Sports Loft Podcast

VRTL: Scaling in person fan experiences to a global audience

Courtney Jeffries is CEO of virtual events platform, VRTL. She describes herself as a “recovering Sports Exec” having worked at the Raiders, Pac-12, MSG and then moving into startup life at Satisfi Labs. VRTL is used by the likes of Atlanta Falcons, ESPN, NY Rangers, Tottenham Hotspurs and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

 

In this episode with VRTL’s CEO:

 

The revenue opportunity from driving engagement with non-match attending fans

• Are fan engagement strategies too focused on in-venue and matchday?
• Have teams already saturated their local market?
• How much more do engaged fans spend than non-engaged fans?
• Why the playbook for engaging fans in-venue should be extended to fans globally?

 

 

Creative uses of the platform in both the UK and US

• How are Premier League teams using the platform to engage with their global fans?
• How are the Minnesota Vikings using VRTL to give extra value to season ticket holders?
• How is an F1 team looking to connect hardcore fans in discussion with car engineers?
• How did ESPN use the platform to drive conversations around a new 30 for 30 documentary?
• Are sponsors leveraging a team’s virtual events or are they putting events on themselves?

 

 

Combining versatility with the ability to scale

• Why does “one size fits all” not work in the sports industry?
• How have fan’s expectations changed post pandemic from a generic zoom call to a “special” experience?
• Why are the virtual autographs so popular?
• How will CRM integration enable events to be more targeted?
• Why making the experiences scalable is so important to teams?
• How much “handholding” of customers is currently required and at what point will the platform be viewed as “self serve”?

 

 

Early adopters, pilots and opportunities in music

• Why is it important to work with teams who want to be early adopters?
• Why are UK teams more likely to try things in-season than their US counterparts?
• Why is sports a “copycat” industry and why is this a benefit to tech companies?
• How important have pilots been in helping conver teams into customers?
• Can sports be a beach-head to expand into other industries?
• What is the opportunity in music and film?

Trajektory – a holistic view of sports sponsorship

With Yanni away in Hawai'i (working on the IRONMAN World Championship, rather than competing in it) Charlie took the reins of the podcast this week, welcoming Alex Kerr, CEO of Trajektory, to chat about sponsorship analytics in the sports industry. We’ve been tracking his company – which uses advanced AI and a dynamic valuation method to deliver more accurate media analytics – for a while, so it was great to get Alex on to dig into the business.

Along with our Head of Strategy, Andy Selby, Charlie and Alex explore the significance of data in driving revenue for both rights holders and brands, dig out success stories from Trajektory's client base, and explore the balance of providing a SaaS service and supporting customers through hands-on customer success teams. Based in Chicago, the company works with major brands and teams across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS.

Timestamps:

• 06:15 – Intro to Trajektory
• 11:00 – Client successes
• 14:30 – Understanding brand objectives
• 22:00 – Innovations around in-venue data tracking
• 28:30 – Serving both sides of the market
• 34:30 – Getting granular on reporting
• 39:00 – The culture at Trajektory

ADvantage VC: Investing in early-stage tech companies

In this episode of the Sports Loft Podcast, hosts Yanni Andreopoulos and Andy Selby are joined by Sam Schmelzer, Partner and COO of ADvantage VC, to dig into early-stage investment in sports-focused technologies. 

ADvantage focuses on three areas of the sports tech ecosystem: fan engagement, the connected athlete and derivative sports, which spans fantasy, gaming and e-sports. As such, the its portfolio includes the likes of Greenfly, the short-form content distribution platform; Tappp, which enables commerce, betting and interactive polling to sit alongside live sports on a single screen; and Infinite Athlete. ADvantage tends to lead investment rounds for Series A and B companies, with cheque sizes ranging from $2-5 million and $4-8 million, respectively.

Timestamps:

• 06:00 – The ADvantage thesis
• 12:00 – The role of strategic LPs 
• 18:00 – Evaluating sports tech startups
• 24:00 – Fan engagement technology
• 30:00 – Emerging sports leagues as investment opportunities
• 36:00 – How ADvantage is looking at AI in sports

AudioShake: using AI to take control of audio content

This week, Yanni and Andy chat with Suzanne Kirkland about how the company uses AI to separate audio into its “stems” or component parts, giving organisations more control over their audio and video assets. In sports, that means tweaking levels or replacing unwanted sounds to make content libraries more usable. But the tech, which was born out of a love for homemade karaoke, also has powerful applications across TV, film and the music industry.

Timestamps:

• 08:30 – Intro to AudioShake
• 15:45 – How the tech alters the content creation process
• 19:00 – Speed of processing and real-time
• 23:00 – The reaction of the sports industry
• 30:00 – Karaoke and the company's founding
• 33:30 – The business model  
• 39:30 – Real-time audio splitting 
• 45:30 – Training the AI models

OpusClip: using AI to turn your content into viral shorts

In this week’s episode of the Sports Loft Podcast, Yanni and Charlie sit down with Shubh Jagani, head of enterprise solutions at OpusClip, the AI startup that can turn long-form videos into viral clips with just one click. 

Today, every organisation – from sports teams to media giants – needs a constant stream of engaging social media content. OpusClip makes that possible, helping clients like VoxMedia, Seattle Seahawks, FloSports, Memphis Grizzlies and Juventus to transform their video libraries into shareable clips, to engage their existing audiences and find new fans.

Over the course of the conversation, we cover the companies inception and growth, its relevancy to the sports and entertainment industry, and the company's new product, ClipAnything – which allows users to effortlessly generate specific moments from any video using natural language prompts.

Timestamps:

07:00 – Introduction to Opus Clip and Clip Anything

13:00 – Use cases of Opus Clip in sports organisations

16:45 – Opus Clip's virality model

31:00 – How ClipAnything works

36:30 – Model training

40:21 – Company growth

45:30 – The market's acceptance of AI

OneCourt: using touch to help blind fans engage with sport

On this episode of the Sports Loft Podcast, hosts Yanni and Charlie sit down with Antyush Bollini, COO and co-founder of OneCourt, a groundbreaking company making sports more inclusive for fans who are blind or visually impaired.

OneCourt has developed a haptic device that allows fans to feel live action through trackable vibrations, revolutionising the way sports are experienced. The company, spun out of the University of Washington, recently partnered with T-Mobile and Major League Baseball to showcase their innovation at the MLB All-Star Game and are on the verge of launching a new device with improved features.

There's also an angel round underway, with the likes of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, heading up the cap table.

Timestamps:

• 05:00 – Developing the One Court haptic device
• 15:00 – Testing and piloting the technology
• 24:15 – The market
• 32:30 – The role of audio
• 37:45 – Partnership with T-Mobile and MLB at the All-Star Game
• 45:00 – The journey ahead
• 49:45 – OneCourt's angel round

 

The power of vertical video: Insights from Storyteller’s founder

In this episode, the Charlie and Yanni chat with Bob Thomson, the founder of Storyteller, a company that enables brands to integrate vertical video stories into their apps and websites.

They discuss the rise of vertical video formats like Stories and Reels, the power of narrative in sports, and how Storyteller helps sports teams and rights holders deliver engaging content to fans. Storyteller is a platform that helps clients create and deliver vertical content in a compelling and personalised way. Clients, such as the LA Rams and FC Barcelona, have seen positive results in terms of increased engagement and video views after implementing Storyteller. The platform also offers opportunities for commercialisation, including sponsored content and full-screen ads. 

Timestamps:

• 07:00 – Overview of Storyteller
   
• 08:16 – The rise of vertical video 
   
• 19:39 – Creating vertical-specific Content
   
• 23:32 – The components of the Storyteller platform
   
• 29:00 – Success stories: LA Rams and FC Barcelona
   
• 33:00 – Monetising content and selling merchandise
   
• 38:00 – Building partnerships
   
• 49:00 – The dream client

Building the tools for immersive sports experiences

In this episode, Yanni and Charlie chat with Kamal Mistry, CEO of Arcturus, a company specialising in volumetric video – which allows for the capture and display of three-dimensional spaces and objects.

We were blown away by Arcturus' demo at the Sports Loft Summit, which put the viewer in the middle of a wrestling match. So we've been keen to delve further into the origins of Arcturus, the concept of volumetric video, and how the technology is being used by its sports and entertainment clients.

Kamal explains how Arcturus provides tools and services for creating and manipulating volumetric video content, which can be viewed on 2D displays, as well as VR/AR headsets, such as the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, and Microsoft HoloLens. The conversation also covers current capabilities, future developments and the crucial discussions around rights deals.

Timestamps:

• 06:25 – What Arcturus does
• 14:45 – Difference between volumetric video and standard AR/VR
• 25:00 – Capturing volumetric video
• 28:30 – Video complexity and compression
• 35:15 – Market readiness for immersive video rights
• 42:30 – Integrating volumetric video into broadcasts
• 49:45 – Next Ssteps and fundraising

Connecting with fans using data

This week Yanni and Charlie sit down with Vince Ircandia, CEO and founder of Stellar Algo, a company transforming how sports organisations understand and engage with their fans, using data analytics. Vince explains how Stellar Algo unifies fan data from diverse sources – including venues, e-commerce, social media and marketing channels – into a single, actionable view, and shares his journey from working with teams like LA Galaxy and LA Kings to founding Stellar Algo.

"The relationship you have with the fan is becoming more central, regardless of the revenue streams you're trying to drive," Vince explains. "Our platform makes it easy to identify fan insights and opportunities, and we put those at your fingertips."

He also highlights how their platform empowers teams to identify fan insights and personalise content, with the goal of improving fan engagement and revenue growth. And we dig into how one NHL team effectively targeted 30,000 fans for a Toyota campaign, resulting in significant engagement and sales, showcasing the tangible impact of data-driven marketing.

Twelve Labs: Bringing human-like understanding to video

In this episode, Yanni and Charlie chat with Maninder Saini, head of growth at Twelve Labs, a company that uses multimodal AI to bring human-like understanding to video content. We had Twelve Labs on stage at the Sports Loft Summit, so in this conversation we dig deeper into the applications of this technology in the sports and media entertainment industry, particularly in helping rights holders organise and find content in their video libraries.

Up front, Maninder explains what multimodal AI is and why it's the perfect tool for understanding the content and context in video. We also cover the evolution of Twelve Labs, its recent $50M Series A funding and the challenges and opportunities in the market.

We think Twelve Labs is an exciting proposition for sports and entertainment organisations with large (or even unwieldy) content libraries because there are so many potential use cases. A broadcaster might use it to tag and organise incoming match footage to share with relevant commercial partners. A team might use it to help its video editors quickly assemble highlight reels and social content. A brand might use it to scour historical footage for advertising material – showing how they’ve been the key differentiator at crucial moments through the decades. And that's just scratching the surface.

“My view is that it can make a video editor into a bionic editor,” says Maninder. “They can do so much more with Twelve Labs. Most of the teams, at the club and league level, are often quite lean and very scarcely resourced. So this technology will enable them to do all of the things on their backlog and their to-do list that they never really get around to because they're just overburdened with the volume of day-to-day tasks.”

 

Timestamps:

• 06:30 – Intro to Twelve Labs
   
• 12:00 – Using AI to organise and search video libraries
   
• 16:15 – What is multimodal AI?
   
• 23:30 – Explaining foundation models
   
   
   
• 28:00 – Applications in various industries
   
• 33:30 – Twelve Labs as an API business
   
• 46:00 – AI: efficiency versus automation
   
• 48:00 – The future of Twelve Labs and dream clients