Tuesday, June 11, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology stories you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web
- Shop NBA Final Gear on Instagram: The NBA, Instagram, and New Era are teaming up to create a digital shopping experience tied to the NBA Finals. As soon as a champion is determined—the Toronto Raptors currently lead the Golden State Warriors three games to two—the NBA’s Instagram account will post a New Era hat and t-shirt bundle of the winning team, which will be exclusively available on Instagram for 24 hours following the end of the last game. Users can tap shopping tags to make a purchase directly from the NBA’s post. Instagram formed a similar activation with New Era during the 2019 NFL Draft.
- U.S. Open Radar Tracking Expands Across Entire Pebble Beach Course: Fox Sports will utilize Trackman radar technology to track all 18 holes during its broadcast of the upcoming U.S. Open Championship at Pebble Beach. New this year will be a mobile tower camera equipped with Toptracer technology that will be placed at the 14th hole. Unlike most tracer shots, where the camera must remain still, the mobile tower camera will allow FOX Sports to pan, tilt and zoom to see the ball as it comes towards the camera. “We are planning our most comprehensive and technologically advanced U.S. Open to date, matching the excitement level surrounding the championship being held at iconic Pebble Beach,” said Zac Fields, SVP Graphic Tech & Innovation, FOX Sports, in a press release.
- Olympic Sponsor and Esports Tech Provider Intel Talks With IOC: Intel has been in talks with the International Olympic Committee to discuss the possibility of adding esports to the Olympics. The IOC has previously held concerns about including esports due to the violent content included in some video games. “We don’t have a view on whether it should be [included] or not but we’re totally open and have been talking to the Olympics to let them understand what esports is and what potential there could be for it, but ultimately it is down to Olympic Committee on whether they decide to bring it on,” said Scott Gillingham, Intel UK’s gaming & esports lead, according to Sky News.
- “Amazon of Japan” Enters Sports Media Market: Japanese internet company Rakuten has launched a new live streaming and video-on-demand service called Rakuten Sports. The platform will stream matches in Japan’s top soccer league, the J. League, to fans in more than 140 countries, excluding Japan, with the goal being to meet J. League’s growing fanbase across countries in southeast Asia. Rakuten is the naming sponsor of the Golden Eagles in the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Pacific League and is the jersey patch sponsor for the Golden State Warriors. The commerce platform plans to eventually add basketball, table tennis and other sports to its streaming service in the future.
- Warriors Extend Ticketmaster Deal for Chase Center: The Golden State Warriors have extended its official ticketing partnership with Ticketmaster through a new multi-year deal. The deal also makes Ticketmaster a founding partner of Chase Center, the Warriors’ new venue set to open in September in San Francisco. Ticketmaster has plans to implement its latest mobile ticketing technology, SafeTix, at Chase Center after the 2019-20 NBA season. As part of the deal, Ticketmaster will also become a ticketing partner for the Golden Guardians, the Warriors’ League of Legends esports team, and Warriors Gaming of the NBA 2K League, as well as the Warriors’ G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.