SBJ Power Up: UFC boosts head injury protocol with tech

Happy Monday! Hope you find someone to pawn all that Halloween candy off on so you don’t eat way too much (like me).

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In today’s edition of Power Up:

• UFC using NeckCare technology in head injury protocol
• Tech-driven baseball ownership group launches with first team acquisition
• Amazon, Apple beat Wall Street forecasts in quarterly earnings

UFC has incorporated technology from NeckCare, a wearable head device that measures neck function through sensorimotor exercises conducted on a computer, into the return-to-play concussion protocols of athletes at its UFC Performance Institute locations. Heather Linden, UFC’s Director/Sports Medicine, told SBJ that over the past two years, UFC has collected data from 300-400 athletes, which will be used to establish baseline data on its athlete population’s neck function and inform future assessments.

The impetus behind the collaboration for UFC was to add more objectivity into its head injury assessments.

“It’s very easy to prescribe a knee rehab with -- the range of motion is lacking, their peak torque-to-bodyweight [ratio] is this, their isokinetic strength testing is this. It’s really easy to say, ‘You’re not ready to return to sport,’” Linden said. “But in the concussion realm, a lot of times you can’t see the symptoms ... By having NeckCare and having that objectivity and showing [athletes], ‘Hey, cognitively you’re performing like this normally and you’re not here’ -- that now gives that competitive edge to [athlete] buy-in."

UFC utilizes two NeckCare devices in the physical therapy clinics of each of its Performance Institute locations in Las Vegas, Mexico City and Shanghai. It uses NeckCare’s range of motion and neck position exercises as a part of its head injury evaluation process, and also for recovery/training purposes, Linden added.

NeckCare CEO Orri Gudmundsson said the primary focus for the company, which went to market about two years ago, is to sell into health clinics, but it also works with multiple NCAA football programs and Twin Cities Orthopedics, which treats NFL and NHL athletes, in addition to UFC.

“If you suffer a concussion, the neck is always involved,” Gudmundsson said. “Cervicogenic [originating from the neck but felt in the head] headaches, cervicogenic dizziness -- that’s where we come in with technology that’s been in research and development for more than 20 years, to quantify the function of the neck and how your eyes, your brain and your neck are talking together.”

NeckCare’s devices, which are FDA-listed, price at $6,000 per year. The company overall works with more than 250 providers across North America.

Prospector Baseball Group launched today as a “new tech-driven business platform that claims to be ‘building a modern, community-driven Minor League Baseball collective,’” according to Schweigert & Ye of York, Pa.-based WPMT-Fox. PBG is headed by former Nets CEO John Abbamondi and tech investor/entrepreneur Ben Boyer. The group today also announced their first club acquisition, the Atlantic League’s Lancaster Stormers. PBG said that by “combining modern technology with strategic support and shared best practices,” it will “enable each club’s management team to operate with greater efficiency and creativity -- strengthening operations, elevating the fan experience, and creating enduring value.” Schweigert & Ye note under PBG, the Stormers will “continue to focus on community engagement” and “maintaining Penn Medicine Park as an active community hub” (FOX43.com, 10/30). In Pennsylvania, Jason Guarente notes PBG intends to “focus solely on baseball and no other sports or industries.” Abbamondi will “focus on baseball operations and Boyer on technology.” PBG plans to “purchase more teams in the near future.” Boyer said that PBG “could own as many as 15 baseball teams, both independent and affiliated.” He added that owning multiple teams is a “way to cut costs and reduce inefficiencies” (LNP, 10/30).

Amazon reported its Q3 earnings on Thursday, which “beat Wall Street forecasts” as revenue “rose 13%” to $180B, according to Jill Goldsmith of DEADLINE. Operating income “was flat” at $17.4B including a $2.5B FTC settlement and $1.8B in “estimated severance charges related to planned job eliminations.” Those “came this week when it announced a hefty 14,000 layoffs across divisions.” Amazon’s Q3 was benefitted from “Thursday Night Football” kicking off its fourth year on Prime Video and averaging “15.3 million viewers,” according to Nielsen, which is a “16% increase over last season’s seven-game average.” It also is the “best for TNF on any network in a decade.” The NBA also debuted on Prime Video in more than 200 countries, delivering an “average audience of 1.25 million viewers in the U.S.” during its season-opening double header, according to Nielsen (DEADLINE, 10/30). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Alex Weprin writes Amazon’s “growing dominance in the advertising sector was in full display, with ad revenue soaring” by 24% year over year to $17.7B (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 10/30).

(HONEY)CRISP EARNINGS: THE WRAP’s Loree Seitz writes Apple posted Q4 earnings that “exceeded Wall Street expectations, with revenue coming in” at $102.47B, “up 8% from a year ago.” Q4 saw “significant growth” in the services business, which includes Apple TV. Apple “benefitted from the summer theatrical release” of “F1,” which “gave the company one of its first box office hits as it tallied up” $55.6M domestically and $144M globally in its opening weekend. The success of “F1″ “paved the way for the company’s licensing deal with the league inked in October,” which will give Apple the exclusive U.S. rights to F1’s series of races beginning in 2026 for five years (THE WRAP, 10/30).

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