My SBJ colleague Ben Portnoy provided some thorough insight on UCLA athletics' move to hire the first CRO in department history. That, and more depth on Cincinnati's shift to bring multimedia rights in house, can be found in this week's SBJ College newsletter. - Ethan Joyce
In today's edition of Power Up:
- FIFA, Hawk-Eye launch joint venture
- Pixellot CEO steps down
- Golf+ gets deal with DP World Tour, Dubai Golf
FIFA, Hawk-Eye create joint venture for continued development of soccer technologies
FIFA and Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations are launching the Football Technology Center , a joint venture tasked with further automating the detection of on-field actions for data collection and officiating aids. Among the stated goals for the use of AI and other tech through the FTC is to improve officiating, performance and fan engagement. Examples include generating event data automatically — such as goals, passes, etc. — and further hastening the decision-making process for offsides. The two sides have worked together since 2017, including on the development of the Semi-Automated Offsides Technology that debuted at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Pixellot CEO Alon Werber steps down
Alon Werber, who has served as Pixellot’s CEO for nearly a decade, announced on LinkedIn that he will step down from the role. Pixellot was founded in 2013, and Werber joined in 2015 before the Israeli sports tech company had meaningful sales. It went on to develop new generations of hardware , including a portable camera incubated with FC Barcelona and an upgrade earlier this fall , and to partner with Prozone in the English Premier League, with all Liga MX clubs , with PlayOn! Sports to automate millions of US high school sporting events on the NFHS Network and with FloSports , Genius Sports and NBC Sports Next’s SportsEngine . In all, more than 40,000 systems are installed that produce about 200,000 games of 19 sport types per month in 70 countries. Werber wrote that he would take some time off before finding a new journey. SBJ Tech honored Pixellot as one of its 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies in 2023 .
GOLF+ to add new course in DP World Tour deal
Virtual reality game developer Golf+ will add the Jumeirah Golf Estates Earth Course to its digital Meta Quest stable on Wednesday, bringing the golf course to VR through a new deal with DP World Tour and Dubai Golf.
The course layout in the game will mirror the DP World Tour Championship, which will be played next weekend. Golf+ is the official VR golf game of the PGA Tour. It won the Best in Extended Reality at SBA: Tech earlier this year ( Sports Business Awards: Tech kicks off Tech Week ).