SBJ Power Up: NCAA, Genius Sports dive into data

NCAA picks Genius Sports for betting data distribution

The NCAA has picked Genius Sports as its exclusive distributor of official data for NCAA post-season tournaments. It’s the first time the collegiate governing body will allow its data from championships like March Madness to be available to licensed sportsbooks.

The extended deal now runs through 2032, an expansion of an initial agreement between the two companies that started in 2018. Sportsbooks will gain access to NCAA data feeds, as well as its branding.

TitletownTech selects two winners

TitletownTech, the venture capital firm formed in 2019 through a partnership between the Packers and Microsoft, selected two winners of the “Startup Draft” pitch competition it staged around 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay, SBJ’s Rob Schaefer reports.

The victors from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants are Ateios Systems, a clean battery electrode manufacturer, and Ubicept, which uses sensors and photon processing technology to improve camera performance in extreme lighting, motion, and environmental conditions. Each will receive a $1 million investment from TitletownTech and $350,000 in Microsoft Azure credits.

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StatSports updates GPS wearable

StatSports has developed an upgraded GPS product its managing director is calling a “proper seismic change within the industry,” SBJ’s Joe Lemire reports.

The new Apex 2.0 wearable improves accuracy by roughly 500%: from a margin of error of a half-meter down to a centimeter. It does this through the use of military-grade RTK — real-time kinematics, which involves using higher-frequency waves from a different band of satellite transmission — that previously hadn’t been possible in a relatively small wearable.