PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech has announced that the 10 companies in the fourth class of its program for startups have secured 15 pilots, partnerships, and commercial deals.
Over the past six months, 28 entrepreneurs have engaged with SportsTech’s prestigious partner consortium, which includes: NBC Sports, NBC Sports Next, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, GOLF, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, Premier League, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, USA Swimming, USA Cycling, and the recently added partner the University of Notre Dame.
The announced deals for the program's fourth class builds on SportsTech’s legacy of connecting early-stage companies with some of the world’s top sports brands. Since the first class debuted in 2021, alumni have achieved 159 pilots, partnerships, and commercial deals with consortium partners.
The 2024 SportsTech program is formally coming to a conclusion at the RALLY Innovation Conference starting August 27 and running through August 28 in Indianapolis. The conference will feature several SportsTech leaders, including alumni and experts from Xfinity, NASCAR, Notre Dame, and NBC, and offer founders an opportunity to showcase their capabilities to a global audience.
“The 10 enterprise-ready companies selected for this year’s cohort, chosen out of a pool of 1,500 applicants, have gone above and beyond to exceed the expectations of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech and our partners,” said Jenna Kurath, vice president of startup partnerships and head of Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech. “Over the past six months, they have excelled at forming meaningful partnerships and striving to make a lasting impact in the world of sports – and beyond. I am proud of their continued achievements and impressed with their potential for growth and scale, based on the business value they are providing to our SportsTech consortium partners.”
Through exclusive strategic engagement with partners, including during opportunities at NASCAR’s Daytona International Speedway, Universal Studios Florida, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and SportsTech’s annual Combine conference in Charlotte, N.C., founders are able to go behind the scenes and identify how to align their technology solutions to partners' operational needs.
These experiences enhance SportsTech’s customized curriculum, which strategically aligns advisors with companies to refine their enterprise approaches, learn to adapt within evolving and emerging marketplaces, and achieve successful business outcomes.
Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech also released some highlights of the program and the participants:
- Aquimo, INC - Mesa, Ariz. Aquimo drives value to brands, sports teams, and media through massive multiplayer mobile skill sports games that integrate the motion of users’ phones and let millions play on any TV or live stream broadcast – with no download required. Aquimo piloted a custom-built mobile game for Comcast employees to enjoy during the Olympic Games. Accessible exclusively on X1 and played by nearly 60% of employees with eligible devices, the gamified living room experience challenged them to claim the spot atop the media podium – with an X1 leaderboard integration and branded prizes.
- Dizplai - Manchester, United Kingdom. Dizplai is a media experience company that enables real-time audience engagement for live news, sports, and entertainment, turning broadcasts into immersive two-way experiences by seamlessly integrating social media, messaging apps, user-generated content, and sports data with dynamic graphics. Dizplai has earned a commercial agreement extension with Sky Sports to continue turning live broadcasts into interactive experiences like the Viewer’s Verdict Scorecard for boxing, and to support future interactivity needs. Up next are active pilots with NASCAR’s YouTube Live in-car camera stream via contextual and promotional overlays and an NBC Local initiative for local news feedback.
- Fobi AI - Vancouver, Canada. The Fobi Mobile Wallet Pass platform helps organizations open new marketing channels and deliver exceptional customer experiences using the native mobile wallet functionality available on every smartphone. Through a partnership with Comcast Spectacor, Fobi is supporting the 2024 Flyers Community Caravan with mobile wallet credentialing, which runs July to September 2024. Fobi is leveraging its advanced wallet pass technology to optimize event management and enhance fan experiences.
- KYMIRA - Reading, United Kingdom. KYMIRA enhances performance and recovery through smart infrared-emitting garments that boost circulation, reduce soreness, and accelerate healing while also addressing chronic illness, mitigating injury risk, improving sleep, and providing unprecedented health insights. As a result of SportsTech, the Philadelphia Flyers’ players, coaches and staff can be spotted wearing Kymira's infrared-infused apparel that boost circulation, reduce soreness, and accelerate the healing process for athletes, which could be a true gamechanger for both players and sports staff.
- Mantis.AI - Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mantis.AI is an AI media-tech company transforming raw footage and noisy data into organized video assets and actionable intelligence. Based on early proof of concept success with Sky, Mantis.AI is proving their AI-driven content management, highlight creation, and distribution of sports content at scale, as part of an active long-term selection process. The NBCU Local news and sports production teams in the Bay Area are currently scoping a proof of concept to discover how their AI can deliver efficiency gains by offloading manual, repetitive tasks to free up time to concentrate on creative journalistic pursuits.
- Mobii Systems - Ontario, Canada. Mobii Systems’ Microblock Technology revolutionizes the way video streams are synchronized, encoded, and distributed in real-time globally, delivering new user experiences at the live edge. Ensuring minimal latency and seamless synchronization without compromising streaming quality is crucial for streaming services such as Peacock, where a proof of concept is currently underway. Up next for Mobii are multiple proofs of concept with the NBC Regional Sports Network team to prove out low latency in remote production environments, as well as other pilots with SportsTech’s partners.
- Plantiga - Vancouver, Canada. Plantiga helps teams and athletes reduce time lost to injury with in-shoe sensors and AI, enabling asymmetry and load monitoring on-court, on-field, on-ice - anywhere. Working with the Premier League performance team, Plantiga is meeting with its football clubs and FIFA, which governs all facets of the game. Up next, a Sports Performance pilot with Notre Dame, and NASCAR teams are piloting Plantiga’s in-sole technology; all to bring lab-grade athlete measurement data to the field/court/ice of play.
- StellarAlgo - Calgary, Canada. StellarAlgo applies deep data insights and machine learning to turn sports fans into avid customers, enabling true precision marketing by identifying the right opportunities for the right fans at the right time. StellarAlgo is supporting the Premier League, its clubs, and its broadcast partners in two pilots to help them develop the most actionable fan insights to drive engagement, tune-in, and revenues.
- ZATAP - Winterthur, Switzerland. ZATAP is a platform for creating direct-to-customer connections for brands through “phygital” products: tapping the product with a smartphone allows the customer to unlock engaging digital experiences while enabling brands to build sophisticated customer profiles. ZATAP and NBC Sports GOLF are scoping a pilot tied to its SmartPlay technology within GolfNow and GolfPass. For the 10K+ golf course properties that use the NBC GOLF’s platforms, a myriad of exclusive digital offers can be linked to physical golf gear to create a virtual clubhouse experience. ZATAP is also deeply integrated into the music and artist industry as they tie digital experiences to record sales, tour merchandise, and concert goers.
- Zoomph - Reston, Va. Zoomph provides partnership insights and analytics that help sports and entertainment brands, media, leagues, teams, and athletes analyze social and broadcast content and track trends and competition in real-time. Zoomph is working on extending its commercial agreements with Xfinity with the goal of an expanded and unified measurement platform to rigorously track the return on investment on Xfinity brand sponsorship investments.
