🔎📈 December Recap: Latest Innovation in Sports? Ketone/hydration sensor, Cuffless BP sensor. $716M Raised From Sports Tech Startups (2% came from NFT/metaverse startups).
🔎📈 December Recap: Latest Innovation in Sports? Ketone/hydration sensor, Cuffless BP sensor. $716M Raised From Sports Tech Startups (2% came from NFT/metaverse startups).
Dear Colleague,
December was another great month for all the sports enthusiasts, especially for soccer fans with the 2022 Qatar Soccer World Cup gathering more than 760,000 fans in Qatar. Argentina became the fourth most successful nation in FIFA Men's World Cup history after winning the tournament for a third time against France at the penalty shoot-outs. Of note, Argentina also lifted the trophy in 1978 and 1986. Only Brazil (5), Germany (4) and Italy (4) have won more World Cups than Argentina. The 2026 World Cup, which will be played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, may be the tournament’s largest edition to date, potentially expanding from 32 to 48 teams, and could host as many 104 matches.
In the world of pro basketball, NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed his interest in adding an NBA team in Mexico. Brittney Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, also got released from Russia. The Celtics are now leading the Eastern division (28-12), ahead of the Brooklyn Nets (27-13) while the Nuggets (26-13) and Grizzlies (26-13) are tied in 1st place in the Western division.
In the world of American Football, the Philadelphia Eagles became the first team to clinch a spot in the postseason in week 14. The other NFL teams that clinched a spot for the NFL post season include the San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Chargers, New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and Seattle Seahawks.
In the world of pro rugby, Ireland sustained its No. 1 spot in the men's World Rugby rankings followed by France (2), New Zealand (3), South Africa (4) and England (5). In December England also announced Steve Borthwick as replacement for Eddie Jones.
In the world of pro baseball, the Aaron Judge saga ended with Aaron Judge staying with the New York Yankees on a $360M, nine-year contract. Judge will earn $40M per season, the highest average annual payout for a position player. The contract trails only Mike Trout’s $426.5M deal with the Los Angeles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365M pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers for biggest in baseball history.
In the world of pro tennis, Carlos Alcaraz finished the year 2022 as number one on the ATP rankings, with a total of 6,885 points, followed by Rafael Nadal. On the women side, Iga Swiatek finished the year as number one as well. Roger Federer also retired from the world of tennis. Players are now getting ready for the 2023 Australian Open tennis which starts on January 16. Nadal will try to win its 23rd Grand Slam while Novak Djokovic will try to win its 22nd Grand Slam.
In the world of pro hockey, the NHL season is now in full swing, with the Boston Bruins leading (40-32) the Eastern division while the Dallas Stars (41-24) are leading the Western Division.
In the NFT/Metaverse/Crypto/Blockchain space, McKinsey & Company expects the Metaverse market to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030. Hoops Legend Scottie Pippen entered the web3.0 space and launched its Virtual Sneakers. The World Tennis League (WTL) also partnered with Dubai-based sports fan engagement platform EX-Sports to drop an official collection of player NFT collectables. We Never Walk Alone Football Nation (WNWA FN) also announced the launch of its NFT collection to bring Diego Maradona's ‘Goal of the Century' shirt from the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico to Web3. Coca-Cola and Crypto.com also teamed up and launched an NFT collection inspired by the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup. Leo Messi also teamed up with Bitget and launched a campaign called “Make it Count”.
The NFL and Fortnite also launched an ongoing virtual presence in “Fortnite’s” Creative mode, called NFL Zone. The new partnership includes mini games, modified versions of “Fortnite” game modes using football terminology (“seek and sack” instead of “search and destroy”)
Picture: NFL Zone
Nike’s RTFKT also launched its First Native Web3 Sneaker called “Cryptokicks iRL”.
Picture: Nike’s RTFKT Cryptokicks iRL virtual sneakers.
In the AR/VR world, some new reports are also emerging claiming that Apple will introduce its AR/VR glasses in 2023.
In the world of sports performance and wearables, there were many announcements at CES 2023 but the ones that stood out for us were Withings’ new device measuring hydration, ketone, and more. Valencell also announced the world’s first cuffless sensor measuring blood pressure while Movano unveiled its Evie smart ring. Lastly, Netflix and Nike teamed up to launch fitness classes.
In the world of sports tech investments, investments reached $716M in December 2022. Only 2% of funding came from Metaverse/NFT startups.
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.
If you face any problems during the registration process, please contact us at julien@sportscouncilsv.com
📰 Top Stories We’re Reading This Month
📚 ⚽Upside: Book of the Month: Football Intelligence, A Hands-on Guide to Maximising Your Investments in Data, By Mathieu Lacome & Eva Murray
⭐⚽ Upside Research: Extended Match Time Exacerbates Fatigue and Impacts Physiological Responses in Male Soccer Players
⭐🏀Upside Research: Is Video-Based Analysis a Valid Method for Determining Mechanisms of Ankle Injuries During Gameplay in the NBA?
📡 🏈 How 5G will Change the Game of Sports
🧬 The Sports DNA genomic market
🎄 Happy Holidays! Most Popular Upside Podcast Interviews in 2022.
🔗 More rumors of an Apple AR/VR headset coming in 2023 – but is anyone asking why?
🔗Hoops Legend Scottie Pippen Shoots a 'Web3' With Virtual Sneakers
🔗 EX-Sports drops official World Tennis League NFT collectables
⌚ Withings makes a splash with new device measuring hydration, ketone, and more
⌚ Valencell shows off blood pressure innovation
⌚ Movano Evie smart ring
💸 Startup investment recap (December 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
📚 ⚽Upside: Book of the Month: Football Intelligence, A Hands-on Guide to Maximising Your Investments in Data, By Mathieu Lacome & Eva Murray.
This week we are profiling a new book called Football Intelligence. Football Intelligence is a pragmatic and comprehensive guide to help sports organisations make the most of their investments in data and analytics.
This book offers practitioners and decision-makers guidance to develop robust football and data strategies, design metrics, and systems to monitor the progression of the club and execute key projects. This book helps you make the most of your technology stack and bring out the best in your analytics team, while creating targeted communication plans.
Eva Murray’s background is in data analysis, visualisation as well as community building within the technology industry.
Mathieu Lacome built his career in sports, covering multiple roles in football operations before moving to leadership ones in analytics and human performance.
⭐⚽ Upside Research: Extended Match Time Exacerbates Fatigue and Impacts Physiological Responses in Male Soccer Players
Our study of the month evaluated how extended match time (90+30 min) affected physiological responses and fatigue in male soccer players. Methods: Twenty competitive players (age 21±2 [±SD] years; VO2max 59±4 ml/min/kg) completed an experimental match with their activity pattern and HR assessed throughout the game, while countermovement jump (CMJ) performance and repeated sprint ability (RSA) were tested and quadriceps muscle biopsies and venous blood samples taken at baseline and after 90 and 120 min of match-play.
Less high-intensity running (12%) was performed in extra time in association with fewer intense accelerations and decelerations per minute compared to normal time. Peak sprint speed was 11% lower in extra time compared to normal time, and fatigue also manifested in impaired post-match RSA and CMJ performance. Read on here.
⭐🏀Upside Research: Is Video-Based Analysis a Valid Method for Determining Mechanisms of Ankle Injuries During Gameplay in the NBA?
In the National Basketball Association (NBA), lower extremity injuries account for over 70% of games missed, with ankle injuries being the most common. High-quality video analysis has been successful for studying injury mechanism.
To determine the validity of video-based analysis as a method to evaluate ankle injury mechanisms in NBA players and analyze the circumstances associated with injury, games missed due to injury, and associated costs in player salary due to time missed. Read on here.
📡 🏈 How 5G will Change the Game of Sports
What if fans could go to a live sports game and wear a pair of hybrid AR/VR headsets or contact lenses and bet in real time on the players’ next play, compete with their friends, or interact with live holograms at a stadium? This is the type of new use cases that 5G will enable in the future. This will change the game of sports as we know it today. It will enhance the fans experience, make injury prevention even more real time and predictable and help teams and leagues further drive their top line. Read on here.
🧬 The Sports DNA genomic market
Over the past few years, the DNA testing market has gone from being a niche market to a mass market thanks to companies like 23andme and Ancestry.com. We are also seeing a growing number of insurance companies like MassMutual teaming up with DNA sequencing startups in order to provide users with insight into health status and risk for disease, details on which pharmaceuticals may work better for them, carrier status for family planning decisions, along with ancestry and personal traits. Read on here.
⭐ Upside Podcast Interviews of the Month
Here are our top podcasts of the month:
🔥 Upside Chat: Isaiah Kacyvenski, Founder & Managing Partner of Will Ventures. Former NFL player (Seattle Seahawks, Oakland, St. Louis)
This month we had the honor to interview Isaiah Kacyvenski, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Will Ventures, a venture capital investment fund focused on sports technology opening up adjacent markets primarily in Consumer, Health and Media. Isaiah is also a former NFL player who played for the Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders. Click here to listen.
🔥Upside Chat: Dr Ron Dick, Duquesne University, Ex NBA/NCAA exec on Aaron Judge's New Contract, the FTX Scandal, the Qatar Soccer World Cup, the Super Bowl predictions and More.
Through this interview with Dr Ron Dick, we touched on Aaron Judge's mega contract with the Yankees, the NBA interest in adding an NBA team in Mexico. We also touched on Brittney Griner being release from Russia, the FTX / crypto scandal with now athletes like Shaq or Brady bring being sued and part of a major lawsuit. Lastly we talked about the 2026 Qatar Soccer World Cup and his favorites to win the Super Bowl. Click here to listen.
🔥Upside Chat: Dr. Jeff Konin, Clinical Professor & Director of the Doctor of Athletic Training program at FIU, on his program and post careers for Athletic Trainers
This month we had the honor to interview Dr. Jeff Konin who currently serves as Clinical Professor and the Director of the Doctor of Athletic Training program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. He is also a founding partner and owner of The Rehberg Konin Group, and also is founder/owner of Konin Consulting, LLC. Click here to listen.
🎄 Happy Holidays! Most Popular Upside Podcast Interviews in 2022.
🎮 NFTs/Metaverse/AR/VR/Blockchain News
🔗 More rumors of an Apple AR/VR headset coming in 2023 – but is anyone asking why? | Via: Wareable
The existence of an Apple Mixed Reality headset has been so widely rumored and reported it’s now essentially become fact – and a host of rumors have dropped this week. But we've been here so many times before, and they don't feel any more likely to happen. Firstly-respected Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that there are more delays to the Apple headset, but that the company will likely reveal more about its existence at WWDC this June.
Kao states that the delay is due to “issues with mechanical drop testing and the availability of software development tools.” Rumors this week from The Information also point to an extensive list of hardware and technical features that the headset might feature. The Information also reports that the headset will cost around $3,000, and that a set of AirPods Pro might be mandatory, as there are issues with audio latency using Bluetooth headphones.
⬆️ The Upside: We believe that Apple is unlikely to introduce its ARVR glasses in 2023 for a couple of reasons: (1) There is no mass market for AR/VR glasses especially at $3000 retail. (2) Apple typically does not go first in a new market and we believe that this time Apple will once again wait until its main competitors (Meta, Microsoft, Google..) enter the AR/VR consumer market, and they will learn from their mistakes and introduce a device that address those mistakes. (3) Apple will introduce some mass AR/VR consumer glasses with a slim and sleek design. So the bottom line is: The Apple enthusiasts will have to wait until the Apple consumer AR/VR glasses come out.
🔗Hoops Legend Scottie Pippen Shoots a 'Web3' With Virtual Sneakers| Via : Coindesk.com
National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, who won six NBA championships as a member of the Chicago Bulls, is now looking to offer an assist to the world of Web3.
The basketball legend is setting up shop in a new partnership with Web3-based entertainment company Orange Comet, which is producing the “SP33” digital sneaker collection of 1,000 pairs of shoes based on Pippen’s career. The sneakers are scheduled to be released on Dec. 20 on OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace.
“I was curious,” Pippen said on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Tuesday. “I’ve been in the shoe game for a long time, for 17 years.”
⬆️ The Upside: This should not come as a surprise to see Scottie Pippen jump on the NFT/web 3.0’s bandwagon by launching its virtual sneakers. Over the past 12 months major brands such Nike, adidas have already launched virtual sneakers. Nike made a big splash in the market by acquiring RTFKT a web 3.0 startup. Of note, RTFKT generated $100M in revenue in 2021. We expect to see other big brands and athletes to follow suit 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.
🔗 EX-Sports drops official World Tennis League NFT collectables | Via : Gulfbusiness
World Tennis League (WTL) has partnered with Dubai-based sports fan engagement platform EX-Sports to drop an official collection of player NFT collectables. Combining world class tennis with premium entertainment, the inaugural WTL took place at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai from December 19 to 24. Billed as the “Greatest Show on Court”, the six-day tournament will feature 18 of the world’s top ranked men’s and women’s tennis players battling it out in an exciting new format.
⬆️ The Upside: This should not come as a surprise to see the WTL launch this NFT collection. Moving forward we expect more tennis leagues and tournaments teaming up with web 3.0 vendors in order to try to bank on the NFT/Web 3.0 opportunity. Now will these sports organizations get a solid ROI? That’s the $1M question right now. 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.
🚑 Wearables, Health, Nutrition News
⌚ Withings makes a splash with new device measuring hydration, ketone, and more | Via : Wareable
Withings might win the award for coming up with the most prototypical CES announcement from the 2023 show - announcing the U-Scan connected urine tracker to the world. Sitting inside your toilet bowl, the puck-shaped device aims to provide analysis of biomarkers relating to hydration, ketone and vitamin C levels, as well as females' menstrual cycles. Withings even indicates it can make dietary suggestions through the analysis.
It's fairly genius, all told, even if it's not quite the connected health innovation we were expecting from the company when we made our 23 tech predictions for 2023.
This one is slated to arrive in Q2 2023 for $499.
⬆️ The Upside: First of all, we think it is great that Withings is launching this type of product measuring hydration, Ketone and other key metrics. How is there a large market for this product in the consumer market? We think there is a market for it. Now is there a market for such product in the sports market as well? We think there is, especially for teams competing in tournaments (European champions, world championships, Olympics..) who are required to travel a lot. Of note, in this market there are other vendors such as Intake Health, Vivoo, Bisu, among others, who offer smart urine tests today. We also think that there is an even bigger market for smart patches capable of measuring hydration level. The key vendors in this market are FLOWBIO, SM24.ai, Epicore/Gatorade, Nix, etc..). We expect this market to become even more competitive in the next 12 months.
Picture: Withings’ U Scan
⌚ Valencell shows off blood pressure innovation| Via : Wareable
Simplified blood pressure readings are a hot topic in the wearable space currently, and Valencell moved the conversation on considerably at this year's show, debuting the world's first cuffless sensor. The unnamed fingertip blood pressure monitor is still pending FDA approval, but the company is expecting it to clear later this year and then release for around $99.
⬆️ The Upside: We believe this is a significant announcement for Valencell and for the industry as a whole. In the next 12 months we expect this type of technology to appear in the likes of smartwatches. In our view there is a huge opportunity for Valencell and other vendors to disrupt the blood pressure monitoring market which s valued at $1.9B in 2021.
Picture: Valencell’s cuffless sensor.
⌚ Movano Evie smart ring | Via : Wareable
While we technically got the Movano Evie ahead of CES 2023, the full reveal technically run during this year's show. We first caught a glance of Movano's ring in Las Vegas last year, so we're glad to finally see its release - we now have a much better idea of what it looks like, and we're expecting more details to land over the coming weeks and months regarding the app experience.
Aimed specifically at women, the ring tracks resting heart rate, heart rate variability, SpO2, respiration rate, skin temperature variability, period and ovulation tracking, menstrual symptom tracking, sleep stages and mood. We also know that the Evie will be available in three colors - gold, rose gold and silver - while pricing (though not officially confirmed) is expected by the company to be less than $300.
⬆️ The Upside: It comes as no surprise to see yet another vendor entering the smart ring market. We think this is great news for the industry. We are seeing a growing number of teams using smart rings such as the Oura ring. Smart rings are used by many teams to help them better measure athletes’ sleep. Now as we mentioned before, we believe that smart ring vendors need to go one step further and continue to add new biosensing capabilities (hydration, electrolyte..) which will make its product even more appealing to pro teams.
Picture: Movano Evie smart ring.
💸 Sports Tech & Health Investment Recap - December 2022
Here is the recap of the major sports startups’ investments in December 2022. Total sports tech investment in December 22 reached $716M. 2% of funding came from Metaverse/NFT startups.
Source: Upside, Confidential, December 2022
New Tech fund & M&As:
Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has launched a $75 million multistage fund that will be used to invest in sports-tech startups, with an option to raise an extra $25 million, according to reports.
📊 Key Tech Sports Stats of The Month
$4-5 Trillion: McKinsey & Company expects the Metaverse market to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030.
$2.5B: One of the NBA’s most successful owners could expand his California sports empire. On a recent podcast for The Athletic, Golden State Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob said that he and his group would “look at” buying the Los Angeles Angels, considering it “a huge market” and “part of that L.A. overall market.”
The Angels have been for sale since August, when owner Arte Moreno hired Galatioto Sports Partners to explore a sale of the franchise. The club could command at least $2.5 billion — which would be a record for an MLB team. Galatioto is also handling the sale of the Ottawa Senators.
$800M: The Ottawa Senators have drawn takeover interest from another investor in the entertainment industry — who could make NHL history.
Los Angeles-based actor, producer, and tech entrepreneur Neko Sparks is reportedly planning to submit a bid to purchase the Senators — the 24th-most-valuable NHL franchise at $800 million, per Forbes. A deal would make Sparks the first Black owner in NHL history.
The Senators could be sold for as much as $950 million, per the Athletic.
A bid for the team would include a group of 13-15 investors.
The consortium would be from the U.S. and Canada.
About 75% of the purchasing group would be people of color.
$622.8M: FIFA is set to make broad changes to how agents operate within the global soccer ecosystem. The global governing body will introduce commission caps and regulatory changes on Monday after agents pocketed $622.8 million from clubs in 2022, a 24.3% increase from the previous year.
Agents will be limited to a 3% commission on transfers over $200,000 and 5% under that threshold.
All transactions must be made public.
Agents will be required to go through a licensing process, and new agents must take a test and pay an annual fee.
Multiple representation that could present conflict of interests will be prohibited.
$428M: The NBA players association saw both its assets and debts increase as it gears up for its next round of labor negotiations. NBPA assets hit a record $428.1 million in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022, per its annual filing with the Department of Labor.
That represented a 9.5% increase from the previous year.
Net assets tumbled 21.9% to $209.9 million as liabilities grew from $122.3 million to $218.2 million.
Most of that added debt came from increased licensing revenue withheld from players — money owed to players nearly doubled year-over-year to $199.9 million.
The NBPA and NBA are in the midst of negotiations around a new collective bargaining agreement. The league is seeking a harder salary cap, which the players oppose.
$360M: Aaron Judge is staying with the New York Yankees on a $360M, nine-year contract. Judge will earn $40M per season, the highest average annual payout for a position player. The contract trails only Mike Trout’s $426.5m deal with the Los Angeles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365m pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers for biggest in baseball history.
$207M: Some reports claimed that Ronaldo would be paid $207 million per season by his Saudi Arabia club El Nassr. New reports claim that Ronaldo will be guaranteed $75 million per year for his on-field services, with the potential to reach a sum in the neighborhood of $200 million through commercial agreements with the club.
36.5M: Pickleball is coming off of its best year yet. The sport, which exploded in popularity during the pandemic, saw more than 36.5 million people in the U.S. play between August 2021 and August 2022, according to a report by the Association of Pickleball Professionals. Before the report, around 5 million people played pickleball.
About 14% of Americans played at least once between August 2021 and August 2022.
Over 8.5 million people played more than eight times during that same span.
$19M: The connected fitness company agreed to pay a $19 million civil penalty for failing to inform the Consumer Product Safety Commission of treadmill defects and selling previously recalled products, the CPSC announced Thursday. In early 2021, a child died in an accident involving a Peloton treadmill after more than a dozen of other injuries reported to Peloton beginning in December 2018.
“By the time Peloton filed a report with the Commission, there were more than 150 reports of people, pets, and/or objects being pulled under the rear of the Tread+ treadmill,” the CPSC’s statement reads. The company recalled roughly 125,000 of its Tread+ brand treadmills in May 2021.
6.47M: Viewership was also high during this world cup. The semifinal match between Argentina and Croatia on Dec. 13 drew 6.47 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched World Cup semifinal on English-language.
$760,000+: More than 760,000 fans made the trip to the Soccer World Cup in Qatar for the month-long event. The country spent roughly $300 billion on infrastructure projects to prepare for the tournament.
📸 Snapshots & Videos of the Month.
Here are the monthly look at the performance of the big leagues' NFT platforms in November 2022: From the stock markets to crypto to NFTs.
Total sales numbers are declining up to 44% (NFL All Day), with only MLB x Candy Digital keeping the loss in the single digit range.
Looks like the big leagues' NFT platforms have some homework to do in 2023, or hope for a comeback of the struggling overall markets, especially when it comes to crypto and NFTs.
Leo Messi’s incredible goal. During the Qatar Soccer World Cup, Brazilian player Richarlison scored a beautiful goal against Serbia. You can watch Richarlison’s goal in the video below:
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