Dear Colleague,

March was another busy month in the world of elite sports, and the month of April is off to a great start. In the world of soccer, with the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup just a few months away, the Group Stage is now officially set. The World Cup draw took place earlier this month in Qatar as the 32 teams were placed into eight groups, and the schedule for each group was set.

In Europe, the race to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich came to a close last Thursday, April 14, which was the deadline for final bids. A decision should be announced soon.

In the world of pro basketball, the NBA playoffs are now under way. So who will win the NBA championship this year? The Bucks? Miami Heat? Suns? Brooklyn Nets? Warriors? It is wide open this year. Of note, the LA Lakers did not make the playoffs this year. This marks the seventh time in the past nine years that the Lakers have missed the playoffs, a once-unthinkable stretch for the organization.

In the world of American Football, one of the biggest news during the off season was Tom Brady coming out of retirement and returning for his 23rd season to take care of some “unfinished business" with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The NFL has also informed NFL teams that they can no longer sell sponsorships to crypto trading firms, according to KaplanSportsBiz.

In the world of pro rugby, France achieved the Grand Slam after winning the Six Nations for the first time in 12 years. But France is set to face tough opposition against nations like New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa at the upcoming 2023 Rugby World Cup next year.

In the world of pro baseball, the MLB season is well under way. The Mets lead the National League (7-3) while Blue Jays are on top of the American League (6-4).

In the world of pro tennis, one of the biggest news this month was the fact that Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ long time coach, accepted Simona Halep's offer to become her full-time coach for a short period of time. That being said, Patrick will likely coach Serena again as she plans to return to action in time for Wimbledon and the US Open this summer. Ash Barty also shocked the world by retiring from tennis at age 25 while ranked No. 1 and less than two months after winning the Australian Open for her third Grand Slam singles title.

In the NFT/Metaverse/Crypto/Blockchain space, soccer star Ronaldinho teamed up with MetaSoccer for his first NFTs. David Beckham followed suit by teaming up with DigitalBits and entered the NFT/Metaverse space. Leo Messi also signed a 3 years crypto deal worth $20M with crypto startup Socios.com as part of the Qatar World Cup. Moreover, the MLS teamed up with Sorare For NFT-Based Fantasy Games. Speaking of Sorare, the NFT startup was in a middle of a controversy yesterday when two players from AJAX Daley Blind and Davy Klaassen sold their Sorare card from André Onana, the club’s usual goalkeeper, and took advantage of information they had before anyone else. Liverpool also launched its first official NFT collection. The Atlanta Braves (MLB) teamed up with Fortnite maker Epic Game and launched a browser-based replica of its metaverse experience inside the virtual version of Truist Park. In addition, MLS and the MLSPA have signed a multiyear partnership with GreenPark Sports, a social gaming company on a mission to bring sports fandom to the metaverse.

Epic Games also joined forces with Lego, to build a metaverse for children. McLaren Racing Formula 1 have launched their new MCL36 car for the 2022 season via the McLaren F1 Racing Experience on its metaverse platform in partnership with Roblox. In addition, ESPN entered the NFT Space with Tom Brady’s Startup. The Super Bowl champ LA Rams (NFL) entered the metaverse by teaming up with hosting software maker 6Connex to launch “Virtual Rams House”.

Japanese Tech company, H2L Technologies, also built a wristband that emits electric shocks, allowing people to feel pain in the virtual world. Zoom also entered the Metaverse space with animated avatars for virtual meetings. In addition, FIFA announced that Crypto.com will be an Official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Red Bull has reportedly filed trademark applications for multiple metaverse and NFT-related products, including multimedia tokens, cryptocurrencies, and sports gear. HTC also plans to launch a new smartphone next month which will integrate some advanced metaverse-related features into the smartphone, and Atari also plans to open a virtual casino in Vegas City featuring Atari-themed games inside the virtual land and metaverse platform, Decentraland.

HBAR launched a $250M Metaverse fund to attract consumer brands. Qualcomm also launched a $100 million metaverse fund to back companies building extended reality (XR) experiences, as well as associated AR and AI technologies. The four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka signed a long-term partnership agreement to become the brand ambassador of Cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.

In the world AR/VR/MR, Mojo Vision unveiled its latest augmented reality contact lens prototype while Meta plans to launch some true AR Glasses for 2024 with neural wristband input. In the world of wearables, Tag Heuer launched a new smartwatch, the Calibre E4 Golf Edition with auto shot tracking. If you are interested in smart rings, check out this great review of the best smart rings out there. Lastly, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team teamed up with sleep tech company Eight Sleep which is now its Official Team Supplier.

In the world of sports tech investments, investments reached $825M and were up +8.6% in March 2022, compared to February 2022. 58% of funding came from NFT/Metaverse startups, up from 26% last month.

Lastly, if you have a sports tech product and startup and want us to review and do a full analysis of your sports tech product (e.g. sleep tech, wearables, biosensors, NFT/Metaverse..) that would be published here on our Upside newsletter and website, please reach out to us at julien@sportscouncilsv.com

As a reminder, we launched our Upside Global platform to bring together our sports, tech & health community of 6,000+ executives under a single web platform. Members include executives from the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, MLB, NCAA, Laliga, English Premiere League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Series A, Brazilian soccer league, Olympic teams, Pro rugby, Pro tennis, as well as representatives of startups, brands, VCs, and athletes.

If you are a head athletic trainer, CTO, CMO of a major sports team or league looking to connect with the most innovative startups or connect with your peers to network, or if you are a startup CEO looking to connect with top teams or investors, you can join our Upside community of executives from the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, MLB, NCAA, Laliga, English Premier League, Olympic teams, top VCs, startups (AR, VR, wearables, sleep tech..) and more!

Your opportunity for growth starts now, create your free executive profile today to join our online community and click on “become a member today” as a first step. It is free to join! It only take one minute to create your profile.

Join the Upside online community

If you face any problems during the registration process, please contact us at julien@sportscouncilsv.com

📰 Top Stories We’re Reading This Month

⌚️ 👟 The Sports Wearables Market: Where we are heading.

⭐⌚ NEW: Exclusive 2022 Upside AMS Vendors (Kitman Labs, Fusion Sport, Kinduct, etc.) Survey Report

🔥Upside Recap: The Best Wearables & Olympian Michael Phelps' Keynote at HIMSS (Orlando FL)

🔥 Upside Analysis: Issues with NFT Marketplaces. Solutions & Recommendations for Pro teams.

⭐ Upside VC profile: SOSV (HAX, IndieBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, dlab).

🔗 Superstar Ronaldinho Partners with MetaSoccer for His First NFT Within the Soccer Metaverse

🔗ESPN Enters the NFT Space with Tom Brady’s Startup

🔗 Major League Soccer Partners With Sorare For NFT-Based Fantasy Game

🔗 Meta's New 47.5% Fee on Metaverse Items Has NFT Twitter Pissed

🔗 The best smartglasses and AR specs 2022: Snap, Meta, Amazon

🎮 Mojo Vision unveils latest augmented reality contact lens prototype

🎮 The Verge: Meta Plans True AR Glasses For 2024 With Neural Wristband Input

⌚ Best smart rings: Put a ring on it in 2022

⌚ Tag Heuer launches Calibre E4 Golf Edition with auto shot tracking

⌚ Xiaomi Watch S1 review

💸 Startup investment recap (March 2022)

📊 Tech Stats of the month

📸 Snapshots & videos of the Month

Let’s jump right into the insights and upside for all of these top stories

⌚️ 👟 The Sports Wearables Market: Where we are heading.

In the past few years, the world of sports has seen the emergence of a new wave of advanced wearables such as smart patches that can measure hydration or electrolyte, level, smartwatch that can measure blood pressure, or even contactless biosensors capable of measuring HR, blood pressure, sleep quality without any contact to the skin. As shown in the graph below, the wearable device sports market is now expected to reach $44.8B by 2028, according to Data Bridge Market Research. On top of that we are seeing the emergence of advanced algorithms capable of predicting the risk of injuries with high level of accuracy. This is having a profound impact on pro teams in terms of players’ monitoring, recovery or injury prevention.

To Read the full Upside analysis, click here.

⭐⌚ NEW: Exclusive 2022 Upside AMS Vendors (Kitman Labs, Fusion Sport, Kinduct, etc.) Survey Report

Which AMS (Athlete Management Systems) vendors (Kitman Labs, Fusion Sport/Smartabase, Kinduct, Apollo, MyCoach, etc.) are leading in terms of pricing affordability, quality of analytics, product quality, customer support and vision?

The Upside surveyed 100 pro teams and leagues to assess their use of AMS monitoring technology and their perceptions and sentiments on the vendors involved in the market. Upside Global surveyed teams from the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLS, MLB, Premier League, Ligue 1, Swiss soccer league, Turkish soccer league, South American soccer, NCAA, Pro tennis, pro rugby, and others, to assess the performance and share of mind of key HR/HRV monitoring vendors, including Kitman Labs, Fusion Sport, Kinduct, Apollo, MyCoach, and others.

To Read the full Upside analysis, click here. Click on the button below to get pricing info or simply email us at julien@sportscouncilsv.com

Click here to get pricing info

🔥Upside Recap: The Best Wearables & Olympian Michael Phelps' Keynote at HIMSS (Orlando FL)

Last week we attended HIMSS a leading tech health conference in Orlando Florida. The tech conference was packed with 50,000 attendees. Amazingly enough, 95% of the attendees were not wearing a mask so there was a feeling of optimism at the show. We had a chance to talk to many vendors and exhibitors especially the ones specialized in wearables, and advanced sensors. In the following section we will go through the best wearables and performance tech that we saw at the show. But before we do that we had the opportunity to listen to Michael Phelps’ keynote. Michael Phelps is an American former competitive swimmer.

To read the full analysis, click here.

🔥 Upside Analysis: Issues with NFT Marketplaces. Solutions & Recommendations for Pro teams.

With an estimated $24.9B worth of NFTs sold in 2021, the NFT market is booming. That being said there has been a growing number of complains about NFT marketplaces (e.g. OpenSea..) where people are selling fake NFTs, or NFTs that do not belong to them. Some of those NFT marketplaces have also been victims of phishing attacks. With that in mind, OpenSea, valued at $13.3B after its latest round of venture funding, said earlier this year that more than 80% of the NFTs minted for free on its platform were "plagiarized works, fake collections and spam". As a result of that, the daily trade volume for NFTs on OpenSea dropped by 80% to $50 million throughout March, as opposed to the $284 million in trade volume reached in February. Those types of issues have become a concern for many NFT marketplaces, but those marketplaces are starting to take the proper actions to address them. In this analysis we will discuss the key issues and provide solutions and recommendations to teams on what they should look for when selecting an NFT marketplace or launching an NFT solution.

To Read the full Upside analysis, click here.

⭐ Upside VC profile: SOSV (HAX, IndieBio, Chinaccelerator, MOX, dlab).

To Read the full VC profile, click here.

⭐ Upside Podcast Interviews of the Month

🔥Upside Chat: Dr Ron Dick, Duquesne University, Ex NBA/NCAA exec, on Tom Brady's return, the NCAA College Transfer Portal, March Madness, F1 Grand Prix coming to Vegas and more.

🔥 Upside Chat: Padraig Harrington, World Class Pro Golfer & Former World #3

🔥Upside Chat with Top Sports Performance Execs (NBA, NHL, MLS) on Impact of Dehydration and Biofeedback on Sports Performance, and more.

🔥 Upside Chat: Victorien Tixier, CEO, ScorePlay (Leading Next-Gen CMS Powering Sports Clubs digital channels)

🎮 NFTs/Metaverse/Blockchain News

🔗 Superstar Ronaldinho Partners with MetaSoccer for His First NFT Within the Soccer Metaverse | Via : Digital Journal

MetaSoccer, the first blockchain-based soccer metaverse where users can create their own club and generate income while playing, announced this Tuesday its major partnership with former FC Barcelona and Brazilian National Soccer Team player Ronaldo de Assis Moreira – Ronaldinho Gaúcho.

Together with the founders of MetaSoccer Marc Cercós, Patxi Barrios, and Alex Fiestas, the company revealed in Casa Seat the future and exclusive Ronaldinho NFT, which immortalized the soccer legend in the metaverse. This unique alliance follows the list of soccer players partnering with MetaSoccer, such as Thomas Partey, Emiliano Martinez, Radwan Krog, and Brazilian Soccer Club De Regatas Vasco da Gama. The new NFT of soccer superstar Ronaldinho within MetaSoccer opens a new chapter in the history of soccer as it offers multiple possibilities of revenue streams and ways to live the sport that many fans adore through the metaverse. The company hopes this can be an example for other future sports to expand their frontiers.

“MetaSoccer is without a doubt the bridge between the crypto community and sports entertainment,” said Cercós.

⬆️ The Upside: We believe that this is a good move by Ronaldinho who has faced financial challenges in the recent years. The problems have been accumulating over the years. It all began when Flamengo couldn't pay his huge wages in 2012. Ronaldinho's pay tumbled from £100,000 per week to £24,000-a-week. The contract was soon cut short because the Brazilian club couldn't pay that figure either. With this deal, Ronaldinho has an opportunity to convert a good portion of its 50M social media followers to its NFT/Metaverse offering which should help him financially. We expect other athletes to follow suit and offer similar virtual NFT experiences in the coming months. For more info, you can check out our latest analysis on the NFT Sports market here. You can also check out our sports metaverse ecosystem analysis here.

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🔗ESPN Enters the NFT Space with Tom Brady’s Startup | Via : FXEMPIRE

Driving fan engagement has been a top priority for sports marketers and enterprises. As a large chunk of the global population turns to NFTs and the Metaverse, firms, too, are turning their head in the same direction. On April 6, sports media giant ESPN announced its debut with Tom Brady NFTs in partnership with the quarterback’s own NFT startup.

ESPN announced its first-ever NFT collection in partnership with Brady’s startup Autograph. Autograph is a sports and entertainment NFT startup that the quarterback co-founded in 2021. The sports media giant’s first NFT drop will be based on Brady and ESPN’s documentary series about him, ‘Man in the Arena: Tom Brady.’ The collection consists of three magazine covers from ESPN’s special edition December issue, which included 14 stories ESPN had written on Tom Brady.

⬆️ The Upside: This should not come as a surprise to see ESPN team up with Tom Brady on its NFT offering. It should be a win win situation for both parties. Tom Brady will be able to attract its 19M social media followers to its NFT offerings and try to convince them to buy its NFT drops. Of note, Brady has 5M Facebook followers, 11M followers on Instagram and 2.6M followers on Twitter. ESPN, on the other end, is a master when it comes to creating great content and they are a partner of choice for Brady. Of note, ESPN has 1.7M monthly viewers on average. So teaming up with Brady makes sense. We expect Brady to team up with other media outlets to drive the adoption of its NFTs, NFT drops and NFT startup.

🔗 Major League Soccer Partners With Sorare For NFT-Based Fantasy Game | Via : Forbes

Last fall, Major League Soccer (MLS) created a new emerging ventures team focused on three areas: increasing the league’s fan base, driving revenue, and bringing in new and emerging technologies to be utilized by the league and its 28 clubs. A lot of their early focus, unsurprisingly, has been tied to blockchain and sports betting—two rapidly growing industry trends and technologies being leveraged by leagues and clubs around the globe.

Today, MLS announced a multi-year partnership with Sorare to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for all MLS clubs and players that can be collected and used by the platform’s 1.5 million users across 184 countries in its blockchain-based fantasy game.

⬆️ The Upside: This deal should not come as a surprise. For the MLS this is part of its overall strategy to improve fans engagement and drive its top line. The MLS wants to bank on the NFT/blockchain opportunity. For Sorare this is part of their strategy in the US where they recently opened a US office in New York. We expect Sorare to forge similar partnerships in the US with other major US sports leagues as they are expanding into new sports and leagues. But let’s face it! Sorare will face fierce competition in North America starting with Dapper Labs.

MLSPA Players Meet Blockchain on Sorare Fantasy Soccer Game

🔗 Meta's New 47.5% Fee on Metaverse Items Has NFT Twitter Pissed | Via : Cnet

It's been nearly six months since the company formerly known as Facebook changed its name to Meta, a nod to its ambitions in the metaverse. On Monday the company released details on how it plans to monetize its Horizon Worlds metaverse app, currently accessible only through VR, initiating a testing phase that will allow some creators to sell in-world items to users. One aspect in particular has been seized upon by NFT Twitter: the fact that Meta is taking a 47.5% cut on each transaction.

For every item sold in Horizon Worlds, a 30% cut goes to Meta via the Oculus platform, and 25% of the remaining amount goes to the Meta App Store. That's more than Apple's oft-criticized 30% App Store fee, and much larger than what NFT traders are accustomed to. In the NFT space, marketplace OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of each transaction, and creators typically take between 2.5% and 7.5%.

⬆️ The Upside: Shortly after this announcement Meta CEO was quick to react and say that Meta will take a lower cut of 25% on their upcoming web based version of Horizon Worlds. In our view Meta can do better than that. They can afford to take a lower cut because they have the scale and reach. We believe that over time Meta will reverse its decision and further reduce its cut to levels similar to the competition (OpenSea, Apple…). It will be a critical factor if it wants to drive the adoption of its NFT marketplace over time. Otherwise developers will move away from its platform. For more info, you can check out our latest analysis on the NFT Sports market here. You can also check out our sports metaverse ecosystem analysis here.

🎮 AR/VR/Video/Digital Sports News

🔗 The best smartglasses and AR specs 2022: Snap, Meta, Amazon | Via : Wareable

Smartglasses and AR are considered the next big breakthrough for wearables that will filter into our daily lives. Putting useful connected features in front of our eyes is a challenge that both startups and the big tech have stepped up try and make a reality. The concept was thrust into the spotlight with Google Glass, and while Glass now lives on in the workplace, it spectacularly failed to break into the mainstream.

If rumours are to believed, Apple is working on smartglasses, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has already confirmed its plans for AR specs that have augmented reality at the heart, merging virtual and physical worlds overlaying data on the world around you. There's also Google, who bought smartglasses hopeful North, which was working on the second generation of its promising North Focals – and has now been absorbed into the Google hardware team. It also seems that Microsoft with the help of Qualcomm want in on the action too.

⬆️ The Upside: If you are interested in the AR glasses market we think this is a good overview of the market. Now the big elephant in the room will be Apple which is rumored to be working on some hybrid AR/VR glasses. Now to be fair, as we noted before, based on our intell, all the major tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Samsung..) are working on similar hybrid AR/VR glasses. As soon as Apple enters the market they will all follow suit and adjust their offering to match Apple product. For more info, you can check out our latest analysis on the NFT Sports market here. You can also check out our sports metaverse ecosystem analysis here.

🎮 Mojo Vision unveils latest augmented reality contact lens prototype | Via : Venturebeat

Mojo Vision said it has created a new prototype of its Mojo Lens augmented reality contact lenses. This smart contact lens will bring “invisible computing” to life, the company believes. The Mojo Lens prototype is a critical milestone for the company in its development, testing, and validation process, and is an innovation positioned at the intersection of smartphones, augmented reality/virtual reality, smart wearables, and health tech. The initial target market is for people with low vision, as it will be a medically approved device that can help partially blind people see things better like road signs.

“We don’t refer to this as a product,” said Steve Sinclair, senior vice president of product and marketing, in an interview with VentureBeat. “We refer to it as a prototype. The next year or so for us is going to be taking what we learned from this because we now understand how to build a smart contact lens with all the elements. It’s now optimization. It’s software development. It’s experience development. It’s safety testing. It’s really understanding how it works as a low-vision product for that first customer that we’re interested.

⬆️ The Upside: We think that Mojo Vision has made steady progress with its AR contact lenses but they are still years away from offering some AR contact lenses. Their biggest hurdle for them will be to get the FDA approval but they can do it. Mojo Vision initial plan is to offer a niche product targeting sports like cycling, golf, and running. But it remains to be seen what kind of adoption this product will get as not everyone wears contact lenses. But net net we think that Mojo Vision has a bright future. And they are likely to rely on Nike, one of their new investors, to help bring this product to market.

Video: Mojo Vision’s latest AR contact lenses prototype

🎮 The Verge: Meta Plans True AR Glasses For 2024 With Neural Wristband Input | Via : Upload VR

The Verge‘s Alex Heath just released a report detailing Meta’s apparent plans for glasses over the next six years. Facebook, now Meta, has repeatedly publicly confirmed it’s working on augmented reality glasses since as far back as 2016. In late 2019 the company described a product launch as “a few years out”.

Korean news outlet The Electronic Times claimed Samsung will manufacture a custom tracking chip for Meta’s glasses, and The Information reported Meta has agreed to buy several years of the entire output of AR microLED display maker Plessey. At the Connect 2021 conference in October Meta announced Project Nazare, “our first full augmented reality glasses”. The company didn’t, however, show a prototype or even real footage, instead showing a brief “simulated” concept clip. “We still have a ways to go with Nazare, but we’re making good progress,” Mark Zuckerberg remarked. Heath writes that Meta plans to release Nazare as a product in 2024.

⬆️ The Upside: We believe that this timeline seems credible. We also think that Facebook will first introduce pure AR glasses in 2023 then it will introduce this other version of the AR glasses with neural input in order to control the AR experience. We would also point out that Meta is leveraging the acquisition of CTRL-Labs, a neurotech startup, it acquired back in 2019. CTRL-labs is built an armband that translates movement and the wearer’s neural impulses into digital input signals.

🚑 Wearables, Health, Nutrition News

⌚ Best smart rings: Put a ring on it in 2022 | Via : Wareable

Smart rings are a thing. While some new wearable categories spring up, make big noise and then fade into the background, the future of putting tech on your finger still looks bright. There's plenty of different use cases for smart rings – with some focused on payments, but many are loaded with health sensors that would give any smartwatch a run for its money.

But many of the leading lights have left the smart ring game. Amazon discontinued the Echo Loop smart ring, and Motiv Ring is no more after the company sold out to a biometric security company. But smart rings are back. The new Oura 3 has seriously impressed, and there are incoming devices from Circular and Movano that caught the eye at CES 2022. Oura has been involved in Covid-19 trials thanks to its myriad of sensors and an Apple smart ring may even be in the works too, if recent revealing patents are anything to go by. There are now powerful smart rings for both men and women that do everything from track your health and fitness to letting you pay for a coffee. We've picked out the best.

⬆️ The Upside: We believe that smart rings have gain good traction over the past few years in the world of elite sports. Oura is probably the vendor that gained the most traction. Many teams in the NBA, MLB, NFL, to name a few, have adopted the Oura ring. We like the ring format factor as it is non invasive and athletes can sleep with them as opposed to having to wear a watch. Of note, Oura said it has sold more than 500,000 rings, up from 150,000 in March 2020 but is still not exactly Apple Watch levels. Speaking of Apple, we believe that Apple could launch a smart ring in the coming years. It would nicely complement its Apple watch offering.

⌚ Tag Heuer launches Calibre E4 Golf Edition with auto shot tracking | Via : Wareable

Tag Heuer has released a special Golf Edition of its latest Calibre E4 smartwatch. The company has traditionally launched a golf-focused version of its smartwatch with each generation – and has invested heavily in golf tracking via its own Tag Heuer Golf tracking app, which is available for Wear OS and Apple Watch. The Calibre E4 Golf Edition has added some serious new golf features, with automatic shot detection and improved mapping leading a much-improved experience.

While Tag Heuer launched two sizes of its Calibre E4, the Golf Edition will only be available in the larger 45mm case. The smartwatch retains the 1-18 holes etched onto the dial, and the overall look and feel of its predecessors. However, the company now includes a ball-marker attached to the strap for use on the greens, which is a nice touch. The screen has been given an upgrade over the previous generation, and the 454x454 326ppi OLED panel is much brighter and suited to viewing the excellent hole maps and visualizations from the Tag Heuer golf app.

⬆️ The Upside: We like the improvements made to the Calibre E4 smartwatch. It has a better battery life, better screen, and better tracking capabilities. That being said we just don’t believe there is a mass market for this type of smart watch offering at a premium ($2650). But some golf lovers who can afford it will go for it.

Tag Heuer launches Calibre E4 Golf Edition

Picture: Tag Heuer Calibre E4 Golf Edition

⌚ Xiaomi Watch S1 review | Via : Wareable

The Xiaomi Watch S1 is the company's latest flagship smartwatch, which comes with stainless steel case with sapphire glass, but still comes in under £200/€200. Joining the sporty-looking Watch S1 Active, the Watch S1 offers pretty much all of the same features albeit wrapped up in more high grade materials. Those features include an AMOLED touchscreen display, blood oxygen monitoring, over 100 fitness modes and dual-band GPS mode to improve outdoor tracking. There's also built-in Amazon Alexa and NFC contactless payments via Mastercard.

It's priced at £199 (around $260) with no US price or launch in sight just yet. That puts it up against the likes of the Apple Watch Series 3, the Fitbit Versa 3 and the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro. That means that Watch S1 is up against some big names. So, does it offer a better smartwatch experience than Apple, Fitbit and Amazfit? We've been putting it to the test to find out. Here's our comprehensive verdict.

⬆️ The Upside: We think this smart watch is a nice addition to Xiaomi’s offering. This is part of Xiaomi’s low cost strategy. That being said, from a biosensing capability standpoint, we don’t think that there is anything special. Xiaomi should push the envelop and add new biosensing capabilities (e.g. hydration assessment, etc.). of note, some research firms expect Xiaomi's global smartphone market share by shipments to rise to around 15%-16% in 2022-2024 (2021: 14%). Xiaomi was the third-largest smartphone vendor by shipments in 2021, according to IDC. It raised its market position to No. 2 from No. 3 in Europe, with a shipment market share of 23% in 2021 (2020: 15%), according to Canalys.

Picture: Xiaomi Watch S1

💸 Sports Tech & Health Investment Recap - March 2022

Here is the recap of the major sports startups’ investments in Mid March 2022/ Mid February 2022, which investments reached $825M and were up +8.6% , compared to February 2022. 58% of funding came from Metaverse/NFT startups, up from 26% last month.

Source: Upside, Confidential, March 2022

New Tech fund & M&As:

HBAR launched a $250M Metaverse fund to attract consumer brands.
Qualcomm also launched a $100 million metaverse fund.
Sony Interactive Entertainment have expanded the PlayStation Studios family with the latest acquisition of leading Canadian gaming developers Haven Studios.
Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is in exclusive talks for a 13% stake worth $1.7B in the new commercial company from French soccer’s Professional Football League (LFP).

📊 Key Tech Sports Stats of The Month

$127B: Statista’s recently published report on the athletic footwear market indicates that the global “athletic footwear market” was reached $127.3 billion in 2021.

However, according to the same report, the market is only expected to grow at a 4.9% rate. For context, global airport operations are expected to grow at a 47% rate, per IBIS estimates. Since 2010, Nike’s share of revenues from the footwear segment have gone from 11% to 28% of total revenues, representing an 8.42% compounded annual growth rate — not exactly “rip-roaring.”

How a Single Pair of Sneakers Explains the Booming Billion-Dollar Sneaker Resale Industry | GQ

$3.9B: Mobile NY sports betting is already approaching $4 billion in handle over 10 weeks of operation. The $406.4 million bet during the week ending March 13 pushed total handle with mobile NY sportsbooks to $3.927 billion since launch.

$3.5B: In the NFL, the average franchise valuation has gone from about $420 million in 2000 to roughly $3.5 billion today. That’s a 620% gain in total (10.2% CAGR) and vastly outpaces the S&P 500s return of 210% (5.2% CAGR) during the same period Furthermore, this is the average franchise valuation for each US pro sports league.

Average Franchise Value

NFL: $3.5 billion
NBA: $2.6 billion
MLB: $2.3 billion
NHL: $930 million
MLS: $550 million

$2.5B: The Apple - NFL deal is rumored to make the NFL earn around $2.5 billion annually.

Apple is allegedly interested in bundling “NFL Sunday Ticket,” mobile streaming rights, and a stake in NFL Media.
A deal could see Apple take on up to 49% of NFL Media.

The NFL is also reportedly exploring launching its own streaming service, which could offer out-of-market games for $5 per month. Apple announced its seven-year MLB deal worth an annual $85 million during a product event in March. It could seek to do the same for an NFL-related announcement.

NFL Sunday Ticket could be coming to Apple TV+ - 9to5Mac

$1.1B: Investcorp is reportedly in exclusive talks with Elliott Management to purchase Italy’s AC Milan for $1.1 billion.

With around $40 billion in assets under management, the Middle East’s biggest alternative asset manager includes Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Co. as a shareholder — the fund purchased a 20% stake in 2017.

Investcorp’s goal is to have $100 billion in assets under management.
After nearly 40 years, the fund delisted from the Bahrain stock exchange in 2021 to boost its expansion.
Since 2015, Investcorp’s assets under management have more than quadrupled.

Elliot Management took over ownership of AC Milan in 2018, when previous owner Li Yonghong defaulted on debt obligations.

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$195M: David Beckham, one of the first names that come to mind when it comes to football in England and in the world, signed a $195M deal with Qatar, with whom he has had close relations since PSG. With the agreement, Beckham will be the face of the World Cup next year and will continue to do similar work in Qatar for 10 years.

2022 - David Beckham Signs 10-Year Deal With Qatar - News Text Area

$65.5M: The news that two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom would begin the season on the injured list put a massive dent in the Mets’ starting rotation.

But through seven games, and with Taijuan Walker (shoulder) now on the IL, New York has the best rotation, ranking first in wins (five), ERA (1.29), WHIP (0.69), and batting average against (.161).

The makeshift five truly spans the salary scale, featuring both the highest-paid starting pitcher in baseball (Max Scherzer, $43.3M) and the 200th (David Peterson, $673,577).

The Mets’ starting five payroll ($65.5M) is second only to the Blue Jays ($68.4M).
The full starting pitcher allocation will rank first ($94.2M) when deGrom ($20.5M) and Walker ($7M) return.
Other current Mets starters: Carlos Carrasco ($12M), Chris Bassitt ($8.8M), and Tylor Megill ($700,000).

While Scherzer (2-0, 3.27 ERA) has already begun to justify his three-year, $130 million free-agent contract, Megill is the biggest surprise. The 26-year-old righthander is 2-0 and hasn’t allowed an earned run over his 10.1 innings.

The Mets’ success on the mound has oddsmakers bullish on their chances to win their first World Series since 1986. New York currently is tied for fifth-favorite (+1100) to win it all.

$20M: Lionel Messi, signed a $20M 3 year deal with Socios.com in the build-up to the Qatar World Cup.

$4.41M: A new labor deal and a booming free-agent market raised the average Major League Baseball salary by 5.9% as of Opening Day.

MLB players make an average of $4.41 million, per an analysis by the Associated Press, up from $4.17 million in 2021.

Players saw increases at the top and bottom as the league and its players union reached a new collective bargaining agreement after an acrimonious 99-day lockout.

The minimum salary grew to $700,000 from $570,500 in the new CBA.
The average would be a record $4.68 million after accounting for a $50 million bonus pool for high-performing, pre-arbitration players and subtracting an additional two players per team — due to a one-time roster expansion through May 1 — who are mostly on minimum salaries.
Median salary rose $50,000 to $1.2 million but was still well below the $1.4 million median of 2019 and the 2015 record of $1.65 million.

Largest contract extensions in MLB history

$850,000: Qatar 2022 is on pace to surpass ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which was the best-attended edition in 25 years.

FIFA saw more than 800,000 tickets sold between January and March, with 17 million requests.
The tournament, which begins on Nov. 21, will be played in eight stadiums within a 30-mile radius of Doha.
Single tickets to group matches range from $105 to $210, while tickets for the final on Dec. 18 range between $455 and $1,100 each.

Qatar hopes to attract 1.2 million fans for the event, but the task is looking to be an uphill battle due to a shortage of accommodations.

Al Rihla FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 ball unveiled by adidas - Futbol on FanNation

40,000: FIFA is launching an ad-supported streaming service, FIFA+, which will broadcast 40,000 games this year.

While top-flight European leagues will be included in FIFA+’s coverage, existing rights deals in those leagues will focus the service on underserved areas such as Angola, Denmark, Mexico, and Poland.
The service will broadcast 11,000 women’s games this year.
FIFA+ will initially be available in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, and expand to Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, Bahasa, and Korean by June.

The service will also include 2,000 hours of archival content, plus documentaries and docuseries.

FIFA launches free streaming platform for fans

12: After 12 years of waiting, the French national rugby team achieved the Grand Slam feat against England in the Six Nations tournament. France and New Zealand are now respectively second and third in the world rankings.

France's Grand Slam success comes in the build-up to their 2023 Rugby World Cup hosting ©Getty Images

$5: Peloton is cutting the prices of its hardware, but there’s a catch: The connected fitness company is also raising its subscription fee.

The original Peloton bike’s price will drop $300 to $1,195, the Bike+ will fall $500 to $1,995, and the treadmill’s cost will be slashed $150 to $2,345.

Subscription prices will rise $5 each month to $44 in the U.S., $4 each month to $55 in Canada, and won’t jump at all in other international markets.

“We want more people to be able to afford our hardware,” the announcement read. “This is a strategic decision to play for scale and increase market share.”

Hardware prices will drop at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, and subscriptions prices won’t increase until July 1. The regular bike will ship for $250, the Tread for $350, the Bike+ for no charge.
The company recently announced it would lower the price of its Guide strength-training device by $200.

Peloton raises subscription fee, Nike's China segment expected to improve, Wingstop's new flavor

📸 Snapshots & Videos of the Month.

EEG helmet + Space research. Brain.space, maker of an EEG helmet, emerged from stealth Monday with $8.5M in funding this month and an upcoming mission on the International Space Station. They are creating a technology stack for products and apps making EEG data more accessible.

Selfie of the day: Yesterday 17 year old Russian Pro female golfer Marta Silchenko took a selfie with PSG players (Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, Marquinhos et Sergio Ramos) in the elevator of the hotel where she was staying in Paris.

May be an image of 5 people, people standing and indoor

Liverpool FC & NFT: Liverpool launched its first official NFT collection.

LFC Heroes Club (London Football Club/Sotheby’s/PA)

McLaren (F1) enters the metaverse. McLaren Racing Formula 1 have launched their new MCL36 car for the 2022 season via the McLaren F1 Racing Experience on its metaverse platform in association with Roblox.

Drone + Fenway park (RedSox): Great video captured from a drone inside Fenway park, the home of the Boston RedSox.

Sketchers - latest sports brand to enter the metaverse: Skechers joined the Metaverse, planning to Open a store in decentraland.

a man standing in from of Skechers store in the metaverse

Metaverse + Wristband to feel virtual “touch”. H2L Technologies, also built a wristband that emits electric shocks, allowing people to feel pain in the virtual world.

H2L Technologies Aims to Bring Metaverse Pain to Real Life

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