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Sports Tech Leaders Bullish on Live Content, Data at Sportico Converge

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Drones, AI, the sports broadcast future, and fan engagement all took center stage at Sportico’s Converge event in New York on Thursday. Centered on the convergence of technology in sports, the sold-out event offered stakeholders a blueprint of the future challenges and opportunities in the industry.

Drone Racing League president Rachel Jacobson opened with a fireside chat on the challenges of starting a new league with rapidly evolving technology from scratch. “I chose eyeballs over dollars,” Jacobson said in describing her growth strategy. Jacobson, who sold partnerships at NBA for 20 years, joined DRL four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were racing it in empty warehouses at first,” she said. Today, the league counts over 5 million TikTok followers and has a racing video game that also serves as a training simulator for DRL pilots.

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Athlete data and maximizing athletes’ performance were key topics discussed during the “Future Tech and the Athletes of Tomorrow” session. The panel featured Mustard’s co-founder and COO Luke Collis and Whoop vice president of performance and science Kristen Holmes, moderated by DraftKings’ CEO and managing partner Meredith McPherron.

Whoop has expanded its original application of heart rate monitoring to a suite of biometric data meant to improve welfare and athletic performance. “We use data from female athletes to track their menstrual cycles to understand how it impacts their performance,” Holmes, a former Team USA field hockey player and coach of NCAA champion Princeton, said in an interview. “As a result, we start to look at what recovery looks like throughout the different phases of the menstrual cycle.”

Television and the future of streaming broadcasts are front and center for leagues as the value of broadcast sports continues to grow. Moderated by ViewLift CEO Rick Allen, “Leagues Look Ahead” heard from executives from the NBA, NHL and MLB who expressed optimism as leagues seek to build streaming while navigating legacy RSN contracts. “The RSN model is under pressure, but the value of local sports rights has never been higher,” the NBA’s Scott Kaufman-Ross said.

Leagues looking to take more direct control of their broadcasts have a natural advantage compared to scripted or reality programming. “There’s something I think is lost in the media ecosystem right now: The power of live content. Particularly as advertising dollars are shifting, sports are really the only live product left,” Kaufman-Ross said.

The “Smart Stadiums and the Digital Arena Revolution” session explored elevating fan experience through technology, sustainability and customer data, and the use of these levers to create new revenue streams. The panel featured Michael Sciortino, general manager of UBS Arena; Brandon Nutting, the vice president of data science and innovation of MVP Index; and Kyle Love, the vice president of arena technology of Barclays Center.

“The New Digital Playbook: What’s Next in Social Media” session highlighted how millennials and Gen Z consume sports. The panel featured Anmol Malhotra, global head of sports partnerships at Snap; Blake Stuchin, vice president of digital media business development of NFL; Brandon Rhodes, the general manager of OTX; and Rob Shaw, the founder and CEO of Sports Media Innovation Group.

“Our generation followed teams based on where you grow up, but Gen Z follows individuals,” Malhotra said in an interview. “They are consuming not just their lives on the field but everything beyond. For us at Snap, it’s really important to work with our partners and with our athletes and creators directly to show that perspective. Because otherwise, we’re not going to be covering the whole swath of how fandom is being consumed and created today.”

The “Genius Sports: Broadcast Innovation” panel discussed the future of sports broadcasts with the participation of Rajiv Maheswaran, the CEO and co-founder of Second Spectrum; Harold Bryant, the executive vice president of CBS Sports; Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution at the NFL; and Alex Kaplan, the CEO of EverPass Media. “Sports fans, whether you’re working for leagues or working for partners of leagues, everyone has a different opinion both on what’s going to happen and what should happen,” said Maheswaran in an interview. “And I think the panel was evidence of that. I think the answer in terms of technology and innovation is to not make anyone wrong. It’s to make everyone right.”

Sportico will reconvene next month with “Invest in Sports,” an industry-leading event featuring team owners and financiers gathering to discuss growth opportunities in one of the global economy’s fastest growing sectors.

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