Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology news you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy is launching a mobile training app that lets athletes track cognitive processing and response speed. Mamba RISE was built by MSA’s tech incubator arm, the Mamba Sports Venture Lab. RISE is targeted at baseball, football, softball and volleyball athletes of all levels. According to a press release, the app is based on thousands of hours of research conducted with hundreds of youth and pro athletes at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, Calif. New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso is an ambassador for the app, which offers monthly and yearly memberships and can be downloaded from the App Store.
- Twitch has signed a deal to become a founding partner of Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders’ new Las Vegas home. The stadium will include a Twitch-branded lounge featuring streaming stations and viewing screens. The lounge will also host esports competitions and other Twitch-sponsored events. The Amazon-owned company will also become the Raiders’ official streaming platform. “As part of our long-term vision for multiplayer entertainment, we are excited to elevate the spectator experience at live events in the heart of the Entertainment Capital of the world,” said Sara Clemens, Twitch COO, in a press release.
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- New York-based regional sports channel SNY now features two sports betting shows thanks to a partnership with DraftKings. SNY’s Sunday programming now includes The Sweat, a sports betting analysis show produced by DraftKings, and an SNY original program called Place Your Bets. Both shows premiered last weekend, and will air every Sunday from 11-12 p.m. ET. SNY covers all New York sports teams and features broadcasts of New York Mets games. It is majority owned by the Mets with NBC Sports Group holding a minority stake. “The legalization of sports betting transformed our business model not only as a sportsbook operator, but also as a digital media hub,” said Ezra Kucharz, DraftKings chief business officer, according to Gaming Today.
- Austin FC has broken ground on the team’s new soccer stadium, due to open in spring 2021. The venue will feature a public park, a storm-management system to reduce its impact on creeks, lakes and aquifers, and drought tolerant lawns and turf. The venue will be owned by the city of Austin. Fans can watch the stadium’s construction via a video link. “We have set out not only to build one of the most tech-forward, modern and eco-friendly sporting, entertainment and community venues in North America, but also to make it a welcoming and proud gathering place for all Austinites,” said Anthony Precourt, CEO of Two Oak Ventures and Austin FC.
- Sunday night’s Patriots home-opener against the Steelers set a new record for Wi-Fi usage at a sporting event. According to analytics firm Extreme Networks, Gillette Stadium had a peak data transfer rate of 23.24 gigabits per second when the Patriots unveiled their Super Bowl LIII banner before the game, surpassing the previous sports high of 13.38 Gbps. Facebook was the most used app to share media of the banner reveal, with iCloud, iTunes, Snapchat and Instagram also ranking among the most popular applications used during the game.
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