Wednesday, Aug. 7, 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.
- NBC Sports Washington will debut the NFL’s first live predictive gaming telecast this season during all four Redskins preseason games. Predict The Game will feature free-to-play contests in which fans can win $1,000 in prize money per quarter. The alternate broadcast will appear on NBC Sports Washington Plus, and fans can submit predictions via mobile or desktop device through NBCSW’s website. NBC Sports Washington also produced a betting-themed alternate broadcast for select Wizards games this past NBA season.
- MLB and the MLB Players Association will allow players to use mobile phones and social media on field during the upcoming Players Weekend. Players will now be able to post messages on field and from the dugouts up until the singing of the National Anthem, according to SportBusiness. The third annual Players Weekend is slated for Aug. 23-25 and will again feature players wearing nicknames on the back of their jerseys. MLB and its union established the event in 2017 in an effort to appeal to younger fans.
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- Nike has acquired Boston-based predictive analytics firm Celect to enhance the company’s ability to understand its consumers. According to a Nike press release, Celect helps retailers make local predictions of demand using a cloud-based analytics platform, optimizing their inventories to meet the demand. The acquisition is part of Nike’s Consumer Direct Offense strategy. “As demand for our product grows, we must be insight-driven, data-optimized and hyper-focused on consumer behavior. This is how we serve consumers more personally at scale,” said Eric Sprunk, COO at Nike, Inc.
- Global esports organization Gen.G and social networking and dating app Bumble are forming an all-women Fortnite team. Bumble’s key feature means that women make the first move in dating matches. Team Bumble is Gen.G’s first all-female team and will consist of professional Fortnite players and a select group of gaming influencers. The team will have a dedicated streaming room at the Gen.G training facility in Los Angeles. Since 2018, Bumble’s logo has also appeared on Los Angeles Clippers uniforms as part of Bumble’s three-year sponsorship deal with the NBA team.
- Secondary ticketing marketplace TickPick has received a $40 million investment from PWP Growth Equity. TickPick allows users to bid on tickets and adds no hidden fees on top of quoted ticket prices. The company will use PWP’s investment to accelerate new machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve customer service. TickPick expects to surpass $200 million of gross transaction value in 2019, which would represent a growth of more than 60% compared to last year, according to the company.
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