Archive for News Roundup

My skin is finally starting to recover from the wicked sunburn I got at the PGA Championship last weekend, but my brain is still thinking about what’s going on in the sports-tech world. Here are some stories we here at TechGraphs found interesting this week.

It looks like in-market baseball streaming is coming. Well, sort of. As of now, it only applies to subscribers of Fox Sports regional sports networks. Basically, if you subscribe to Fox Sports [Something] via cable or satellite, you’ll be able to stream a baseball game on your phone if you aren’t near a TV. So, no, an MLB.tv subscription won’t save you from the grips of local blackouts. It is a step in the right direction, but we’re still a ways away from watching your local team on your At Bat app.

FiveThirtyEight did some really interesting work with Pitchf/x data looking at the accuracy of umpires’ balls and strikes calls over time.

Ned Yost won’t be able to look up Pitchf/x data on his Apple Watch, because he still isn’t allowed to have a smartphone in the dugout. But MLB says it’s OK if he wants to wear his expensive timepiece in the dugout.

FanDuel, a daily fantasy sports company, has purchased numberFire, a fantasy sports recommendation site. Mark my words, FanDuel and DraftKings will merge and buy Disney and Google some day.

Engadget has a story about a really cool project involving detecting head trauma in football using special polymers in the helmet. While a motionless player is never a good sign, many players could suffer possible brain damage without having as drastic outward symptoms. Learning the level of force applied to the head just by looking at the helmet could be huge.

World Rugby is also looking to better assess head injuries, as well as enhancing their official review system with a new partnership with Hawk-Eye.

According to the Telegraph, Rugby is also getting in on that sweet, sweet analytics game.

The role of 3D printing has boomed in the world of prosthetics lately, and now it’s helping youngsters throw out first pitches at baseball games. Pretty cool.

Do you want a shirt that tracks your vitals while you work out?! Do you want to pay $300 for it?! If so, then Ralph Lauren has your back, friend.

That’s all for this week. If you need me, I’ll be bathing in aloe. Have a good weekend. Be excellent to each other.

And heat and humidity wave has swept the American Middle West this week, and my primary laptop is not particularly happy about it. Nevertheless, let’s beat the heat by catching up on some of the sports-tech stories we here at TechGraphs found interesting this week.

I talked about MLB Advanced Media’s plans after their deal with the NHL, and it appears as if the other shoe has dropped as MLBAM has officially been spun off as its own entity — BAM Tech.

Colt’s quarterback Andrew Luck integrated (auto-play warning) virtual reality into his offseason training. It seems as if Stanford ties can help in all sorts of ways.

Speaking of nerdiness and football, the Denver Broncos are bringing their head of analytics up in the coach’s booth this year, where he will help the staff with on-the-fly analysis. If it brings down the amount of punting in the NFL, I’m all for it.

And when a team decides to go for it, there’s a good chance you’ll hear about it on Twitter this season. The NFL has teamed up with the social media giant to bring more news and highlights into people’s Twitter feeds. Yay?

I’ll be attending the final round of the PGA Championship on Sunday, but don’t expect me to post any pictures of it. I mean, I probably wouldn’t anyway, but it appears as if the PGA is cracking down on un-credentialed photogs at their tournaments.

In esports news, the League of Legends Championship Tournament is featuring a woman for the first time. The worlds of sports and technology haven’t always been the most diverse, so it’s nice to see some, albeit gradual, change.

While we’re talking about gaming tournaments, it sounds like Blizzard might be making a push into that world.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend. Be excellent to each other.

It’s a busy time for sports these days. The baseball pennant chase is heating up, NFL training camps are starting, the EPL is about to start another season, and the final PGA major of the season begins in just a few days. We can understand if you missed news, so here are all the sports-tech stories we found interesting this week.

Daily fantasy sites are making money hand over fist, but not everything is sunshine and rainbows for them. DraftKings is facing some class-action lawsuits, and the Boston Globe has some details.

SAP teamed up with women’s professional tennis a while back to provide in-game stats and insight to coaches and players. It seem that, now, coaches will be able to use these numbers — via an iPad — on the court.

Our very own (and very brave) Bradley Woodrum experimented with the meal replacement program from Soylent to mixed reviews. Well, Soylent is back with a new formula and a new ready-to-drink delivery method.

Microsoft partnered up with the NFL last year to provide Surface Pro 2 tablets to teams to use on the sidelines. It went … not as well as expected. But, the Surfaces are back for another NFL season, this time in their fancy Pro 3 form.

While on the topic of Microsoft, they also debuted a fancy new app for both Windows 10 and the Xbox One. At the heart of the new tech is something called Next Gen Stats, a hyper-granular replay system utilizing RFID chips embedded within players’ shoulder pads.

EPL teams are getting their own emoji on Twitter this season. So … that’s a thing.

Finally, Disney’s Bob Iger had an interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he opined that ESPN will be a direct-to-customer product at some point down the road. We, of course, have figured this for some time, but it’s nice to hear that from a muckety-muck. No news on when that will happen yet, of course.

That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend, and be excellent to each other.

The MLB trade deadline has delayed us a bit, but we’re back to talk about all the sports-tech news we found interesting this week.

Engadget has a nice writeup regarding the money involved in esports these days. Want a hint? It’s a lot.

PGA Tour Live debuted this week. The new streaming service will allow golf fans to stream Thursday and Friday rounds of PGA events that usually aren’t aired on TV. It works on most devices out of the box. It’s a young technology, but it will be interesting to see where it goes.

It sounds like some prominent DOTA 2 players got their Steam accounts hacked. It doesn’t appear to be a wide-spread attack, but you might want to change your password anyway.

DraftKings — you guessed it — raised MORE money, and is looking to spend a bunch of it with FOX Sports. The NFL season is just around the corner, so expect to see a nauseating amount of ads running during games this year.

We talked a little about the use of robot umpires this week, and Wired has some more details.

Remember those new Converse Chuck Taylors that Nike is releasing? Well, it turns out they may be pretty great.

Nike is also working on some soft of hood that athletes can wear to keep themselves cool. It looks weird as Hell, but athletes might not care if it helps prevent overheating.

It appears that nothing is sacred these days. Technology is even sliding into the world of fishing. And it’s not just for the pros either. Amateurs can get in on the game.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend. Be excellent to each other.

It’s been a busy week for sports-tech news, so let’s jump right into it. Here are the stories we found interesting this week.

If you don’t plan on subscribing to NBA League Pass next year, but worry that you really might want to see a random out-of-market game, the NBA has you covered now. You will be able to purchase single games, a la carte, from League Pass starting next season. This is good news! The not-so-good news is that single games will run you $7 a pop. Still, it’s nice to know the feature is available, and it might come in handy for the diehard fans who take a random trip but still want to catch their team’s games.

In a similar, but more stripped-down note, the NFL announced a new video service called Game Pass. Don’t get too excited — you won’t be able to stream regular-season games live with it. You do get to live-stream preseason games, and have access to full replays of past games, for what it’s worth. But that’s kind of it. Replays will be available right after the game ends, and fans can tap any prior game for any team all the way back to 2009. It’s like NFL Rewind, basically, but it will be available on pretty much all your devices.

The EA Sports Hockey League was one of the big missing features from NHL 15, but NHL is bringing it back for 16, and fans can sign up for the public beta to help test it out. Check the last link for all the details, but the skinny is that EASHL is getting a pretty big revamp. In a possible face-saving push, EA is issuing the beta as part of a campaign to involve more user feedback. It’ll be available July 30th if you have NHL 15 for either Xbox One or PS4.

You know how EA’s NCAA Football didn’t use player names, but pretty much copied everything else they could from the player to use in their game without paying the athletes? Well, they got sued for it, and EA shut down production of the game in 2013. Fast-forward to now, and the players won their $60 million settlement. If they file for compensation, they’ll receive some cash. Good job, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken.

Speaking of, NCAA teams might be making a comeback to 2K basketball games soon, though the scope isn’t quite known yet.

Something I didn’t know: Nike has been making the classic Converse Chuck Taylor shoe since 2003. Nike acquired Converse after the former went bankrupt. Hmm, the more you know. Anyway, the Chuck is getting a revamp, but only on the inside. Nike is using some of their shoe tech to make the Chucks more comfortable. Same classic look, more comfortable shoe. Cream on the inside, clean on the outside, if you will.

We talk about GoPros a bit on this site. We also talk about live-streaming apps like Meerkat a lot. So when it’s announced that people can now stream on Meerkat using their GoPros, it seems relevant to our interests.

We recently mentioned how drugs like Adderall were being used as PEDs in eSports. Well, some major eSports leagues are instituting drug testing now. I’m not quite sure how it will work for players with real-world needs for the drugs, but it’s a step in the right direction for those who care about that kind of thing.

Speaking of gaming, popular game-streaming site Twitch is ditching Flash for HTML5. This is good news for anyone who likes stable performance, secure computing, or living in the year 2013.

If you buy Madden NFL 16 for the Xbox One, you’ll get a year of EA Access, which is sort of like Netflix for EA games.

Because it seems there’s always Daily Fantasy Sports news, FanDuel has purchased the company that made their apps, and DraftKings will pay $250 million over the next two years to advertise on ESPN.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy your summer weekend, and be excellent to each other.

A “day without sports” does not a week without sports-technology news make, so here are the sports-tech stories we found interesting this week.

Scientists in Switzerland announced the inaugural Cybathon, an international competition for bionic athletes. Unlike the Paralympics, the overriding emphasis of Cybathon is less on athletic achievement and more on encouraging the development of new robotic technologies that will aid those with physical limitations in their daily lives. The first Cybathon will take place in Zurich in the fall of 2016.

Audience streams for gaming tournaments have by and large been only in the first-person view. But a new company called Super League Gaming is hoping to bring a bigger, world view to their tournaments. They are partnering with major movie theater chains to display a broader view of the game’s environment on the big screen.

In case you had any doubts about the health of the daily fantasy industry, popular DFS site FanDuel just raised another $275 million, and is now valuated at a cool billion.

NHL 15, while still really fun to play, was a bit of a letdown in many areas. EA is making a push to improve the experience with their next offering, and offered a video showing some of the improvements coming to the game. It’s slated to drop on September 15.

We cover plenty in the way of wearable athletic technology in this space, but when it comes to golf, you probably already have an effective one in your pocket. Well-known golf instructor and former Tiger Woods coach Hank Haney has an active Twitter account, and all you need to do to receive expert analysis of your game is tweet Haney a video of that Tasmanian-Devil mess you call a golf swing and wait for him to respond with some advice, which he dishes out in his spare time.

Football season looms ever closer, and with it the danger of traumatic brain injuries. Doctors at the University of Miami, together with software company Neuro Kinetics and involvement from the U.S. Department of Defense, have developed concussion-detecting goggles, which they are testing on Hurricane athletes this summer. One of the practical advantages of the goggles is that they are portable: the apparatus fits in a backpack, meaning it’s easy to bring them to away games too. The university was one of the winners of the NFL’s second Head Health Challenge, an incentive program to support the development of brain-protection technology, and the $500,000 award has provided the bulk of funding to date for the development of the goggles.

Hawk-Eye for the masses? While nobody’s proposing a populist archery revival (to our knowledge), a French company is developing Mojjo, a camera-based tennis analysis system designed to be used by amateur players. While a relatively inexpensive, single-camera system like Mojjo won’t compete with the most advanced, multi-camera systems the pros use, it still appears capable of providing amateur players with plenty of insightful feedback.

And finally, to put this one on ice, rumor has it that some NHL teams have begun to use the player-tracking system the league debuted at the All-Star Game earlier this year. Unlike the NBA’s SportsVU system, which requires the installation of an array of cameras in each arena, the NHL’s Sportsvision program works by tracking specialized equipment each player wears under his uniform, which also can transmit biometric data like heart rate.

Like your work week, this News Roundup is ending. Have a good weekend, and be excellent to each other.

Let’s kick the tires and light the fires, it’s the TechGraphs News Roundup. Here are the sports-tech stories we found interesting this week.

In case you somehow missed it, the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks both made serious plays for free-agent center DeAndre Jordan. It got weird. And emoji we involved, for some reason.

We take saving video game progress for granted, but back in the NES days, it was actually pretty special. FTW tells you the details of how you could save your Tecmo Super Bowl domination.

Speaking of video games, OOTP Baseball 16 is on sale! We’re big fans of the game here at TechGraphs. If haven’t gotten your own copy yet, here’s your chance.

Yahoo! is now offering daily fantasy. We previewed it a little on this very site, but expect a more in-depth review soon.

Unofficial friend of the FanGraphs family and overall stats warlock Daren Willman was profiled over at Rolling Stone. Check it out. He’s very modest about creating a sabermetric juggernaut.

Fitness trackers are nice, but don’t forget that’s tracking more than you might realize. Pro tip – leave it at home if you plan on committing a crime.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend, and be excellent to each other.

The FanGraphs family took July 3rd off, so the News Roundup is appearing on your screens a little later than usual today. Here are some of the most interesting sports-tech tidbits we found this week.

Valve’s biggest DOTA 2 tournament, known as The International, announced that it will be offering $15 million in prize pool money. A challenging and leveling system being employed means that the total could actually go higher. This is where I would insert some overdone joke about nerds needing to do their hand stretches, but I feel like $15 million is an amount of money that prohibits me from making these comments anymore. Get that money, dorks.

Speaking of gamers, they will now be able to share their favorite frags and long-range, no-scope headshots to mobile YouTube users in their beloved 60fps format. This feature has been available on the desktop for a bit of time, but now anyone with a modern iOS or Android device can enjoy the carnage (or Minecraft videos) in their preferred frame rate.

Kansas City’s Kaufmann Stadium got a major WiFi network upgrade during the end of last season, and just in time to see the baseball club take the World Series to seven games. That postseason traffic proved to be a great test, it seems, and the Royals are seeing the benefits this season. Promotion of the new network is going strong, and new features like a parking payment system have been added.

Dish’s new Sling TV platform showed signs of promise when we saw it at CES, and the potential to be a real disruptor is still there. However, if more major outages keep happening, Dish will start having customer retention issues before their platform is even fully off the ground.

This technically counts as sports-tech news because tennis is a sport and slow-motion video utilizes technology, but I mostly just want to make sure all of you see what really happens to a tennis ball when a racket hits it.

The San Antonio Spurs’ Matt Bonner thinks he gave himself tennis elbow by upgrading to the iPhone 6 Plus. Seriously.

GoPro has announced their newest offering, the Hero 4 Session, and it looks pretty rad. It’s basically a waterproof cube camera that packs many of the features a modern GoPro has, but in a much smaller and lighter package. Gizmodo had a chance to play with an early-release version, and the reviews and results seem quite positive.

That’s it for this (last week). We’ll have another news roundup on Friday to get back on the regular schedule. Until then, be excellent to each other.

Here comes the News Roundup, back with a fresh batch of sports-tech stories we found interesting this week.

The Women’s World Cup is well-underway across Canada, where the quarterfinals begin today. While Americans generally haven’t been on fire for their successful team to this point, in contrast to their comparatively middling men’s squad, the playing surface sure feels like it has. The widely panned artificial turf distributes rubber pellets to the players faster than the referees can issue yellow cards, and there is some limited evidence suggesting that these pellets, which might remain embedded in the players’ clothing and bodies for longer than some teams’ tournament runs, present health risks to the players. When still a part of the turf, the pellets’ capacity for heat-absorption can render the playing surface extremely hot. (Female footballers’ male counterparts, meanwhile, play on natural grass.)

Lexus claims to be making substantial progress toward a “real, rideable” hoverboard. Prototype testing remains ongoing, which is okay for now; the automobile manufacturer still has a few months to prepare the world for Marty McFly’s arrival.

With the Sprint Cup series in Sonoma, California this week, Microsoft announced a multi-level partnership with NASCAR. One of the most immediately visible aspects of this partnership will be Microsoft’s primary sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s ride at this Sunday’s race. The timing is coordinated with the release of Windows 10, which will become the official operating system of both NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports, the race team for which Earnhardt drives. Last year, Microsoft developed a mobile inspection app for NASCAR officials, the use of which led to significant decreases in time spent inspecting vehicles prior to races.

Before NBA arenas were outfitted with arrays of motion-tracking cameras and smart analysts spoke in terms of player efficiency ratings and usage rates, there was Harvey Pollack. Pollack, who died this week at the age of ninety-three, began working in the NBA in 1946, the league’s inaugural year. As the director of statistical information for the Philadelphia 76ers, he played a leading role in developing the sport’s statistical foundation on a granular level, eventually providing the basis for today’s tech-driven approach to player evaluation. Along the way, he reportedly coined the term “triple-double,” and he employed a rudimentary piece of technology to help create one of the sport’s most memorable images.

Daily fantasy sports site DraftKings had an up-and-down week. While the site scored a victory in striking an exclusive agreement with ESPN to become the official daily fantasy sports provider for all of the Worldwide Leader’s platforms, it missed out on a potential $250 million investment from Disney, the sports network’s parent company. Daily fantasy rival FanDuel, meanwhile, has been busy snapping up exclusive partnerships with NBA franchises.

The week is almost done, and so is this News Roundup. Enjoy the weekend, and, in the readily typeable words of our Managing Editor, David G. Temple, be excellent to each other.

The News Roundup is back to try to fill you up and never let you down with the sports-tech stories we found interesting this week.

As we near the end of bracket play in the College World Series, two of the biggest winners of the first week in Omaha have been the Vanderbilt Commodores and UmpCam. This video from the SEC Network reviews the history of umpire-mounted cameras, discusses the process of incorporating the new technology into the umpires’ equipment and the television broadcast, and gauges fan and player reactions. If nothing else, it’s nice to see the continuing influence of the XFL across the sporting landscape.

The U.S. Open golf tournament, which began yesterday in Tacoma, Washington, also is seeking to enhance the fan experience, and we aren’t even talking about the legal marijuana. Fox Sports has installed microphones inside each of the tournament’s eighteen holes with the goal of capturing “the atmosphere around the green.” Golf Hole Mic’s manufacturer estimates a useful pickup range of approximately 100 feet, which should be sufficient to allow us to hear what Jordan Spieth is telling his ball while putting.

Epson, “a brand best known for its ink cartridges computer printers,” is entering the retail sports technology market with a line of sports watches and an endorsement from distance runner Meb Keflezighi. Geared toward runners and golfers, the watches dispense with the need for often-cumbersome chest straps by using an optical light sensor to monitor heart rate, and they sync biometric data with Epson’s own app and popular third-party apps. Meanwhile, Microsoft and TaylorMade have collaborated on a golf app for the Microsoft Band, a wrist-borne device that promises to be slightly more helpful than a magnetic ion bracelet and a real threat to caddies everywhere.

From technology created for athletes to athletes using technology to create things, TechCrunch reports that Derek Jeter’s athlete-voiced website, The Players’ Tribune, recently received $9.5 million from a group of outside investors led by NEA, one of the earliest investors in BuzzFeed. Regardless of who’s actually creating the content at The Players’ Tribune, the site’s demonstrated ability to draw large-scale investments means it’s unlikely to fade away anytime soon.

Finally, while Major League Baseball is a proving ground for some of the most advanced sports technology available (and the management responsibility that comes along with access to that technology), it is nice to be reminded from time to time that the entire endeavor fundamentally relies upon a simple network of land line telephones.

That’s all of our time for this week. Enjoy the weekend, and, in the readily endorsable words of our Managing Editor, David G. Temple, be excellent to each other.