicants from across
40 countries. The excitement behind the SportsTech program and the
efficacy of its outcomes continues to fuel interest and demand with
more than 1,500 applications for SportsTech’s fourth cohort,
launching in Q1 2024. Since the first class in 2021, SportsTech
portfolio companies have achieved 112 pilots, partnerships and
commercial deals with consortium partners.
“We are focused on forming long-term partnerships with each of
the founders who entrust us and our program with the opportunity to
elevate their positioning and preparedness to make a significant
and sustainable impact in the world of sports,” said Chris Traeger,
Executive Director at Boomtown for the Comcast SportsTech program.
“Our 2023 class has thrived from the elongated program structure,
and we’re thrilled to be a continued part of their growth
trajectories and appreciate the impact that their continued success
has on our ability to continually attract the most innovative
startups into our ecosystem.”
Meet the 2023 class of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech:
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.
The company’s unique in-venue video technology is being piloted
by several live sports venues in conjunction with NBC Sports
Regional Networks and Comcast Business to produce near zero latency
video feeds from the production truck to the event attendees
including live replays, multi-camera views, and English and Spanish
language broadcast audio. This is coming off Aircast’s highly
successful deployment with FIFA at the Women’s World Cup in venues
across Australia and New Zealand.
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.
The company is working closely with Comcast network engineering
and product teams, spanning Xumo, Xfinity Stream, and Peacock, to
integrate their game changing technology for highly advanced
quality of service measurement of streaming video over standard
internet connections.
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.
In just a few short weeks, FanFest moved from proof of concept
to live customer pilot with Sky Sports for their Champions League
Preview show: Football Daily. From this success, FanFest
subsequently reached over 275K Premier League fans with a live show
from Mercedes Benz Stadium during the Atlanta portion of the Summer
Series matches.
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.
FanSaves completed a live pilot with NASCAR for the inaugural
Chicago Street Race over the Fourth of July weekend through
embedding in the Chicago Resource Guide that led race fans to 35+
local Chicago businesses during race weekend. The pilot was
immensely successful with more than 90% of the race fans that
accessed the guide redeeming at least one local offer.
GeoSnapShot – New South Wales, 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.
The company completed a technical proof of concept with
SportsEngine using advanced AI that allows parents and athletes to
find, acquire, and download video and photographic imagery from
sports events in a centralized and automated way. This success led
to a joint referral opportunity program nationwide.
Quicc – Wichita, Kansas Quicc is a powerful video
content management system that automates video transcription,
captioning, searching, and clipping workflows.
During the accelerator, Quicc completed proof of concept
opportunities highlighting their advanced captioning and search
capabilities that offered upwards of a 10X improvement in accuracy
and throughput for digital content for three major NBC News / RSN
outlets across the country.
Recut – New York, New York Recut helps users
create unlimited personalized video content at scale for fans and
audiences.
Working with Comcast Spectacor / the Philadelphia Flyers, Recut
utilized their new and innovative approach to engage audiences
through the deployment of personalized videos at scale helping
sales representatives generate warmer and more engaged leads for
the Club Level sales campaign.
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.
After completing multiple proofs of concept with partners,
Rivalry Tech is working through contractual negotiations and
reviews across multiple channels within Comcast Business sports
venues, enterprise businesses, and the PGA Tour.
RIZZARR – Detroit, Michigan RIZZARR is a content
marketplace that connects brands seeking purpose-driven digital
media with vetted, talented creators worldwide.
The company has completed proofs of concept with multiple
partners including NBC Sports and NBC Sports Next throughout the
accelerator, and is currently working on a long-term paid pilot
supplying marketing content services for several GolfNow
customers.
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.
Tickets for Good’s ticketing platform is now live supplying
discounted golf tee times to healthcare workers in Central Florida
with NBC Sports Next and GolfNow. In parallel, their continued
growth and expertise in the UK allowed them to successfully partner
with Major League Baseball and the Chicago Cubs for the London
Series this summer.
About Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq:
CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the
connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and
experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of
customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class
broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business,
and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment,
sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo,
Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and
attractions to life through Universal Destinations &
Experiences. 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 Premier
League, 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.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230919744086/en/
Media: John Demming 215-286-8011 John_Demming@Comcast.com
Kelli Sheatsley 445-942-5697 Kelli_Sheatsley@Comcast.com
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