Rick’s Media Picks - POWER PLAYERS of Sports Tech
By Rick Alessandri, Managing Director at TurnkeyZRG
The November 21 issue of Sports Business Journal highlighted the POWER PLAYERS of Sports Technology. The list was compiled by SBJ and SportTechie to further illustrate the influence and impact technology continues to have on sports. From data and analytics driving athlete performance, fan engagement, operational excellence, and efficiency to creating more immersive experiences, the sector continues to expand, and significant investment continues to flood the market.
While the SBJ section highlighted 53 individuals from 46 private companies, teams, leagues, and media entities, I wanted to use this month’s space to highlight a few I’m very bullish on:
Peak Performance, which is led by Marcus Elliot. Elliot was the NFL Patriots physiologist and injury prevention specialist in the early 2000’s whose training methods helped to limit injuries. His current work leveraging his P3 sports science platform is helping professional athletes remain healthy through machine-learning biometric tools. With the size of today’s professional athlete contracts, it’s in the interest of both athlete and team to ensure players can extend their careers as long as physically possible. Elliot’s tools and systems are helping to achieve that end.
KB Partners, led by Keith Bank, continues to expand its portfolio of sports technology related investments with companies like Streamlayer (second screen app), StatusPro (AR/VR gaming), Asensei (connected coaching), SiQ (smart basketball) and nVenue (predictive analysis). Bank has steadily built his company through establishing relationships with early-stage founders. Keith’s vision and strategic investment rationale including helping founders leverage KB’s operational expertise can be the key differentiator between success and failure.
Wayne Kimmel and SeventySix Capital have not only been focused on finding opportunities in sports tech with companies like C360 (Note: TurnkeyZRG has placed several executives at C360), Swish Analytics (predictive basketball data), Quintar (AR fan engagement), Diamond Kinetics (baseball analytics) and Asensei (along with KB Partners) but they have also leaned into relationships with athletes through a separate company focused on helping athletes learn how to become investors. SeventySix has also had several successes exits including VSIN (sold to DraftKings) and Vigtory (sold to fubo TV). Kimmel is also the consummate marketer and connector, who has his own podcast and is an active user of social media.
Rob Shaw, Director, North America Media Partnerships at Meta is charged with leading Meta’s relationships across the US sports industry. With Meta’s continued investment in the metaverse, Shaw is doing deals with the NFL, NBA and NASCAR to bring those leagues/brands and fans a truly immersive experience. It’s still very early days (think batting practice, not even top 1), but I believe the metaverse will become a new marketing and revenue opportunity for athletes, teams and leagues to deepen their connection with fans. I thoroughly enjoyed the NFL’s post-Super Bowl Foo Fighters concert last year within Meta’s Horizon Worlds. It will take time, but VR is a game-changer.
Finally, SBJ along with SportTechie will be holding its first Tech Week in New York, NY from March 7-9, 2023. The three-day event will include the Sports Business Awards: Tech, followed by a two-day State of the Industry Conference with top sports tech industry executives. The awards will include honors in the following categories:
Best in Sports Technology
Best in Extended Reality
Best in Athlete Performance Technology in partnership with Leaders Performance Institute
Best in Fan Experience Technology
Venue Operations Technology of the Year
Technology Collaboration of the Year
Technology Executive of the Year
Best in Web3
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model. For more information about TurnkeyZRG, visit www.turnkeyzrg.com.