SportsTech Monthly Roundup 28: Last Call for Startups

🤝 Alum & Partners in the News 🤝

NASCAR Courts Chicago for Street Course Race | Via: NBC Sports

Fresh off the success of the race inside the Los Angeles Coliseum, NASCAR continues to find new ways to bring racing to fans. Their latest plans are to race on a 2.2-mile course through the streets of downtown Chicago over the Fourth of July, 2023. This will be a first for the sport, as NASCAR has never done true street courses similar to Formula 1. Diehard fans may recall Chicago’s Soldier Field once hosted races inside the football stadium on a half-mile track in the late 1950s. More recently, NASCAR hosted races at suburban Chicagoland Speedway from 2001 to 2019.

HeadVantage Wants Fans in the Mind of an Athlete  | Via: SportTechie

The entire genesis of HeadVantage is all about having the best vantage point. CEO and co-founder Jay Hedley spent a decade as an A-10 fighter pilot before earning his MBA at Harvard. Now, he wants to bring fans closer to the game with real-time point-of-view content, which could have huge implications for streaming.

USA Cycling Launches New Women’s Pro Team | Via: Endurance Sportswire

USA Cycling is excited to announce a partnership with a new American-licensed Continental professional women’s team, Cynisca Cycling. The partnership supports the growth of elite women’s racing by introducing a new American team to the European peloton and funding USA Cycling junior development programs. The European-based team will feature a roster of American riders and recently cut the ribbon on its service course at Château de Saint-Martory in France.

3M Stages Science Fair at PGA Stop  | Via: Star Tribune

There’s a lot of physics and science in the game of golf. 3M, the host of the PGA Tour’s late-July stop in Blaine, Minnesota, used their science knowledge to put on a science fair for the thousands of fans. They branded it “7,468 yards of 3M science,” and the company responsible for 60,000 products, including adhesives and bandages, created signposts that displayed nuggets of science knowledge around the course.

📚 Sports Tech Stories We’re Reading 📚

Larger than-life baseball tribute fueled by Mixed Reality | Via: LinkedIn 

During the MLB All-Star Game broadcast, Mixed Reality studio, The Famous Group, debuted technology that helped bring the accomplishments of Jackie Robinson to life in front of a stadium full of fans as well as the national broadcast. Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington provided live, on-field commentary while The Famous Group used MR technology to bring Robinson’s story to life.

Colts star running back invests in muscle sensor startup | Via: Forbes

Last year, Jonathan Taylor led the NFL in rushing yards. Now, he is parlaying his experience on the field and in the weight room to investing in sports tech. He’s now an investor in Strive, a tech company that focuses on measuring and analyzing muscle data for athletes. Strive uses sensors that can be inserted into compression clothing and tracks load symmetry and muscle fatigue.

Major college sports shake-up | Via: ESPN

It’s a stunner that is expected to shake up the collegiate sports landscape forever: USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 Conference in favor of the Big Ten starting in 2024. Both teams are tied to a Pac-12 television contract that expires after the 2023 season, suggesting that media rights and television revenue is going to be a huge factor as other collegiate teams look to the future.

Big tech making a push for live sports | Via: New York Times 

Some of the biggest players in tech are using their audience reach and deep pockets to enter a new arena—live sports. In the last few months, Amazon, Apple, and Google have become two names that have joined media rights negotiations for some of the world’s most popular sports, including NFL, MLB, and Formula One.