Whether it’s a slapshot goal by rightwing Vladimir Tarasenko or a stick save by goalie Jake Allen, the next St. Louis Blues highlight reel will be created by a computer.
That’s because the Blues have inked a deal with Santa Monica-based Reely, the company announced Wednesday. Reely uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to recognize and label plays during a sports contest from teams’ in-house live video feeds, creating automatic highlight reels that can be distributed automatically to the stadium scoreboard, social media, and a team’s digital properties.
“We’ve been impressed with REELY’s vision for leveraging AI technology in order to better curate game highlights to use across our platforms,” Matt Gardner, the Blues’ senior director of digital strategy, said in a statement.
According to the Reely website, teams can insert their video feed into Reely’s proprietary system and then use the cloud-based system to search and distribute highlights to social channels and mobile apps, including Reely’s own, seemingly at the touch of a button.
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Reely isn’t the only company in the sports tech landscape that uses machine learning and intelligent systems to create highlights—IBM’s Watson did just that for Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2017. But whereas Watson takes crowd and player reactions into account along with visual information, Reely apparently can create clips simply from the video by recognizing a strong play or sequence of action.
“The support we’ve received from the sports tech ecosystem of St. Louis has been key to our success so this is a natural extension of that relationship,” Cullen Gallagher, Reely’s CEO, said in a statement. “The Blues are focused on enhancing the fan experience and they saw our company’s value at the earliest stages. We’re excited to innovate together because their input is hugely beneficial to our progress.”
It could also be hugely beneficial to Blues fans looking for clips of their favorite players.
Gardner added: “We look forward to continuing to work with the Reely team on developing a product that will enhance our efforts and deliver this highly-coveted technology all across professional and amateur sports.”