Imagine if the sports venue you were in were transformed into a giant video game console, with your phone serving as a controller that enables you to unlock new levels of a mixed reality experience that runs alongside action on the video board and field.
Xperiel, founded by a set of brothers who previously worked as Google engineers, has been rapidly expanding its suite of augmented reality products for the sports industry since announcing a $7 million funding round that included backing from early Google investor Ram Shriram, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball in August 2016.
The company now counts the New York Jets, Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings among its growing suite of clients, helping them to create apps that take advantage of the existing technology in venues and the mobile devices fans already have to build apps that drive fan engagement and higher-than-usual conversions for brands from interactive ads.
Xperiel CEO Alex Hertel said his company is meshing augmented reality with the internet of things in an effort to blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds.
Some of the company’s recent work ranges from augmented reality T-shirt cannons, video boards that tempt fans at MetLife Stadium to catch digital merchandise through the camera feature on their phones, to predictive gaming experiences that lets users guess which plays are going to occur on the field in real-time from an app. That same kind of prediction technology also powers a wagering game that enables NBA fans to guess whether someone will score or bust on a half-court shot in between quarters.
For the predictive games, such as the I Called It, which Xperiel launched this season with the Jets, and Call The Shot, which it tested last season and rolled out with additional bells and whistles this season with the Kings, fans are enticed to scan barcodes of sponsored products, such as a Bud Light can or Tostitos bag, to get extra points to powerboost their game. Teams can enable these brand engagements to occur off-site as well, which can keep fans checking into the app to “power up” in the days between games.
“It’s kind of like Super Mario where you’re running around collecting coins,” Hertel said in an interview with SportTechie.
In exchange, fans rack up points and are rewarded with prizes in the physical world, such as merchandise or discounts at the stadium.
Hertel views these as glorified ads that he touts as having significantly higher conversion rates than the industry standard (23 percent for I Called It compared with conversion rates closer to 1 percent for Google, according to Xperiel data).
“At the end of the day this is an ad, but we’re putting the user first,” he said. “We’re no-strings-attached giving them a game to play while they’re watching a three-hour game, and only at step two are we bringing in the brand.”
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An additional selling point is that these apps are built using a new programming language the Hertels created called Rox, which is a visual programming code based on Xperiel’s proprietary augmented-reality ecosystem Real World Web (RWW) that people with no prior coding experience can pick up to build customized augmented reality apps.
The idea is that teams would be able to use RWW to build a wide range of experiences that leverage both the technology in the venue as well as the sensors, cameras, microphones and fingerprint scanners that are packed into fans’ smartphones.
“It’s a totally immersive digital ecosystem; not just in the arena but with all the touchpoints the brand has,” Hertel said. “It’s geared toward the next-generation consumer that always has a smartphone in their hand. We’re taking all the hardware around you and then gamifying it.”
This season at MetLife Stadium with the Jets marked the first time Xperiel powered three such apps for one team at the same time. The Kings at Golden 1 Center became the second team to use three simultaneously when their season began in October.
Hertel is hopeful those numbers will rise as more teams get comfortable with the RWW platform and start building their own in-house experiences.