The trend of AI commentary in sports is taking shape, and after the US Masters, Wimbledon has also added AI commentary to some uncommented highlights. From the perspective of event organizers, adding live commentary to the massive video footage of the game is undoubtedly time-consuming, laborious and costly, but if AI commentators can do the job, it is obviously more beneficial for event operations, especially on social media platforms.
On the other hand, ATP has partnered with digital services company Infosys to add carbon footprint tracking to its official app "ATP PlayerZone", allowing players to monitor their carbon footprint during the competition and find ways to offset it. In addition, players can also display them on their ATP profile page if they receive the corresponding award badge. Playing without forgetting the cause of environmental protection may become a new angle for fans and brands to observe players.
IBM
Recently, the All England Club partnered with IBM to create a basic model using IBM's AI and data platform "watsonx". This basic model can create some explanatory vocabulary and sentence structure, and during Wimbledon 2023, add AI commentary to some matches without live commentary, and improve the viewing experience of fans.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to Wimbledon, the US Golf Masters held earlier this year made a similar attempt.
Infosys
ATP has partnered with digital services company Infosys to include carbon footprint tracking in its official app, ATP PlayerZone. Players can calculate the carbon footprint of their travel by declaring their travel trajectory during the competition. In addition, the feature will provide users with some sustainability-related resources and quizzes, and will also receive the corresponding medal upon completion, which will be displayed on the player's ATP profile page.
At present, a number of players, such as Dominic Thiem, Cameron Norrie and Andrey Rublev, have pledged not only to record their carbon footprint in 2023, but to fully offset it.
OKX
According to the Daily Mail, Manchester City recently renewed a three-year contract with cryptocurrency exchange OKX with a total value of 55 million pounds.
OKX signed a one-year deal with Manchester City last year, spending more than $20 million to become a partner in the team's training equipment, and also signed Jack Grealish and Alex Greenwood separately. Under the new contract, OKX will be Manchester City's shirt armband advertising partner.
Improbable
Metaverse technology company Improbable partnered with MLB to create a virtual baseball stadium to be released at MLB's 2023 All-Star Celebrity Softball Game. Fans who can't go to the game can enter this virtual baseball stadium through the MLB official website to participate in this viewing party.
Trophy Hunt
For the pre-season tournament in the United States in July, the Premier League partnered with metaverse consultancy Doppelgänger to launch an AR game called "Trophy Hunt". Fans can follow the in-game map to find 20 Premier League trophies in the five host cities of Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando, New Jersey and Maryland. The more trophies they find, the higher they will rank on the city leaderboards and have a better chance of winning prizes, including tournament tickets, signed jerseys, and merchandise.
PowerBlock ＆ Asensei
Recently, dumbbell manufacturer PowerBlock has reached a cooperation with Asensei, a supplier of motion recognition technology. When using PowerBlock's dumbbells, users use the software development kit (SDK) developed by Asensei to use computer vision functions and 3D posture recognition to record weights, count the number of exercises, and obtain coach feedback in real time.
LaLiga
La Liga recently re-released its official app and partnered with AI video editing platform WSC Sports to convert some past game footage into a vertical format for dissemination on social media platforms. In addition, WSC Sports will meet La Liga's real-time editing needs during matches.
With these new content and features, La Liga's operating tools on social media platforms will also become richer. According to official La Liga data, the total number of followers on its 16 social media platforms has exceeded 200 million, with an average weekly increase of about 1.4 million last season. And in 2022-23, La Liga's digital ecosystem saw an increase in the number of followers by 40.8 million, making it the most popular of Europe's top five leagues.
NTT DATA
IT services company NTT DATA and MLB Washington Nationals have reached a cooperation to set up NTT DATA intelligent venue technology platform at their home stadium, Nationals Stadium, with the help of IoT devices to collect and record various aspects of data in the stadium in real time, such as the length of security queues, and provide relevant information for venue staff and fans, so as to facilitate staff deployment and improve the viewing experience of fans.