Sports Tank Innovation Studio has announced the group of five companies to showcase at its fifth annual Sports Tank Demo Day in Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 15 during the NBA All-Star weekend. The program is being organized by TPG Sports Group and presented by sports monetization platform FanAI.
Three awards will be handed out at the invite-only event, including the “Innovation Award” from Under Armour and the “Audience Choice Award.” A group of pro-athletes will be also on-site to select a winner for the “Athletes Choice Award.” The demo day will be attended by executives, athletes, brands, and investors across the sports industry. Sports Tank’s advisory panel of Kevin Pritchard (President, Indiana Pacers), Lorin Hamlin (Innovation Partnerships, Under Armour), and Marques Colston (CEO, Dynasty Innovation) will be on hand to offer feedback after each presentation.
Sports Tank works on a similar format to the popular Shark Tank television show, but is specifically centered on the sports technology world. Each of the five startups will receive hands-on advising, business development consultation, and marketing strategy mentorship throughout 2019. In November, the companies will be invited back to Charlotte to participate in Sport Tank’s bootcamp style training event created to facilitate growth for sports technology startups. This year’s finalists focus on a diverse range of themes within sports technology such as artificial intelligence, analytics, esports, and sports betting.
SportTechie is serving as SportsTank’s media partner for the event and SportTechie CEO Taylor Bloom will interview a leading athlete in the sports tech space prior to the five companies’ presentations.
GYO Score
Harena Data‘s GYO Score is an esports player development platform that combines data analytics with recruiting. It aims to help both universities and pro teams discover emerging esports talent. The platform applies machine learning and artificial intelligence to the data it collects and hopes to trigger the creation of esports farm systems around the world.
Physmodo
Physmodo can analyze physical mobility, muscle activation, posture, and movement symmetry. It uses an infrared camera combined with its proprietary joint detection software to quickly provide users with scores on their movement, highlighting movement inefficiencies and recommending exercises to correct those.
Prophet
Prophet is a secondary sports betting marketplace where users can buy and sell percentages of the bets themselves. Betting odds can rapidly fluctuate in value until a bet has been decided, but users currently have no optimal way to cash out early on those bets. Prophet aims to provide bettors with that option.
edisn.ai
edisn.ai plans to transform the way that fans consume sports using real-time player recognition and the ability to overlay information on images and video. Using artificial intelligence, edisn.ai hopes to increase fan engagement and to help broadcasters and team produce personalized and interactive content.
Armchair QB
Armchair Quarterback creates second-screen games for fans to play alongside live sports events. The company sits at the intersection between the fantasy and sports betting markets. Its title product, Armchair Quarterback, allows users to try to predict the next play during live games.