Entrepreneurs spent the past six months working
alongside a prestigious roster of partners, including NBC Sports,
Premier League, NASCAR, and PGA TOUR to explore business
opportunities
Founders will showcase their innovations
starting today at the RALLY Innovation Conference
Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech today announced that the 10
companies in its fourth class have secured 15 pilots, partnerships,
and commercial deals as a result of their participation in the
program. Over the past six months, 28 entrepreneurs have engaged
with SportsTech’s prestigious partner consortium, which includes:
NBC Sports, NBC Sports Next, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, GOLF,
NASCAR, PGA TOUR, Premier League, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA
Swimming, USA Cycling – and the recently added partner the
University of Notre Dame. This builds on SportsTech’s legacy of
connecting early-stage companies with some of the world’s top
sports brands: since the first class debuted in 2021, alumni have
achieved 159 pilots, partnerships, and commercial deals with
consortium partners.
The 2024 SportsTech program is formally coming to a conclusion
at the RALLY Innovation Conference starting today and running
through August 28 in Indianapolis, which will feature several
SportsTech leaders, including alumni and experts from Xfinity,
NASCAR, Notre Dame, and NBC, and offer founders an opportunity to
showcase their capabilities to a global audience.
“The 10 enterprise-ready companies selected for this year’s
cohort, chosen out of a pool of 1,500 applicants, have gone above
and beyond to exceed the expectations of Comcast NBCUniversal
SportsTech and our partners,” said Jenna Kurath, Vice President of
Startup Partnerships and Head of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech.
“Over the past six months, they have excelled at forming meaningful
partnerships and striving to make a lasting impact in the world of
sports – and beyond. I am proud of their continued achievements and
impressed with their potential for growth and scale, based on the
business value they are providing to our SportsTech consortium
partners.”
Through exclusive strategic engagement with partners, including
during opportunities at NASCAR’s Daytona International Speedway,
Universal Studios Florida, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and
SportsTech’s annual Combine conference in Charlotte, NC, founders
are able to go behind the scenes and identify how to align their
technology solutions to partners' operational needs.
These experiences enhance SportsTech’s customized curriculum,
which strategically aligns advisors with companies to refine their
enterprise approaches, learn to adapt within evolving and emerging
marketplaces, and achieve successful business outcomes.
Here are some highlights from the 2024 class of Comcast
NBCUniversal SportsTech:
Aquimo, INC - Mesa, AZ
Aquimo drives value to brands, sports teams, and media through
massive multiplayer mobile skill-sports games that integrate the
motion of users’ phones and let millions play on any TV or
live-stream broadcast – with no download required.
Aquimo piloted a custom-built mobile game for Comcast employees
to enjoy during the Olympic Games. Accessible exclusively on X1 and
played by nearly 60% of employees with eligible devices, the
gamified living room experience challenged them to claim the spot
atop the media podium – with an X1 leaderboard integration and
branded prizes.
Dizplai - Manchester, United Kingdom
Dizplai is a media experience company that enables real-time
audience engagement for live news, sports, and entertainment,
turning broadcasts into immersive two-way experiences by seamlessly
integrating social media, messaging apps, user-generated content,
and sports data with dynamic graphics.
Dizplai has earned a commercial agreement extension with Sky
Sports to continue turning live broadcasts into interactive
experiences like the Viewer’s Verdict Scorecard for boxing, and to
support future interactivity needs. Up next are active pilots with
NASCAR’s YouTube Live in-car camera stream via contextual and
promotional overlays and an NBC Local initiative for local news
feedback.
Fobi AI - Vancouver, Canada
The Fobi Mobile Wallet Pass platform helps organizations open
new marketing channels and deliver exceptional customer experiences
using the native mobile wallet functionality available on every
smartphone.
Through a partnership with Comcast Spectacor, Fobi is supporting
the 2024 Flyers Community Caravan with mobile wallet credentialing,
which runs July to September 2024. Fobi is leveraging its advanced
wallet pass technology to optimize event management and enhance fan
experiences.
KYMIRA - Reading, United Kingdom
KYMIRA enhances performance and recovery through smart
infrared-emitting garments that boost circulation, reduce soreness,
and accelerate healing while also addressing chronic illness,
mitigating injury risk, improving sleep, and providing
unprecedented health insights.
As a result of SportsTech, the Philadelphia Flyers’ players,
coaches and staff can be spotted wearing Kymira's infrared-infused
apparel that boost circulation, reduce soreness, and accelerate the
healing process for athletes, which could be a true gamechanger for
both players and sports staff.
Mantis.AI - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Mantis.AI is an AI media-tech company transforming raw footage
and noisy data into organized video assets and actionable
intelligence.
Based on early proof of concept success with Sky, Mantis.AI is
proving their AI-driven content management, highlight creation, and
distribution of sports content at scale, as part of an active
long-term selection process. The NBCU Local news and sports
production teams in the Bay Area are currently scoping a proof of
concept to discover how their AI can deliver efficiency gains by
offloading manual, repetitive tasks to free up time to concentrate
on creative journalistic pursuits.
Mobii Systems - Ontario, Canada
Mobii Systems’ Microblock Technology revolutionizes the way
video streams are synchronized, encoded, and distributed in
real-time globally, delivering new user experiences at the live
edge.
Ensuring minimal latency and seamless synchronization without
compromising streaming quality is crucial for streaming services
such as Peacock, where a proof of concept is currently underway. Up
next for Mobii are multiple proofs of concept with the NBC Regional
Sports Network team to prove out low latency in remote production
environments, as well as other pilots with SportsTech’s
partners.
Plantiga - Vancouver, Canada
Plantiga helps teams and athletes reduce time lost to injury
with in-shoe sensors and AI, enabling asymmetry and load monitoring
on-court, on-field, on-ice - anywhere.
Working with the Premier League performance team, Plantiga is
meeting with its football clubs and FIFA, which governs all facets
of the game. Up next, a Sports Performance pilot with Notre Dame,
and NASCAR teams are piloting Plantiga’s in-sole technology; all to
bring lab-grade athlete measurement data to the field/court/ice of
play.
StellarAlgo - Calgary, Canada
StellarAlgo applies deep data insights and machine learning to
turn sports fans into avid customers, enabling true precision
marketing by identifying the right opportunities for the right fans
at the right time.
StellarAlgo is supporting the Premier League, its clubs, and its
broadcast partners in two pilots to help them develop the most
actionable fan insights to drive engagement, tune-in, and
revenues.
ZATAP - Winterthur, Switzerland
ZATAP is a platform for creating direct-to-customer connections
for brands through “phygital” products: tapping the product with a
smartphone allows the customer to unlock engaging digital
experiences while enabling brands to build sophisticated customer
profiles.
ZATAP and NBC Sports GOLF are scoping a pilot tied to its
SmartPlay technology within GolfNow and GolfPass. For the 10K+ golf
course properties that use the NBC GOLF’s platforms, a myriad of
exclusive digital offers can be linked to physical golf gear to
create a virtual clubhouse experience. ZATAP is also deeply
integrated into the music and artist industry as they tie digital
experiences to record sales, tour merchandise, and concert
goers.
Zoomph - Reston, VA, USA
Zoomph provides partnership insights and analytics that help
sports and entertainment brands, media, leagues, teams, and
athletes analyze social and broadcast content and track trends and
competition in real-time.
Zoomph is working on extending its commercial agreements with
Xfinity with the goal of an expanded and unified measurement
platform to rigorously track the return on investment on Xfinity
brand sponsorship investments.
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 some of 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, PGA TOUR,
Notre Dame, 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 Innovation
Boomtown Innovation delivers custom, end-to-end innovation
services to major corporations and organizations seeking to
maximize the power of innovation to achieve measurable outcomes.
Boomtown’s comprehensive services include Innovation Strategy,
Innovation Operations and Ecosystem Development. Since 2013,
Boomtown Innovation has successfully executed more than 25
innovation programs and co-invested in nearly 250 startups,
achieving a portfolio value of more than $1.9 billion in sports,
health, education, environment, and sustainability. For more
information visit https://btinnovation.com/
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240827254881/en/
Media: Louise Eich Comcast Corporation
Louise_eich@comcast.com
Kelli Dwyer Comcast Corporation Kelli_dwyer@comcast.com
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