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.
Tennis has big plans for the future: TikTok, sports betting, and a lot of matches in Saudi Arabia. Last year, I started reporting on Hawk-Eye, the electronic line-calling technology used by the US Open. That sent me down a much longer rabbit hole after I learned the data used to call balls in or out was feeding into the algorithms used by gambling oddsmakers.
You can read the story or check out the bite-size version below.
Sources tell the New York Post that Amazon is in talks with Bally Sports for a deal that would simultaneously air MLB, NBA, and NHL games on Prime Video and cable.
The rumored sports package would reportedly let users watch local games for around $20 per month. Amazon already has an agreement with the NBA that will put dozens of games on Prime Video next season.
Bill Belichick, the longtime Patriots coach who famously never said anything interesting in public for like three decades, just joined Instagram — sorry, Instaface — in the absolute most chaotic way possible. The cuts! The dad jokes! The second slide!
Can’t help but notice Tom Brady hasn’t followed him yet.
The start of this carriage dispute even nixed a US Open viewing session on a screen at New York’s Hudson Yards. While DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers miss the services they pay for and Venu Sports remains on hiatus, both sides point fingers over the blackout.
...we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.
Disney is again taking an anti-consumer approach, demanding that customers from DirecTV and other TV distributors be forced to pay for channels they don’t watch...
Netflix is about to look back at the history of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon with a six-episode series premiering September 25th. Just after Netflix signed a 10-year $5 billion dollar deal with WWE in January, McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and abuse and resigned as executive chairman of its parent company, TKO.
The series covers McMahon’s transformation of WWE from a small, regional business into a global entertainment powerhouse, and the explosive sexual misconduct allegations that led to his eventual resignation.
The good ol’ days: two fun, funny anchors telling you about the day in sports.
The future, according to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro:
By the time the flagship ESPN streaming service launches, he said, AI tools will be able to deliver a personalized version of SportsCenter to individual viewers based on their preferences.
It’s year two for NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, and it appears there’s not a ton of new stuff, but the combination of Yahoo Fantasy integration and a build-your-own-multiview feature is right up my alley. Sunday Ticket is expensive, but might be worth it.
Oh, and PSA: do not under any circumstances subscribe through the App Store. That price is highway robbery.
[YouTube Official Blog]
If you’re still trying to get that Olympic feeling back, sprint athlete Nick Mayhugh has a reminder that the Paralympic Games are right around the corner and will be at least as exciting on social media as the Olympics were.
The Opening Ceremony takes place on August 28th, so you have until then to try to figure out unique sports, like murderball, aka wheelchair rugby, and exactly how classification works.
Yesterday, we got a cetacean entry in the annals of photobombing. Congratulations to everyone involved, and also to me, since I have watched this clip like 10 times.
A team from Belgium pulled out of a Monday event and Switzerland changed its lineup for a mixed relay race because athletes got sick.
Risky levels of E. coli in the river have forced officials to postpone at least one triathlon event. But the teams haven’t confirmed whether their athletes’ illness is because of swimming in the Seine.
[The New York Times]
This Its Nice That writeup dives into the animations made by design agency Kreatives to explain how adaptations, rules, equipment, and classifications differ between Paralympic sports and their traditional counterparts.
Kreatives co-founder Franzi Sessler says “We wanted to move away from the typical explainer video style and tell the story from the athlete’s perspective.” You can check them out on the official Paralympic social accounts.
I’ve been following LuckyMong for a while now because of their incredible (and incredibly fast) illustrations of NBA players. Now, like much of the world, the artist has turned their attention to the Olympics in Paris with very fun images of just how tall Victor Wembanyama is, and South Korean pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji looking like a Metal Gear Solid character.
Moments after winning gold in the women’s team gymnastics final, Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee were thinking ahead... about what TikTok video they should make.
“I wanna do the one that says, ‘Imagine what you would do if you didn’t win,’” Lee says, referencing a viral sound bite from a Kanye West award show speech. They made the TikTok, obviously.
This viral photo of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina’s mid-air celebration from the 2024 Paris Olympics was suspected by some to be AI or Photoshop.
But it’s just an excellently timed pic by photographer Jérôme Brouillet, and The Guardian has some background on how he anticipated the moment and nabbed it.
The Financial Times takes a look at the latest generation of shoes with carbon-fiber plates that have helped deliver an uptick in record-smashing long-distance performances ever since the Nike Vaporfly was released in 2017. Other brands are now catching up with their own shoe tech:
Nike and Adidas are not the only brands with super shoes. Asics, New Balance, On, Puma, Saucony and Under Armour have all developed competitive models with carbon fibre and springlike foam cushioning.
The piece includes CT scans and independent analysis of the latest Nike and Adidas models worn by many of the top Olympians in Paris.
Canadian officials now say that in addition to the drone practice spying incident earlier this week, “additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend Women’s National Soccer Team Head Coach, Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review.
