#71 Recap of Sports Innovation 2024: A high quality event looking at the Future of Sport

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A quick recap of an action packed 2 days in Düsseldorf. Plus continuing our conversations with Innovation Leaders in Sports, this week with the Danish Sports Confederation. Always with the top SportsTech & funding news in tow. 

Fun fact about Düsseldorf (which is a beautiful city btw): It is home to the third-largest Japanese community in Europe, after London and Paris. So a great place for Ramen & Sake if you’re ever in the area. 

Feature Story

Recap of Sports Innovation 2024: A high quality event looking at the Future of Sport

SportsInnovation 2024 was a resounding success. Quality content, presented in a fantastic venue with the who’s who of the Sports industry in attendance. Not much more you can ask for really.

More than 2,000 attendees gathered at the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA in Düsseldorf on Mar 20-21. For an invite only event, that is a big number. And you could really feel the scale.

Here’s a quick article with an overview from the 2 days. It covers:

• Conference Program: Who was there to speak

• Innovation Games: 4 live sports games on during the conference

• Innovation Lab: The playground

• Exhibition Area: Startups + scaleups + mature companies

• Our Top Highlights: Our 3 favourite things

Kudos to the DFL, Spielmacher and D:Sports for putting together a really high quality event. We were proud to be associated as media partners, already looking forward to the next one.

Top News from the World of Sports Tech

NBA took another step to enhance fan experience by introducing betting features directly into NBA League Pass, powered by emBET, Sportradar’s OTT solution.

 UEFA hosted the 2nd workshop for the Champions Innovate programme, where 3 selected startups (Pledgeball, My Emissions, Pavegen) came together at London’s House of Sport to showcase ways to enhance the social and environmental impact of the UEFA Champions League final in London later this year.

‘March Madness Live’ App has not only added Vertical Video Feed but is now also Apple Vision Pro compatible for its Live Streaming Experience.

Ahead of March Madness, Simplebet has launched a game tracker that goes across operator partners, such as Betr and DraftKings, where fans can follow matches in sync with Simplebet’s micro-betting markets.

 Digital fitness platform Xponential+ unveiled CycleBar, an addition to its XR app for Meta’s Quest 3 headset, making it a first-of-its-kind VR Indoor Cycling Experience.

 LFP Media, the media arm of French football’s governing body, launched a new fantasy blockchain trading card game “Coach Ligue 1”.

 As part of a multi-year collaboration with Liverpool FC, Nature Communications has developed TacticAI- an AI assistant for football tactics, that can advise coaches on corner kicks.

 Phygital platform ZATAP introduced a new gamification feature to enhance fan experience on their existing partnership with FC St. Gallen, which includes fan scarves doubling up as match tickets.

 Indian Counter-Strike esports event Skyesports Grand Slam, featured a diplomatic showmatch between India and Indonesia which took place in last week in Pune, India.

 JPMorgan Chase has announced a new sports-focused investment banking group, offerring advisory and financing solutions for activities like investing in sports franchises to clients globally.

Not Sports Tech but you should know:

 Indian city, Srinagar witnessed a historic moment as it hosted its inaugural Formula 4 car racing demonstration event on Sunday against the stunning backdrop of the world-renowned Dal Lake.

 San Diego Wave were sold at a $120 million valuation, an NWSL record. The figure is nearly double the previous record of $63 million for the Portland Thorns earlier in 2024.

 Manchester City announced plans to make its training facility, the City Football Academy, one of the largest producers of renewable energy in world football. They are currently seeking approval for the installation of neary 11k solar panels which will generate up to 4.39 MWh of renewable energy every year.

 Women’s college basketball has been a hot commodity all season long, and ESPN’s numbers show that this has been the most-watched WCBB regular season since ’08-09.

 Mumbai based Sportz Interactive has teamed up with UFC to amplify UFC’s reach in India by driving viewership on Sony Pictures Networks India

Money Talks:

 Premier indoor golf and entertainment experience, Five Iron Golf, announced a $20 million minority investment from Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI), with a new flagship location at Grand Central Station in New York City.

 E-commerce platform Winible announced a $6 million seed funding to help the company tackle the growing sports-betting sector, led by Inspired Capital and NFL legend Ray Lewis.

 Texas based SaaS-enabled marketplace for hunting and fishing, Mallard Bay, raised $4.6 million in Series A funding, led by Soul Venture Partner.

 California based Jabali, raised a $5 million seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures to build a generative AI-powered game engine.

 Two Circles acquired US-based creative agency Let It Fly Media, known for its innovative work in sports video production and storytelling, for an undisclosed amount.

 Soccer Post, the largest soccer specialty retailer in the United States, acquired Soccer Pro Inc. which will give Soccer Post 47 specialty stores across the U.S. 

Latest from our channels

 #196 DIF Innovation Lab: Danish Sports Confederation

Continuing our theme of talking to various innovation leaders in sports teams and organisations, on this week’s episode, The SportsTech Allstars Podcast presents- Niels Henrik, Head of SportsTech at DIF Innovation Lab.

Niels talks about the structure of the DIF Innovation lab and how they support different startups, having an umbrella of 62 sports associations. We talk in detail about the ongoing innovation in different sports, their success stories, some of the biggest challenges in innovation, some new exciting tech and what’s coming up for the DIF Innovation Lab. 

Watch the full video here.

 STX Weekly: Last week’s newsletter and monthly dealflow round up, in case you missed it.

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