Vetted Sports

The Los Angeles Chargers today officially opened “The Bolt,” the team’s new state-of-the-art training facility and corporate headquarters in El Segundo.   It’s spread over 150,000 square feet, has a three-level layout, and sits on 14 acres that include three full natural grass practice fields. 📥 For more breakdowns about sports, investing, and technology, join for free: https://lnkd.in/dUYVHG5y #sportstech #sportsbusiness #sports

Autonomous robots are upending entire industries. Because they can perform tasks more accurately and consistently than humans, companies look to implement them across manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and everything in between. And now they’re coming to sports. Since 2019, Nickelytics has been redefining how businesses connect with their audience by making hyper-local out-of-home advertising as seamless as posting online ads. In other words, companies partner with them to enhance brand visibility and tap into a new revenue stream. This means providing unique activations and experiences to improve the fan experience in sports. With their recent partnership with the Miami Marlins and Kiwibot, Nickelytics is carving out a unique lane in sports tech and doing it one arena at a time. In this interview with Judah Longgrear, CEO of Nickelytics, we discuss how the company came about, the future of robots in sports, and the challenges of scaling robots across various sporting environments. #sportstechnology #sportsbusiness #robotics https://lnkd.in/egD8V7Um

Huge S/O to Malcolm Lemmons and Vetted Sports for the coverage of Nickelytics and the growth of robotic advertising in the world of sports. We're super bullish on this space, and just at the tip of the iceberg with what's possible! #Innovation #TechTrends #AdTech #FanEngagement #SmartStadium #Marketing #Automation #AI #DigitalOutOfHome #ExperientialMarketing #Startup #TechInnovation #EventTech #MarketingStrategy #FutureOfAdvertising Read the full article below

A lot is happening at the intersection of sports, tech, and business 🔥🚀 Here's the rundown for this past week: • Led by Wyc Grousbeck, the majority ownership group of the Boston Celtics announced that they intend to sell the team • APEX announces an investment in Venezia FC • Bob Iger & Willow Bay close in on Angel City Football Club investment • Dizplai acquires PickGuru • Teamworks acquires ZoneIn • Caesars Entertainment, Inc. acquires ZeroFlucs • Bluestone Equity Partners invests in Qloo • Euroleague Basketball announces content partnership with WSC Sports • New Zealand Rugby & Fanatics sign partnership • leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners with Danny Cortenraede & InStudio Ventures • Veritone announces multi-year agreement with Tennis Australia • CNBC launches CNBC Sport Subscribe to the Vetted Sports weekly newsletter to get the latest industry news, trends, and updates 📩 👇 #sportstech #sportsbusiness #sportsinvesting https://lnkd.in/ekB7j6tt

This past Friday, the NHL held its 2024 draft at the $2.3 billion Las Vegas Sphere built and owned by James Dolan. It was the first sports-related event at the venue since its opening. • 14,220 attendees • 18,600 seats • 168,000 speakers • 580,000 sq ft of LED panels Seems like a great way to draw more attention and exposure to the NHL draft. Should other leagues follow suit? #sportstech #sportsbusiness #sports

Nike and Hyperice just announced new tech-enabled recovery boots and vests. Some of the features include: • Instant heating and cooling • Dynamic air compression massage • Players can regulate their body temperature during and after cooldowns and warm-ups Several Team USA athletes will wear both at the Paris Olympics.

Fans are more connected to their favorite athletes than ever before. With the advent of social media, players from all sports and levels can build massive audiences and reach fans in ways they couldn’t before. Scope Sports is taking that relationship a step further all while allowing athletes to make additional money from their biggest fans and supporters. Maximilian Stehling and Laurent Isnard started Scope Sports to provide an infrastructure that allows all individual athletes to monetize their top fans without being at the mercy of sponsors. While they are initially focusing the platform specifically on tennis players, their vision is to support multiple sports and athletes across the world. In this interview, we discuss how they came up with the idea, the best use cases for blockchain in sports, and advice for other founders looking to build in the sports space. #sportstech #sportsbusiness #linkedinsports https://lnkd.in/d9ykr5js

Racquet sports are booming these days. Currently, the total racquet sports industry is worth over $9B according to RacquetX, an all-racquet-sports festival. And that’s not including money spent building new courts, upgrading existing ones, sponsoring celebrity players, and tournament prize money. In case you don’t know, a racquet-based sport is any game where players use a racket or paddle to hit a ball or other object. This includes popular sports such as: • Tennis • Padel • Pickleball • Table Tennis aka Ping Pong • Badminton • Squash • Racquetball Racquet sports are some of the oldest sports out there. Some have been around since the 1500s, but we’ve only started to see this explosion in recent years. In the 1800s, galvanized rubber and improved manufacturing techniques came about, which were tipping points for the industry. A game similar to modern-day tennis and squash emerged from this innovation. The first Wimbledon game was then played in 1877 and table tennis was born around this time also. Pickleball and padel started to become popular around the 1960s. Over time, individuals and businesses started to see how big of an opportunity these sports were and constructed leagues, tournaments, and courts globally. All of this transformed into the racquet industry as we know it today. Here are some additional stats and facts about the growth of these sports: • Despite being worth $9B, the racquet sports market is forecasted to grow over $500M between 2016 and 2026 • Tennis, pickleball, and padel are the three most popular racquet-based sports • There are over 87M tennis players across the world • There are over 36M pickleball players throughout the US • There are over 25M padel players across 90 countries When you look at where these sports have come from and the upside, there’s still a lot of opportunity left. Technology is playing a massive role in the racquet sports boom and is expected to propel it to an $80B industry by 2032 across all sports. This is why we’re diving into some of the top startups around these sports and how they are using technology to revolutionize this industry. https://lnkd.in/eCRzdPHU

Sports viewership has been flipped on its head. This generation of sports fans is less engaged, more isolated, and spends on average 7.2 hours in front of screens. It’s getting harder to capture the attention of fans with so many distractions and content out there. But I still think there is still hope. Especially when it comes to in-person sports. Over the past few years, we’ve seen several advancements in technology that have the potential to improve the way we watch sports in person. Leagues and organizations are now investing millions of dollars into their venues to build new experiences all to bring more fans to games. Let’s dive into some of the ways technology will change in-person sports over the next few years. https://lnkd.in/eYhaMJrP

Pat Mahomes threw a game-winning touchdown in SBLVIII. Lionel Messi scored the game-winning goal in his Inter Miami debut. Lebron James had an iconic block on Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. These are legendary moments in sports that most of us watched on television. But what if you could have seen what these athletes saw when they were making these plays? What if you had the first-person perspective of what athletes experience every time they put on a jersey? That’s what Ali-Han Ibragimov is trying to solve. As the founder of MOORvision Technologies, he’s building next-level software and hardware that aims to disrupt fan experiences. In this interview, we discuss his flagship product called UCam, what he’s learned from building this company, and his predictions for how fan engagement will change over the next 5 years. https://lnkd.in/eDXS5csP