It’s long been stated that referees in soccer need technology to help them get decisions right; it’s a topic that always rears it’s head after a high profile error – Frank Lampard’s strike against Germany in the last 16 tie of the 2010 World Cup is one that stands out as a goal that never was. Goal-line technology (GLT) was adopted and what a glowing success it has been. Unfortunately, it’s not only goal line decisions that cause debate and the hunger for more technology to follow gathered momentum and gradually different soccer authorities have gone live with Video Assistant Referees (VAR for short)...

BallStreet Trading, Inc. developed a brand new off the shelf game to trade stocks while watching sports. Their peer-to-peer prediction market app allows fans real-time fan engagement in the form of win probability during live events with a decentralized exchange. Price of shares and virtual currency is driven by buyers and sellers in market numbers. By trading sports, they create security around a future, buy the Jets at $22, they play well and sell for $40...

SponsorshipX is an immersive live conference experience uniting 100-125 of the top marketing and sponsorship professionals in Nashville during the NFL Draft Week of April 23-25, 2019. A variety of global speakers in sports and eSports will share marketing trends and sponsorship initiatives while in Music City. Mark Harrison, Founder and Chairperson, chatted with the Sports Techie community blog about SponsorshipX, it’s Toronto beginnings in 2005, and expanding the event from Canada into the United States and France. He is also President and CEO at The T1 Agency for the past 25-years, they operate proprietary community event properties and develop brand experiences...

The Players Circle (TPC) is the social networking app taking Southern California, New York and the rest of the amateur basketball community by digital storm because of their ability to allow players to promote themselves using highlights and stats to generate fan engagement. Think of it as the largest social media for athletes, where the game does the talking. Its like Instagram in that users can post photos and videos complete while graphics and emoji’s for self-promotion, while also acting like a LinkedIn resume, all rolled-into-one. Kids get it.

Because collegiate recruiting rules and regulations recently went from 7 down to 2 visits, there is a new reliance by coaches to use technology to connect with potential student-athletes...

FC Barcelona, Barca Innovation Hub and Allianz SE are partnered with Hexoskin wearable body metric system to conduct their first project designed for the health and wellness space, in particular, using a smart garment to study sleep. It is believed to be the first-of-its-kind in the world. The goal is to measure sleep quality and uncover ties to physical performance and sports performances. The Sports Techie community blog chatted and caught up with Pierre-Alexandre Fourier, Co-founder and CEO at Hexoskin, about conducting research on sleep and specifically young athletes with the goal of optimizing their overall health and gameplay using proprietary smart technology clothing...

When you hear Monkey Knife Fight (MKF), what comes to mind? There is a small probability since I am a sports technology curator for the Sports Techie community blog, you may have guessed daily fantasy sports (DFS) but I doubt it. I chatted with Monkey Knife Fight President, Nic Sulsky, about the sports tech startup and their goal of building the best new legal DFS gaming product. Having launched their gaming platform just six months ago for the NFL season, they followed up with the NBA, NHL and PGA, and now MLB. More than 10 million entries have played their football, basketball, hockey, and golf, game of skill contests...

Major League Lacrosse wants brand exposure and economic growth for the 2019 MLL season and beyond through the execution of strategic plans centered on expanding into calculated markets. The newest good news is the MLL reacquired their media rights back and voted in the ‘one team, one owner’ structure. The bad news is contraction of the league as part of a broader plan to restructure into Eastern and Western conferences also happened today. This resulted in devastating news for the dedicated lax communities that supported the Florida Launch, Ohio Machine and Charlotte Hounds, and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Six teams remain, the Atlanta Blaze, Boston Cannons, Chesapeake Bayhawks, Dallas Rattlers, Denver Outlaws, and New York Lizards...

I attended 2019 DeKalb County School District Special Olympics, Track and Field event at Hallford Stadium today because my 5-year son was a willing and happy participant along with his mates at Coralwood School, a real God-send of an inclusive, K-3 through kindergarten, public elementary school.  Kellan is on the autism spectrum therefore he and I ran in the assisted 50-yard dash together taking second place in our closely contested heat and fourth place in the baseball/softball throw! Three virtual cheers for Special Olympics.

2019 DeKalb County School District Special Olympics

To be honest, the event today was not one where you would say tons of money was being spent to operate it...

numberFire March Madness Promotion 2019

College basketball is peaking right now with Conference Championship week beginning today like the ACC Tournament up in New York. Which is then followed by the mighty March Madness tournament itself, nationwide. Sports tech is a large part of March Madness and nowhere is it more important than at numberFire, the next generation sports analytics platform.  As a numberFire affiliate, the Sports Techie community blog has March Madness fever at the perfect time to get back into the game...

Major League Lacrosse (MLL) continued their brand upgrade via a complete rebrand launched today. MLL conducted research and collected insightful feedback from constituents in order to study the data and formulate a business game-plan for now and the future of the professional outdoor lax league. The new Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is coming this year and this fact pushed the MLL to step up their branding efforts in 2019. Management is delivering this time through a new web site, new brand logo and a new draft logo, plus the addition of a new player imager. Original content will be designed with an aim towards targeting their growing GenZ following...