Sports Loft Podcast

Charlie is joined by Kelvin Cui - CEO of Peripheral and former Tesla robotics engineer - to explore how the learnings from self-driving cars and the concept of spatial intelligence are being used to shape the future of live sports broadcasts.The Peripheral system produces two outputs: photorealistic volumetric video that lets fans, broadcasters and analysts fly a virtual camera around a game, viewing replays from any angle; and player pose tracking down to the finger joints used for semi-automated officiating and injury prevention.Since presenting at this year’s Sports Loft Summit (only three months ago), Peripheral has demoed the tech with the NBA Launchpad programme at NBA Summer League, and just closed an $8.7M seed round co-led by Inovia Capital and Deloitte Ventures, with existing backers Khosla Ventures and Entrepreneur First doubling down.In this episode, Charlie and Kelvin discuss:· Why basketball has been such a successful proving ground, and what it takes to scale the tech up to stadium-sized pitches like football and rugby· Why Peripheral is able to use fewer cameras than other solutions· How volumetric replays can be integrated into team apps, and directly empower fans and creators to tell their own stories from the game· The commercial opportunities for rightsholders when using volumetric video· What the recent $8.7M seed round unlocks over the next 12 months, from permanent installs to expanding into new sports

In this episode, Charlie is joined by Ben Warner, co-founder of Electric Twin, to discuss how sports organisations can use synthetic audiences to get a much better understanding of their fanbase.Enabled by advances in AI and behavioural science, synthetic audiences allow organisations to model how people think and behave, enabling them to test ideas before investing time and money. We believe this has the potential to dramatically change how sports organisations can understand their fanbase, and to do so at a scale and level of detail that would not be possible with traditional research. With funding from the likes of Atomico, Local Global and Mercuri, Electric Twin is working with organisations such as The Times and Virgin.In this episode:How Electric Twin have tested their models to make sure the data is at least as accurate as traditional researchWhy Ben views sports as such a fertile territory for synthetic audiencesHow your commercial partners can test creative and activation ideas against your synthetic audienceHow you can use existing data to establish your own synthetic audiences quickly and easilyWhy framing the question wrong isn't an expensive or timely mistake - you can just ask again immediatelyHow you can test contentious issues - such as ticket price rise - in private, and avoid public backlashWhat their recent $10m Series A means for their entrance into the USA and the sports industry

Charlie is joined by Scott (DJ Skee) Keeney, CEO and Co-Founder of The Realest, to talk about the untapped revenue stream sitting inside every sports organisation - Memorabilia.Using its on-site authentication technology, The Realest has transformed sports memorabilia from a market previously plagued by fraud into a structured, high-value marketplace. Their platform handles every step of the process: from authentication to fulfilment, photography, and sales. Beyond primary sales revenue, The Realest gives teams and leagues a new way to engage fans and access to a secondary market that generates perpetual royalties on every resale. Since presenting at last year's Sports Loft Summit, The Realest has closed a $12 million Series A backed by OneTeam Partners, PGA of America, and Elysian Park, and has worked with clients including FIFA, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Ryder Cup.In this episode, Charlie and Skee discuss:•⁠ ⁠How witness-based authentication and tamper-proof markings are eliminating fraud for fans and teams•⁠ ⁠How memorabilia can generate multiple revenue streams from a single item with minimal operational lift on the club's side•⁠ ⁠What the $12M raise means for The Realest's international expansion plans into Europe and Asia•⁠ ⁠Why physical, authenticated items are becoming more valuable in an AI-dominated world

“Every company now has a TikTok strategy… yet more people now use mobile wallets than TikTok, so why don’t you have a wallet strategy?”Eric Senn, CEO and co-founder of Badge, joins Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast to discuss why the mobile wallet is quickly becoming the most powerful interface for fan engagement. With mobile wallet usage now outpacing platforms like TikTok, Badge has built the infrastructure to enable sports organisations to meet fans where they already live. Eric explains how sports organisations can move beyond using wallets for simple digital ticketing and create a branded experience that is pre-installed on every fan’s device. Coming off the back of their recent $13.8m Series A funding, we hear about the rapid growth Badge has seen since we heard from Eric at last year’s Sports Loft Summit.Some of the topics we discuss include:How the pre-installed mobile wallet provides a 'lighter weight' entry point for fans compared to the high-friction journey of downloading a traditional team appHow Badge enables sports organisations to trigger notifications and relevant sponsor offers precisely when a fan reaches the stadium gate through geofencing.Why developing across Apple, Google, and Samsung wallets is a massive engineering task and how Badge simplifies this into a single API. Integrating wallet passes with stadium POS systems to track real-time ROI and fan spending habits.

Will Pithers, Strategic Partner Manager for sports at Meta, joins Andy and Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast. Having previously work at City Football Group , Will helps teams, leagues, federations, athletes and creators optimise their content strategy across Meta’s platforms. With user behaviour shifting from public feeds toward private messaging, and short-form video dominating content strategy, we wanted to get an insider’s view on how sports organisations such as Formula 1, Premier League clubs and Mercedes F1 are navigating Meta’s eco-system to engage fans globally. Some of the topics we discuss include: Why short-form video (ie Reels) is the key to success across both Facebook and Instagram How F1 teams and drivers have built a thriving community on threads Why the majority of a social media user’s time will soon not be spent in feeds, but rather in private and group messaging conversations. How Meta is looking to make their platforms more attractive for content creators? Why providing utility and not posting too much has been so important for success with WhatsApp channels How sports organisations are looking to monetise their activity across Meta’s platforms Why teams should be investing in tools that can help them manage their content archives The potential opportunities for sports organisations in AR with Meta’s Orion glasses

In the latest Sports Loft podcast, Andy and Charlie are joined by Victorien Tixier, CEO of Scoreplay. Fresh off the announcement of their $13m Series A funding round, ScorePlay have been seeing huge success onboarding new clients. So we wanted to discuss how they see the content market evolving, their future product strategy and to get some very specific examples of how sports organiastions are using ScorePlay to its full potential.   Some of the topics we discuss include:   Why has the fragmentation of content workflows has become such a big pain point for sports organsiations? How has ScorePlay leveraged best-in-class AI technologies for facial recognition, logo detection, speech to text conversion and even dubbing, rather than trying to build it themselves? How are rightsholders using the platform with their commercial partners? How has the content market evolved since the launch of ScorePlay and how will it continue to change? Why they have stayed very focused on the sports vertical? How have their athlete investors played such an important role in driving adoption in the locker room? Why does Victorien see the future for ScorePlay as the “media infrastructure for sports”? – and why is developing their API so important in order to achieve this?

Jonny Keogh, UK&I Sports Lead at YouTube joins Andy and Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast. Having previously worked at Sky, Jonny now helps major rightsholders and sports creators make the most of YouTube. So we wanted to dig into what’s coming from YouTube, who is being really innovative in their use of the platform and get some specific examples of how teams are using it to drive revenue. Some of the topics we discuss include: Has YouTube become THE destination for highlights? How are rightsholder’s monetising their content, but also how are they incorporating YouTube into their sponsorship conversations? How are YouTube Channel Memberships being used by some clubs as an extension of their OTT platforms? And in some cases could it be a more cost-effective alternative? Should creators be viewed differently now that much of the output is almost broadcast quality in terms of the production and storytelling? And which teams and broadcasters are working with them well? With athletes such Jude Bellingham becoming creators – how are they developing different content formats and commercialising their own YouTube channels? What benefits are rightsholders and broadcasters seeing from having live games on the platform? Where is AI being used in the YouTube platform to create new content and commercial opportunities?

Finn Bradshaw, Head of Digital at the ICC, joins Andy and Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast. Having worked previously with Cricket Australia and in tennis at the Australian Open, Finn now drives the digital agenda at the ICC and has events such as the Cricket World Cup to look after. So we were keen to dig into how the ICC is looking to innovate and adopt new technologies.   In our latest episode with Finn Bradshaw:   Innovating at the Cricket World Cup Why the challenge for cricket in America is not building an audience, but having the right product? How did the ICC work with influencers such as Jomboy during the World Cup and what did they learn? Why did the ICC partner with existing games on Roblox rather than building their own? How did experiences on the Apple Vision Pro help with partnership discussions? What were Finn’s biggest learnings from getting 4million viewers on the ICC TV app?   How the ICC uses different social platforms Why are Facebook and Instagram the best marketing platforms ever built? Which platform has the best analytics? Why did match highlights only go on Meta channels up until 2023 and why change? How does Finn balance the need to build audiences on their own channels vs getting the reach on social?   Running proof-of-concepts at the ICC How does the ICC test ideas before rolling them out more broadly? How did the ICC test vertical video? What did the learn and how did they adapt? How have POC’s built trust with internal stakeholders, sponsors and partners? Why is it important how you measure success for POC's? Why has senior backing been so important for implementing a “test and learn” approach?

Courtney Jeffries is CEO of virtual events platform, VRTL. She describes herself as a “recovering Sports Exec” having worked at the Raiders, Pac-12, MSG and then moving into startup life at Satisfi Labs. VRTL is used by the likes of Atlanta Falcons, ESPN, NY Rangers, Tottenham Hotspurs and Wolverhampton Wanderers.   In this episode with VRTL’s CEO:   The revenue opportunity from driving engagement with non-match attending fans Are fan engagement strategies too focused on in-venue and matchday? Have teams already saturated their local market? How much more do engaged fans spend than non-engaged fans? Why the playbook for engaging fans in-venue should be extended to fans globally?     Creative uses of the platform in both the UK and US How are Premier League teams using the platform to engage with their global fans? How are the Minnesota Vikings using VRTL to give extra value to season ticket holders? How is an F1 team looking to connect hardcore fans in discussion with car engineers? How did ESPN use the platform to drive conversations around a new 30 for 30 documentary? Are sponsors leveraging a team’s virtual events or are they putting events on themselves?     Combining versatility with the ability to scale Why does “one size fits all” not work in the sports industry? How have fan’s expectations changed post pandemic from a generic zoom call to a “special” experience? Why are the virtual autographs so popular? How will CRM integration enable events to be more targeted? Why making the experiences scalable is so important to teams? How much “handholding” of customers is currently required and at what point will the platform be viewed as “self serve”?     Early adopters, pilots and opportunities in music Why is it important to work with teams who want to be early adopters? Why are UK teams more likely to try things in-season than their US counterparts? Why is sports a “copycat” industry and why is this a benefit to tech companies? How important have pilots been in helping conver teams into customers? Can sports be a beach-head to expand into other industries? What is the opportunity in music and film?

With Yanni away in Hawai'i (working on the IRONMAN World Championship, rather than competing in it) Charlie took the reins of the podcast this week, welcoming Alex Kerr, CEO of Trajektory, to chat about sponsorship analytics in the sports industry. We’ve been tracking his company – which uses advanced AI and a dynamic valuation method to deliver more accurate media analytics – for a while, so it was great to get Alex on to dig into the business. Along with our Head of Strategy, Andy Selby, Charlie and Alex explore the significance of data in driving revenue for both rights holders and brands, dig out success stories from Trajektory's client base, and explore the balance of providing a SaaS service and supporting customers through hands-on customer success teams. Based in Chicago, the company works with major brands and teams across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS. Timestamps: 06:15 – Intro to Trajektory 11:00 – Client successes 14:30 – Understanding brand objectives 22:00 – Innovations around in-venue data tracking 28:30 – Serving both sides of the market 34:30 – Getting granular on reporting 39:00 – The culture at Trajektory