The sports world has always been at the leading edge of technological progress. Athletes dominate the list of most-followed celebrities across social platforms. Teams and players have used everything from video games to fitness trackers to AI in order to get an edge over their competition. Nothing has shaped the future of TV more than the bidding wars over live events like the Super Bowl or the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. You’ve seen Microsoft’s Surface tablets thrown all over NFL sidelines, VR cameras promising a courtside view of the NBA Finals, and shoes that make marathon runners even faster somehow. From VAR and robotic umpires to hyperrealistic Formula One simulators and league-affiliated esports, the future of sports is as much a story about technology as it is about wins and losses. It’s taking place across sports, across the globe, and at record-breaking speed.
Star Wars Funday Football will be a real-time, animated telecast of Super Bowl LXI that will animate the players as Star Wars characters, just before the original cut returns to theaters on February 19th.
Anthony Daniels will voice C-3PO, and it’ll stream live on the Disney Channel and Disney Plus. Will it be weird? Judge for yourself with this Simpsons version in 2024, or other versions for the Australian Open, NBA, and NHL.
Yuanyuan Sun, aka Abeeeer, was photographed on the bike during the race and wrote a statement later admitting that she “did indeed violate race rules,” The Athletic reports. Sun wore Brooks China gear during the event, and the sponsor has terminated its relationship with her.
It’s just another incident of sportsy influencers dropping the ball with brands they represent, following a disastrous golf ad and the shenanigans at the US Open.
Apple TV subscribers in the US can experience Formula 1 in the enhanced audio format for the first time starting October 23rd with the US Grand Prix in Austin.
First, it was a rainstorm. Then the cars couldn’t accelerate properly. Then everyone had to wait around for a software update. That’s how a race at the Sepang International Circuit ended up starting 90 minutes late. The new engines have proven controversial and drawn plenty of ire from drivers.
After being idle on the throttle and letting the car slow, as is the norm on a formation lap, the software bug prevented the electrical power from kicking in. Tombazis described it as being a “loop.” The computer was stuck and unable to initiate a power return. For some drivers, the only solution was to stop and reset the car to get it going again. Esteban Ocon compared it to restarting Windows on a computer.
Des Yap did some initial testing of the new $649.99 T-Rex Dual Solar from Amazfit — the first endurance watch with a bright and colorful OLED to be fitted with teeny-weeny solar panels. The ring around the display can extend life a bit, but the larger rear panel around the heart-rate sensor can add a few percentage points of charge when you arrive at camp, or when the watch is slung off a running vest, so maybe you can leave your ultralight power bank home on your next multi-day adventure.
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After using four iPhone 17 Pros during a Tigers vs. Red Sox game in 2025, Apple will use 14 of its new iPhone 18 Pro to capture “unique perspectives that would be difficult to achieve with traditional broadcast cameras” at tomorrow night’s season final of Friday Night Baseball. The cameras will record “positions within the pitch clock, backstop, foul pole, and both bullpens.”
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Late Sunday night, the LA Clippers owner announced he and the team are complying with the league’s penalties for the whole jumbotron corruption scandal.
That includes paying a $30 million fine and a one-year suspension for Ballmer himself, not to mention what may come from ongoing SEC and DOJ investigations.
The New York Times reported Thursday that federal prosecutors are in the “early stages” of a criminal investigation into the Clippers’ shady sponsorship arrangements for Kawhi Leonard, using companies like Aspiration, Daktronics (which already revealed an ongoing SEC investigation), and Boingo Wireless.
Pablo Torre obviously chimed in with his take on the proceedings, saying “there is, in fact, more.”
Season two of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League put five cars on the track this weekend, and it was going more smoothly than the series’ 2024 debut, for a while.
Unimore Racing suffered a sensor failure while leading the race on lap ten, causing it to suddenly slow down and stop on track, where the second-place Polimove car ran into it — maybe next time they’ll add training data from Hulkenberg or Hadjar.
If you haven’t had your fantasy football draft yet, better get on it.
Recent US Open shenanigans and YouTubers’ disastrous golf ad show a risky relationship between brands and influencers.
The NBA has announced penalties from its investigation into cap circumvention allegations around the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard, and a string of companies that inked shady “endorsement” deals with the star: Aspiration, Daktronics, Boingo Wireless, and Lockton Insurance, as detailed in a report from the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
There are also fines ($30 million for the Clippers, $700,000 for Leonard), suspensions for two team execs and Leonard’s uncle, and the investigation is apparently ongoing.
At Sportico, Jacob Feldman has the history of how Google’s streaming product became the thing that has consolidated live sports — an endeavor that began, at least spiritually, over two decades ago. Now it’s the place to watch most of the NFL and, if rumors are true, a frontrunner for most of the NBA too.
If you subscribe to YouTube TV’s main $82.99 / month plan or standalone Sports package, you can now access live sports and other content from ESPN Unlimited directly within the YouTube TV app.
YouTube TV started allowing users to connect ESPN Unlimited to their accounts in July, as part of a carriage agreement reached by Google and Disney last year.
Player-mounted cameras aren’t entirely new to the world of football. According to ESPN, they’ve been widely used by colleges, and the Eagles were experimenting as early as 2016. But this year they’ve been adopted much more broadly in the NFL, with at least six teams having embraced the tech.
In some cases, it’s for the vision the camera provides, which helps coaches and players see each play from the quarterback’s vantage point. In others, the value is in giving coaches a peek into the communication taking place on the field, helping them get deeper insight into how QBs and other players -- such as the center making protection calls -- are communicating at the line and in the huddle. The cameras have even been experimented with on defense.
Ahead of streaming the full tournament, which starts in June 2027, Netflix will air the draw on December 11th, though a specific time hasn’t been announced yet.
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In the latest study, at least 215 of 878 former players suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), but the number is likely much higher:
The total does not include several other brains examined by scientists not affiliated with the researchers, and thus unverifiable, or those widely presumed to have had CTE due to the severity of symptoms but who were not tested at death.
[The New York Times]
ESPN and other outlets report that Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and founder of Thrive Capital, and former Disney boss Bob Iger made the deal for $12.5 billion, a record-breaking price.
The pair had interest in a possible Las Vegas expansion team, but according to ESPN, “pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter,” who became the team’s majority owner one year ago and is under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud.
Wahoo is revamping its app to expand beyond its core cycling hardware to become a “connected training ecosystem.” And that means subscriptions. Under its new three-tier model, basic Wahoo device support is still free; $4.99/month adds performance analytics, insights, and training load tracking for self-guided athletes; and $17.99/month adds structured training guidance.
Sky Sports reports that the Amazon founder is part of an investment consortium, along with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, close to buying a roughly 30-percent stake in one of the Premier League’s most successful clubs. Saverin has tried this before — he was part of a failed 2022 attempt to buy rival team Chelsea.
Just like the orange and grey special edition of the Fitbit Air we got in May, a new leak shows the Pixel Watch 5 with a similar band, suggesting Steph Curry will be lending his name to more Google gear.
The satellite radio company is rolling out a $5 / month (or $49 / year) Sports Pass that offers access to “every live game and event SiriusXM carries,” including all home and away NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL broadcasts. It will also include 24 local sports talk stations when the plan launches on September 1st.
How could anyone have known that LeBron James would choose Philadelphia as his next NBA team? Well, there were signs.
The final between Spain and Argentina on Sunday was the most-matched “soccer” telecast in US history. With an average of 38,937,000 viewers, the match was up 132 percent compared to the 2022 final — averaging 16,784,000 viewers — and up 240 percent over 2018’s final which drew 11,441,000 viewers.
For perspective, about 125.6 million Americans watched the most recent Super Bowl.
On Pablo Torre Finds Out, comedian Dan Soder talks about the backlash that pushed EA to remove microtransaction paywalls it had added to single-player modes.
We’ll see how long that holds, but as the crew of Shutdown Fullcast points out, EA could sell things people want, like a SWAC addition, or what I want: a Pony Excess DLC pack that lets me recruit Eric Dickerson with cash and cars.
The team went up for sale following its Super Bowl win in February. After rumors that Tim Cook or Mark Zuckerberg might buy the team, Vinod Khosla has emerged as the new owner, according to ESPN. The Khosla family will have to give up its ownership stake in the 49ers first, though.
Trump has injected himself into Netflix’s business dealings, intervened in the antitrust case against Ticketmaster, and turned the FCC into his attack dog. Now he’s reportedly sullied the beautiful game by pressuring FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the suspension of the United States’ top scorer, Folarin Balogun.
[The New York Times]
The racing league has been testing it for at least two years now, and it’s ready to make its big debut. It can accelerate to 300 km/h (186 mph) in 4 seconds with a top speed of over 350 km/h (217 mph). The big challenge is keeping that up for an entire lap without exploding.
Correction June 28th: This post originally stated the race in question was the Australian GP.
Over the weekend, the DoorDash X account posted repeatedly about the World Cup, but instead of tagging New Zealand soccer player Tim Payne, the account tagged musician T-Pain — who responded accordingly. The posts had no indication that they were an ad (as the Federal Trade Commission requires).
I asked DoorDash if this was a coordinated effort and whether T-Pain was paid for his posts. Head of social Zaria Parvez said in an email that the company noticed Payne was a fan favorite and happened to share a nearly identical name with T-Pain. “So, in partnership with T-Pain, we executed a fun campaign to connect fans from around the world and remind people that DoorDash has whatever they need throughout the World Cup.”
