Fitness app Trainerize will incorporate insights from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) into its educational platform, helping participating trainers and coaches gain more expertise on nutrition, mental wellness and physical anatomy.
Powered by ABC Fitness Solutions, the Trainerize mobile app is deployed by an estimated 400,000-plus personal trainers, nutritionists and wellness coaches most often as a way to connect with gym owners and clientele. The collaboration with the NASM is expected to help the gyms and trainers generate more business virtually.
NASM’s contribution to the app could be substantial, considering it has over 1.4 million certified trainers who specialize in physique and bodybuilding and virtual coaching. As part of the collaboration, Trainerize mobile app subscribers will have discounted access to NASM’s nutrition coach program, virtual coaching specialization program and other applications.
Air Locker Training, an Australia-based fitness franchise that simulates altitude training in its studios, has signed a memorandum of understanding with OxiWear, an ear-worn pulse oximeter, to distribute the device to all its members.
OxiWear is a graduate of the leAD Sports & Health Tech accelerator in Lake Nona, Fla., where it raised $1.25 million in pre-seed funding. The wearable provides continuous oxygen saturation (SpO2) data and can be set to trigger haptic alerts at certain thresholds. It also includes emergency alert functionality, and its data will be transmitted to the Air Locker Training instructors’ dashboard for safety monitoring.
“When people exercise in hypoxia you want to make it safe and effective,” Kenneth Graham, an Air Locker advisor and principal scientist at Eo following a long career in Australian high-performance sports, said in a statement. “Ongoing real-time measurement of oxygen saturation can provide both the participant and instructor with feedback and information on how the person is responding to the hypoxia and, by setting target SpO2 values appropriate to the individual, the exercise and the gains they are after, make the hypoxic exercise sessions both safe and effective.”
Streaming platform FITE will project preliminary fights from Saturday night’s Jose Zepeda-Regis Prograis boxing card across Los Angeles buildings in conjunction with the disruptive media studio Wally.
Known for its AI applications, FITE just last month utilized Proto hologram to beam Manny Pacquiao from Korea to L.A. for a live news conference. Now this Saturday night — in a promotion the company is calling “Boxing in the Streets” — FITE has chosen prominent buildings in three Los Angeles locations to stream 90 minutes’ worth of the undercard starting at 4:30 Pacific Time. The content will then repeat on a loop all the way up until midnight.
Fans who then want to watch the Zepeda vs. Prograis fight on pay-per-view can scan a QR code on the building broadcast and then watch the main event on the FITE mobile app — or bring their device home to watch the bout on a smart TV. The PPV portion of the broadcast is slated to begin at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.
Wally has previously produced multi-platform advertising and brand content on buildings in New York, Boston, Miami and also L.A, calling its wall-based platform “Wally moments.”
Amazon plans to open two Just Walk Out stores to sell food and drinks inside Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators. Both stores will offer Amazon One palm recognition payment capability and mark Amazon’s first checkout-free physical retail deployment in Tennessee.
The convenience stores will be named “Twice Daily” and will sell packaged beer, spiked seltzers, soda, bottled water, chips, candies and sundries for fans to grab off shelves and walk out with after inserting their credit cards their credit card at the shop’s entry gate. Guests can alternatively link their credit card to their online Amazon One account before scanning their palm to enter either shop. Cameras and sensors inside the stores will track when guests pick items off shelves to add those items to their virtual cart that gets charged as they exit the store.
Bridgestone Arena’s first Twice Daily store will open Nov. 25 near section 323 and the second store will open early next year in section 114. Delaware North, the stadium’s food and beverage partner, will have employees serve as store greeters and check IDs from guests for age verification during alcohol purchases. Amazon also opened a Just Walk Out store earlier this month inside Fiserv Forum with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Venture Capital firm KB Partners has closed one of sports’ most prodigious early-stage tech funds with an investment total of $127 million that so far spans 10 startups such as the 3-on-3 hockey league 3ICE, betting-centric nVenue and gravity sportswear Omorpho.
The highly-anticipated Myriad Opportunity Fund II — which follows founder Keith Bank’s initial $41 million, 16-startup fund in 2018 — substantially exceeds its initial investment goal of $100 million. As part of the fund, other companies such as metaverse-focused Stadium Live, smart basketball SIQ, blockchain ticketing firm Tixologi, outdoor enthusiast portal Kaya and basketball-focused Shot Quality, media platform Goss and gaming firm GridRival all earned financial boosts, with likely 15-to-20 more investments arriving over time.
Members of KB Partner’s advisory board include John Abbamondi, past CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclay’s Center; Chip Brewer, CEO of Callaway Golf; Joe Vrankin, CEO of Puttshack; Elton Brand, long time NBA star and Philadelphia 76ers GM; Steve Byrd, former Head of Global Partnerships at Sportradar, among others.
Tennis Australia is launching a new innovation program that invites startups to pilot their solutions at the Australian Open or other TA events.
The new incubator, AO Startups, is an evolution of Tennis Australia’s founding of its Wildcard Ventures fund — which led the funding for SwingVision, an Apple-promoted analysis app — and its multi-year partnership with Techstars to create an accelerator. The priority areas for the first cohort of AO Startups are athlete performance, injury prevention, esports and gaming, climate action and Padel tennis.
The deadline to apply is Dec. 14, although some entries will be considered up until Dec. 31.
Selected startups will receive access to Tennis Australia at the professional and community levels of the sport. They will benefit via network access, product development assistance and proof of concepts.
“Our partnership with Techstars reinforced just how important the entrepreneurs and early-stage tech community can be in shaping the trajectory of innovation. AO StartUps is a necessary and natural extension of our desire to do things differently and quickly … with the help of others.” Machar Reid, Tennis Australia’s head of innovation and Wildcard Ventures general partner, said in a statement. “Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain technology, sensors and wearables are all playing increasingly critical roles in the way we live our lives. This is an opportunity to apply those and other technological advancements to gains for fans, players, coaches and administrators at the Australian Open and throughout international tennis.”
Foxxum has added DAZN’s on-demand streaming lineup to its connected TV platform in Germany, Italy and Spain, taking advantage of DAZN’s soccer coverage throughout Europe.
The DAZN app has been in demand by Foxxum Smart TV clients, and existing subscribers will have access to DAZN’s streams following the initial launch on Vestel devices. DAZN’s content includes live and on-demand game streams from Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League, among others.
The service can be purchased annually or monthly and also gives subscribers access to sports in the United States such as the NFL, NBA, NCAA football and basketball, UFC, the EHF Champions League for handball and MotoGP. Streams also consists of boxing, winter sports, tennis, darts and cycling.
Earlier this year, DAZN also signed a deal with online gaming software Pragmatic Play to incorporate sports wagering into its streaming service. DAZN Bet allows in-play betting during streams and is offered in over 200 countries and territories.
The streaming service also recently launched a global content production arm, DAZN Studios, to increase its volume of original content such as documentaries, series and films. A film on Cameroon’s 1990 World Cup team and an inside look at soccer icons Diego Maradona and Ronaldo were also in development. The arrival of DAZN Studios came after the company created an innovation hub last November.
Amateur sports management software company TeamSnap has acquired LeagueSide, a community sports sponsorship platform whose reach includes major brands such as Chipotle, Uber and Verizon.
TeamSnap reaches more than 25 million coaches, administrators, players and parents across 19,000 sports organizations and will now add 11 million households and 2 million youth athletes through LeagueSide. The acquisition consolidates the management and sponsorship functionality into one place for organizers while helping brands have more direct contact with their end consumers. Among the other stated use cases is the potential of reducing participation costs for families of youth athletes via the new sponsorship opportunities.
Private equity firm Waud Capital Partners bought a majority stake in TeamSnap in April 2021.
“We have listened to brands and partners looking for ways to connect in-person with youth sports communities, as well as youth sports organizations interested in sponsorship opportunities — and this is our answer,” Peter Frintzilas, TeamSnap CEO and a Waud Capital executive, said in a statement. “Like LeagueSide, TeamSnap at its core is a company focused on improving the lives of youth athletes and their families, while making sports accessible to all. We are excited to welcome these forward-thinking innovators to our team.”
FIFA’s high-performance team, led by legendary former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, has developed 11 new advanced metrics that will be made available to broadcast and digital audiences during the World Cup in Qatar.
The new metrics, based largely on player and ball tracking data, will be used to inform fans during the World Cup as well as be used by FIFA for internal uses. They are:
Wenger is FIFA’s chief of global football development, and the high-performance team includes analysts, data scientists and engineers.
The federation said it will conduct developmental analysis to track longitudinal changes in how the sport is played as well as have more objective measures about the physical and tactical demands of the game at the highest level, with an eye toward understanding player development from lower levels. Chyron’s TRACAB provided the optical tracking cameras and algorithms powering electronic performance and tracking systems (EPTS) in the 2018 World Cup.
Women in Sports Tech, a non-profit seeking to diversify the industry, has opened applications for its 2023 WiST Fellowship Program, a summer internship for women and nonbinary students. The application deadline is January 16, 2023.
WiST fellows work at relevant companies, teams or leagues for six to eight weeks while receiving a $5,000 grant and some reimbursable travel expenses. The fellowship program began in 2018 and included 27 recipients in 2022, working at such places as Major League Baseball, Stats Perform, Titleist, GameChanger, Catapult Sports, Stats Perform and Oura.
Opportunities for the 2023 summer program are still being finalized but include Stats Perform, Comcast NBCUniversal and the USOPC. The WiST fellowship is open to US citizens or international students enrolled in a US university.
Partnership intelligence platform SponsorUnited has raised a $35 million Series A funding round led by Spectrum Equity, alongside other investors such as Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry and San Diego Padres co-owner Ron Fowler.
SponsorUnited tracks as many as 1.1 million sponsorships across 250,000 brands and types of IP, with a longtime emphasis in sports. Utilizing machine learning and a global scouting network, the SaaS platform allows all but five major professional teams in the U.S. to monitor marketing partnerships throughout every major sports league.
The company’s founder Bob Lynch formerly oversaw partnerships for BSE Global, the parent firm of the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Dolphins, and is a board member along with SponsorUnited’s Alain Benzaken. In its most recent research, SponsorUnited’s data shows sponsorships in women’s sports are increasing at faster rate than men’s sports.
NASM Becomes Newest Partner to Join Trainerize Education Program – SportTechie
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