Sports Loft Podcast

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

 

Scrum Ventures: Innovate, collaborate, accelerate

This week’s guest on the Sports Loft Podcast is Michael Proman, managing director of Scrum Ventures – a seed stage investment platform that counts large Japanese corporations among its investor base, and uses that network to grow its investments and help them break into Asia.

Founded by Japanese serial entrepreneur Tak Miyata in 2013, Scrum began life as a generalist VC firm, “investing in pretty much anything under the sun,” says Michael. That all changed in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, when Scrum’s investors – including the likes of Panasonic, Fujitsu and Mizuno – became interested in the opportunities around in sports, media and entertainment.

Now, the remit is to find companies that “transcend the vertical” – those that relate to sports, health or entertainment, but might have a total addressable market (TAM) beyond those definitions.

“If I look at the first dozen investments we've made,” says Michael. “A lot are either outside of sports, change the definition of sports and entertainment, or show the evolution of what sports and entertainment means in a 2024 perspective.”

Timestamps:

• 01:23 – Introducing Scrum Ventures
• 08:00 – The importance of relationships in the Japanese market
• 20:00 – The attraction of tech that transcends the sports vertical
• 25:00 – Valuing companies and finding growth opportunities
• 30:00 – The importance of partnerships 
• 36:00 – Scrum's approach to supporting its investments
• 41:00 – Investing in IP and other growth areas

The Sports Loft Summit – part two

On Wednesday May 8th, we held the Sports Loft Showcase 2024, where we featured twelve incredible tech companies that we believe the industry needs to know about.

In this second episode of our two-parter on the event, Charlie, Andy and our MC for the day, Yanni, look back at the Summit and discuss the presentations from the companies that can broadly be defined as operating in the content and immersive spaces.

They are:

• Twelve Labs
• Opus Clip
• Tagboard
• Audioshake
• Spalk
• Ateme
• Arcturus

And if you missed part one, make sure to check it out. In that episode, we dig into the companies that presented in our Fan Engagement sessions.

The Sports Loft Summit – part one

On Wednesday May 8th, we held the Sports Loft Showcase 2024, where we featured twelve incredible tech companies that we believe the industry needs to know about.

In this episode, Charlie, Andy and our MC for the day, Yanni, look back at the event and discuss the presentations from the companies that can broadly be defined as operating in the fan engagement space.

They are:

• Monterosa
• Storyteller
• Satisfi Labs
• StellarAlgo
• OneCourt

In part two, we'll dig into the companies that presented in our Content and Immersive sessions.

London Marathon Events: The tech behind the record-breaking event

“The 26.2 miles of London streets from Blackheath to the Mall are, in my opinion, the most incredible experience on the planet,” says Charles Juba, group director of digital & technology at London Marathon Events (LME) and this week’s guest on the Sports Loft Podcast.

Our conversation took place shortly after 53,000 people had completed the 2024 TCS London Marathon the previous weekend, raising an unprecedented £67 million for charity, and breaking more than 40 other Guinness World Records.

We wanted to find out from Charles what role technology plays in the success of the marathon and LME's other events – which include 10km fundraisers, half marathons, a swim in the capital’s Hyde Park, a cycling race and plenty more.

“Innovation for me is a layer cake and you have to have a firm foundation on which you build,” says Charles. “The starting point at London Marathon Events is very much based on our data... because innovation pivots around insight and insight requires quality data.”

Timestamps:

09:00 – Introduction to London Marathon Events and its role

14:45 – Innovation and technology in enhancing the participant and fan experience

24:00 – Engaging in the participants journey 

30:00 – The Impact of the London Marathon App

37:00 – Harnessing the power of data for engagement and partnerships

44:45 – Future Goals

 

Professional Triathletes Organisation: Using tech to take triathlon mainstream

This week Yanni and co-host Charlie chat with Sam Renouf, CEO of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO). Sam joined the organisation in 2019 has been central to the organisation’s strategy and development since.

We kick off the conversation by setting the scene, with Sam discussing the inception and evolution of PTO, including its recent partnership with World Triathlon. He digs into the organisation's goal of becoming a more consumer-facing brand with its T100 Triathlon World Tour and outlines the strategies for growing a sustainable fan base for triathlon.

"It's taken us a couple of years to figure out the right model. But we think that in the T100 we have something unique," he says. "We're like the PGA Tour from a governance structure because we've got the athletes and the pros. We're Formula One with this season long narrative with glamorous locations. And we're the World Marathon Majors with the mass participation. So really it's super exciting."

We were keen to chat with Sam about the role technology plays in the roadmap for the T100 series. Tech, Sam explains, will be baked into almost every element of the series – from its broadcast and commentary, to the sponsorship proposition and management of mass participation rankings. 

Sam also mapped out the PTO's funding model, with the likes of Michael Moritz as a lead investor, alongside Warner Bros. Discovery. And with the prospect of the organisation securing further funding to accelerate the growth of the T100, it's going to be a fascinating journey to watch.

Timestamps:

• 10:46 – Evolution of PTO's business model
• 25:11 – Importance of technology and investment from Warner Bros. Discovery
• 29:39 – Consolidating high-value audience with first-party data
• 30:21 –  Using data for sponsorship, media, and direct-to-consumer
• 35:09 – Storytelling and technology in triathlon
• 40:59 – Bringing non-endemic sponsors into triathlon
• 43:50 – Building revenue streams for triathletes
• 53:18 – The future of the PTO

MLS Innovation Lab: Nurturing tech to grow the league

Football in the US is growing – fast. But Major League Soccer has a long way to go to catch up with the likes of the NBA, MLB and, of course, the behemoth of the NFL. To do so, the league is turning to tech in order to supercharge broadcast, boost fan engagement and even get more kids playing the sport.

In this episode of the Sports Loft podcast, Yanni and Charlie sit down with Chris Schlosser, the senior vice president of emerging ventures at the MLS and head of the MLS Innovation Lab. They dive into the purpose and goals of the Innovation Lab, and explore how the lab can really contribute to the growth of MLS – from the role of technology in elevating fan engagement to how new tools could speed up player development.

Chris opens up about what the Innovation Lab entails from the perspective of the six tech companies in their primary cohort, and breaks down how the initiative provides resources, mentorship and test opportunities to those startups. We also talk about MLS’s selection process, the Lab’s three core areas of focus, and who the cohort taking part in 2024 programme are.  

Timestamps:

• 05:00 – Timeline of the Innovation Lab
• 12:45 – Pitching the Innovation Lab to MLS owners
• 22:00 – Testing events and opportunities for startups
• 25:45 – Benefits of the Innovation Lab
• 27:45 – Selection Criteria for Focus Areas
• 32:30 – Criteria for Evaluating Startups
• 36:00 – Companies Chosen for the Innovation Lab
• 47:30 – Future Goals for MLS Emerging Ventures