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Morning. Back again with The Sports Road! Today’s edition is all about how your favourite Sports are changing forever. Sport fans, welcome to the future…
Here's what we got for ya today:
- The Future of Combat Sports
- Leading The Way…
- The Startup Planning to Change The NBA
- Yet Another Robot Athlete
Most valuable public market sports teams
Let's get into it!
WWE x UFC
Now this is BIG news…
But before we get into it, our story starts way back in 2016 – when Endeavor purchased a controlling stake in the UFC.
During the collaboration, the UFC saw huge successes. Achieving record sponsorship sales and navigating 21 consecutive event sell outs, the holding company has shown their competence in the Combat Sports Entertainment industry.
With all that, the company eventually took complete control over the UFC in 2021.
So, you may be asking - why is that important? Well, this week Endeavor announced that they’ve bought a controlling stake in the WWE, the World’s biggest Pro-Wrestling company.
This will be the first time in 70 years that the McMahon family isn't controlling the company. If the last couple of months are anything to go by, that should be good news for WWE fans…
The twist? Endeavor plans to combine the WWE and UFC into one publicly traded company!
Here’s how they’re looking to grow revenue:
- Maximising media rights value
- Enhancing opportunities for future sponsorships
- Accelerating brands and talent placement, as well as product licensing
- Creating new content
“Together, we will be a US$21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fanbase of more than a billion people and an exciting growth opportunity. The new company will be well positioned to maximise the value of our combined media rights, enhance sponsorship monetisation, develop new forms of content and pursue other strategic mergers and acquisitions to further bolster our strong stable of brands.”
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Playing The Game
It’s no secret that the MLS have been heavily investing into technology recently.
From the creation of ‘MLS Labs’ to their $2.5 billion deal with Apple, it now seems the new tech craze is beginning to seep into the league's individual clubs.
How, you ask? Columbus Crew, who currently sit fourth in the Eastern Conference, have joined with Kitman Labs in unveiling an “Innovation Partnership”.
Here’s what it means:
- Kitman Labs will use its performance intelligence software to support multiple facets of the club
- The clubs scouting system will be revolutionised using a unique data-driven identification process
- Player development will be aided using tailor-made, data based information to maximise potential
- Coaching will be reimagined, using the development of a real-time integrated systems to allow for outcome based planning
Joining clubs like Barcelona, the Columbus-based club is looking to get ahead of the curve and use data and new technologies to make their way to the top.
“As the first club in Major League Soccer history, the Crew are paving the way as the first in MLS to become an 'Innovation Partnership' club - a multi-faceted partnership which will impact every level of athlete performance and club operations… Our collective goal is to create a fully integrated operating system designed to elevate and advance player and team performance in North America”
On the topic of innovative Sporting incubators, let’s head back to the NBA…
NBA's New Startup
The NBA Launchpad – one of Basketball’s biggest technological successes in recent times – is about to bear fruit.
Built by UCR students, EDGE Sound Research is one of seven startups selected by the NBA Launchpad in early 2023. It looks like that trust is about to be put into good use…
Before we get into it though, here’s what EDGE do:
Wanting to give fans a greater sense of immersion into the game, developers’ ultimate goal is to allow fans an audible, haptic, and tactile sensation through sound.
The embodied sound technology leverages standard audio inputs to produce these sensations to fans watching both in the arenas or at home.
“The best way to explain it, which still is not going to make a lot of sense, is you feel like you’re inside a ball.”
For the next six months, the startup will work with multiple NBA teams and even be allowed to try out their new initiative, ResonX in the 2K League - NBA’s official Esports league.
With ResonX using technology that turns sound into high-fidelity vibrations, the initiative will surely help the company achieve their goals and grow further in the Sport world. This may just be the start…
“This collaboration grants us access to NBA teams and their partners, while also enabling us to work closely with NBA staff, which expedites our learning of how to effectively scale ResonX within the live entertainment industry.”
We Need to Talk About: Robots
If you’ve been reading The Sports Road recently, you would have heard about the RoboCup event. If not, prepare to be shocked…
This July will see another global Football tournament. The only twist? Well, the athletes competing are robots.
Yep, not only can AI be used to help us with work, but now developers are using it to create LITERAL footballers.
While we’ve already spoken about Artemis – one of the first robots to be announced for the tournament – today is all about MIT’s Dribblebot.
Look, let’s be honest. This doesn’t look how you would *conventionally* imagine a robot with the ability to play Football, but it sure as hell can perform…
Wired to be functional on various different terrains, Dribblebot can already perform complex tasks, has a very wide range of motion, and can even track a ball's movement!
While the robot most definitely has room to improve, in the future it could be used for much more.
“If you look around today, most robots are wheeled. But imagine that there’s a disaster scenario, flooding, or an earthquake, and we want robots to aid humans in the search and rescue process. We need the machines to go over terrains that aren’t flat, and wheeled robots can’t traverse those landscapes,”
Quick bites
- That's not good... Amir Khan banned from Sport for two years
- A big night: WrestleMania hangover
- Liverpool: Big changes are coming
Meme of the day
It's Time....
Quote of the day
"There's nowhere near enough to go down... if I'd done that on a pitch I'd be embarrassed"
Photo of the day
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