A short time ago, personalization was still much more aspiration than execution. “Artificial intelligence” was still the buzziest of buzz words — that has now likely been usurped by either “agent” or “future proof” — but there’s now much more to point to as real deployments make noticeable impacts.
Here’s a quick rundown of those bigger-picture angles prevalent at SBJ Tech Week:
Personalization zeroes in: One of the questions fed to the audience and speakers alike focused on how quickly we may see broadcasts that feed ads at a personal level. The prevailing notion — structured in our now/soon/never format — was that it would happen within the next year.
The picture is far bigger than that. Genius Sports Chief Product and Technology Officer Matt Fleckenstein pointed out how that personalization can become reactive to sentiment. A red card in a soccer game, for example, produces two distinct emotions for the fans of those respective teams. The fan who was affected negatively by the call is twice as likely to buy food for emotional eating purposes [I feel very seen here]. The person who benefited from the card is in a good mood and might potentially act on a bigger purchase that shows up, like an ad about a car or flight.
“We’ve taken our intelligence of the game, we’ve taken our intelligence of the fan, we’ve translated that into a set of emotions and have built an ad targeting capability that allows brands across the world to reach the right fan, the right moment, and the right creative and to deliver that message to fans where they are,” Fleckenstein said.
AI has also boosted Sportradar’s work with data-fueled alt-casts (a blending of two notable themes). Peacock’s Performance View offers various real-time insights, like the quality of shot a player is taking or providing a shooter’s heat map (like the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson) for a fan to digest the reason why they’re thriving in the moment. The way fans watch and the way games are covered has changed, even since last year’s SBJ Tech Week.
“The expectations are higher, and a couple of the key takeaways are, one, that data and AI play a critical role in meeting the expectations of the modern sports fan,” said Sportradar VP/Americas Brian Josephs. “Second, delivering personalization is starting to happen now. This isn’t a far-off thing in the future. Expectations are now and these experiences are starting to roll out.
“And then third, the ability to tell stories is really changing as well.”
AI making real and noticeable impacts: SeatGeek’s Director of Engineering Kate Dramstad provided one of the clearest examples of an AI boost to date, pointing toward the company’s product called SeatGeekIQ. The autonomous pricing engine not only navigates mounds of historic data, but it also forecasts a pricing model, providing for flexibility for a ticketing operator that recognizes a need to shift pricing after a star player is injured. Those moments, she said, become boosts to the model too as it continues to learn and grow.
“This is a very innovative group, but the important thing is that at the end of the day, the strategy piece here is still human. So, the AI is doing what your judgment, your context, your goals are trying to achieve,” Dramstad said.
The referencing of other industries: The outside impacts of other industries seemed more prevalent than ever before. No one was perhaps more emblematic of that than Ticketmaster Global President Saumil Mehta, whose career was steeped in Silicon Valley and spent a decade at fintech mammoth Square. Mehta pointed out that a lot of the issues facing the ticketing ecosystem — most notably, the fight against fraud and speculative ticketing — have been solved in the financial and banking sectors.
But the outside entries into sports came up again in a conversation featuring Harbinger Sports Partners cofounders Steve Cannon and Rashaun Williams. Cannon mentioned his experience as President/CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA before shifting over to CEO of AMB Group, a role he held for more than eight years. Williams, meanwhile, mentioned the intrigue of more real estate-minded pros who continually notice the increasing tailwind that comes with sports investment.
Valkyries President Jess Smith perhaps put it most poignantly when she acknowledged the necessary curiosity needed to find new angles. That’s why pursuing the learnings discovered in other industries, or leaning on the expertise of people who are newly joining the sports space, will remain crucial to the growth of all technological advances.
“Often in a sports team, of course, we don’t know the newest technology advances that we have, and so how are we getting outside of ourselves?” Smith said. “How are we actually learning from other industries, and then implementing that into sport in a way that can make it really powerful?”
