The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.
Name: Matt Bairos
Company: XOS Digital
Title: CEO
City: Boston, MA
Matt Bairos is the president and CEO of XOS Digital, Inc. He oversees the performance and cross-platform integration of XOS Digital’s digital media and coaching products and services. XOS works to provide cutting-edge video and content licensing services for professional, collegiate, and amateur sports.
In July of 2016 XOS was acquired by Catapult Sports, the athlete analytics company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
1. What utilization of technology in sports has recently blown you away?
I’m in the fortunate position of having been in this industry for nearly 20 years and being blown away by new applications of technology on a daily basis. When I started in a technical support role at XOS, we were installing racks full of bulky hardware so coaches could watch video where you could barely read the players jersey numbers. Today, our technology platform includes wearables, cloud distribution, virtual reality and is leveraged by hundreds of elite athletes and sports organizations around the world.
2. If you had to invest in one technology that would change the global sports industry, what would it be and why?
Wearable technology has a great possibility to impact every athlete in the world from Tom Brady down to a runner training for their first 5k. For all athletes, Availability is the Best Ability. We’ve seen countless stories where players with incredible talent never realize their potential because of injury and more importantly we’ve seen front offices make franchise-changing financial decisions based on those players. Having the information that wearable devices, like Catapult, provide allow organizations to not only make smarter decisions but also protect their investments.
3. If money were no object, what technology would you build or buy to help you do your job better?
How Sci-Fi can I get here? I’d build a time machine so that I could see what the next trend in sports tech will be? I’m not even asking for a lot. I’d like to just travel six months or a year ahead because of how quickly things change.
Second choice – Teleportation would be great for those flights to Australia and back to meet with the Catapult team.
4. How is the personalization of sports content evolving via new technologies?
The amount of content out there on social media and the various formats is virtually unlimited. You can basically watch whatever you want from any angle from anywhere in the world. The development of cloud video distribution has made a remarkable difference in our space. Now the film loving coach or the dedicated player can take their work home with them using ThunderCloud and sneak their study time in while at home with the family or in between classes.
5. If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most fans watch their favorite sports teams?
If you attend CES or NAB annually, you know the entire market is going in the direction of virtual and augmented reality. Two years ago, the ability to produce this content was a breakthrough but what we are seeing today is a tremendous improvement of what was first showcased. Seeing the huge investments being made in this space, I think there is unlimited potential to use the technology as both an in-venue and at home experience for fans to experience events.
6. Please share a bold prediction about a form of technology that you think will make the most impact anywhere in the sports world over the next 12 months. Why will it have such impact?
While the improvements in virtual reality will make a huge impact on the fan experience and player development, I believe wearables are going to make the greatest impact in the next year. For example, pitch counts and impact on performance are a regular topic of discussion in the front office, dugout, media and with fans. The impact of a week’s worth of practice on a receiver going into game day is an equally important topic of conversation that is being had a lot more frequently.
Wearable analytics provide elite performance coaches insight into athlete risk, readiness and return to play. As this data is now becoming available and understood by management and the coaching staff, they will now be in a position to better compare their athletes’ practice sessions, compare weeks, seasons and eliminate subjectivity. Coaching is an art, but now they can back up what they do with science.