š„½š¾Latest tech? VR Treadmill. Nadal Wins 20th Grand Slam. Tied Federer.
Dear Colleague,
This weekend, Rafael Nadal won his 13th French OpenĀ in victory over NovakĀ Djokovic.Ā NadalĀ secured the title in a tense match āĀ winningĀ 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 ā which also marks his 20th Grand SlamĀ win.Ā He has not tied Roger Federerās 20 Grand Slams.
In the US, ESPN could soon lay off up to 700 employees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world of digital fitness continue to be strong. In fact, a new report indicates that Global digital fitness revenue could reachĀ $22.5 billion this year, a 30.9% increase year-over-year. The gaming sector also continues to show solid number. In fact, August was the fourth straight month of the U.S. gaming industryās recovery ā which includes casino, sports betting and online gaming revenue. according to the American Gaming Association, nationwide gaming revenue were up 5.6% compared to July, but down 19.8% year-over-year.
In the world of AR/VR and digital, Virtuix announced a new VR product - Omni One treadmill- for the home. In the wearable and connected fitness world, Polar announced the new Polar Vantage V2 sports watch.ā Hublot also unveiled the Big Bang E a new smartwatch for the Champions League.

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š°Ā Top Stories Weāre Reading This Week
š®Ā Ā Virtuix will return to home VR market with Omni One treadmill
āĀ New Polar Vantage V2 sports watch beefs up battery life
āā Hublot Big Bang E gets Champions League makeover
šø Latest Investment Trends
š Tech Stats of the Week
šø Snapshots of the Week
Letās jump right into the insights and upside for all of these top stories
š®Ā AR/VR/Video/Digital Sports News
š®Ā Ā Virtuix will return to home VR market with Omni One treadmill | Via :Ā VentureBeat
When virtual reality took off more slowly than expected in 2016,Ā Virtuix pivotedĀ with its Omni Arena 360-degree treadmills for VR, taking them into theme parks and VR arcades. But now that the pandemic has hobbled those attractions, Virtuix is returning to the home VR market with the launch of its new Omni One treadmill, debuting in the second half of 2021.
That double pivot hasnāt been easy for the Austin, Texas-based company, but CEO Jan Goetgeluk said in an interview with GamesBeat that he has been encouraged by VRās steady growth in the entertainment market. He said heās also gladĀ VirtuixĀ has had time to come up with a full consumer solution.
āItās always been our original vision to bring the Omni to the home,ā Goetgeluk said. āThatās how we got started. In 2016, we pivoted to the commercial markets, as the consumer market for VR was fairly slow to take off in those early years. And we were getting a lot of traction in the commercial market. But it has always been our vision to come back to the home eventually.ā
When you put on a VR headset, you can feel like youāre in another world, but you canāt really move around. The omnidirectional treadmill solved that problem, as you can run or walk in any direction and feel like youāre physically moving in VR. You have to actually move your legs to make your character move in a VR game, so you also get some pretty good exercise in.
āYou can think of it as a Peloton bike for gamers,ā Goetgeluk said.
Omni One will sell for $1,995 (or $55 per month with a monthly payment plan). This puts Omni One in line with mid-tier gaming PCs or connected fitness gear like a Peloton bike. You can get good exercise with the Omni One, but Goetgeluk said the company wonāt market the device as exercise gear.
ā¬ļø The Upside: We think this is a great move by Virtuix. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a big in terms of adoption from many VR sports startups. We expect Virtuix to take advantage of this trend as well. We also expect Virtuix to reduce the price of the Omni One below <$30 so it can appeal to a larger market.

Picture : Virtuix
š Wearables, Health, Nutrition News
āĀ New Polar Vantage V2 sports watch beefs up battery life | Via :Ā Wareable
Polar has unveiled the Vantage V2, the second generation of its premium triathlon-friendly multisport watch. Itās lighter, has a longer battery life and comes with the most complete set of training, recovery, sleep and smartwatch features youāll find on any Polar tracker. This latest incarnation of Polarās top end watch goes up against devices like the Garmin Forerunner 945,Ā Forerunner 745Ā and theĀ Coros Apex Pro. And to a certain extent its own recent launch, theĀ Polar Grit X.
The Vantage V2 offers the same 40 hours full power GPS battery as the original Vantage V, but thatās now extendable up to 100 hours with the same power-saving settings we saw introduced on the Polar Grit X. FuelWise fuelling recommendations and Hill Splitter, a hill training tool that automatically logs your splits for climbs and descents on runs, are also carried over along with turn-by-turn route guidance powered by Komoot. Training Load Pro, running power on the wrist, detailed Sleep Stages tracking and FitSpark workout recommendations are included too.
And you can still choose between the optical-based Nightly Recharge recovery insights or Recovery Pro ā Polarās Heart Rate Variability (HRV) recovery measure that requires a Polar chest strap. The Vantage V2 is on sale now priced at $499.99 or $549.99 with a H10 chest strap. There will be three colour options at launch: black, green and grey-lime.
ā¬ļø The Upside: We think this is a good by Polar. The Polar watch has a longer battery life, and is 20% lighter. Now will it be enough for Polar to compete against Apple in the smartwatch market? That remains to be seen. Currently Polar captures 2% of the smartwatch market.
Video: Polar
āā Hublot Big Bang E gets Champions League makeover | Via :Ā Wareable
Swiss watch giant Hublot has released a special Big Bang E UEFA Champions League edition. Hublot has a track record of releasing new editions with UEFA and FIFA, and who could forget theĀ Big Bang Referee 2018 Fifa World Cup RussiaĀ from two years ago? In fact, Hublot has been doing the official watch of the Euros since 2008. The Big Bang E UEFA Champions League, will be limited to 500 pieces (thatās how the Swiss do these things), and the watch will come with a Champions League blue colored strap.
Itās also loaded with an app that alerts the wearer to kick-off in Champions League games, as well as goals, scorers, major events in the game and the final score. Whatās more, there are special edition watch faces available from the Hublot store, including a dial that changes color to represent the kit of the team thatās playing.
The Champions League app will show a live score in the game, and if there are multiple fixtures happening simultaneously, you can switch to follow a particular game just by tapping on the screen. And if VAR interventions donāt annoy you enough in real time, youāll also get notified of those too. TheĀ Hublot Big Bang EĀ was launched back in June, and is a Wear OS smartwatch with a $5,800 price tag. It uses a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage - water resistant to 30 metres and comes with an interchangeable strap, which uses a mechanism for quick release.
Obviously, this isnāt really designed for the mass market ā we expect most of these will end up in the hands of UEFA and footballing dignitaries. It will cost $7000, but if you have to ask, itās probably not for you.
ā¬ļø The Upside: We like the design of the Hublo watch but at $5800 it is out of reach for the mass market. This watch also does not offer appealing biosensing capabilities. It looks more like a marketing stunt than anything else where it can leverage the UEFA/FIFA brands.

Picture : Hublo
šø Sports Tech & Health Investment (Fund raising, M&As) Trends ā October 2020
Hyperice recentlyĀ raised $47.8 millionĀ at a $700 million valuation, with investors like the NBA, pro athletes and more.
Denver-based artificial intelligence fitness startup Exer LabsĀ has raised $2 millionĀ ā building on $2.5 million raised last year.
The owner of NordicTrack, ProForm and Freemotion raised $200M in its latest funding round.
š Key Tech Sports Stats of The Week
$22.5B:Ā Global digital fitness revenue is expected to reachĀ $22.5 billion this year, a 30.9% increase year-over-year. New devices and wearable fitness products ā along with fitness and nutrition apps ā are driving the growth.

700: ESPN could be laying off hundreds of employees in the next few weeks, sources told FOS. Up to 700 employeesĀ could be let go, which will mostly hit behind-the-camera jobs ā but could include some TV and radio talent as well.
Companies across sports media have dealt with layoffs in part to help offset the loss of revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic and sports shutdown.
Sports Media Pandemic Layoffs:
Fox Sports:Ā 5-10% of its staff
Sports Illustrated:Ā 6% of its staff
Vox Media (SB Nation):Ā 9% of its staff in April, additional 6% in July
Bleacher Report:Ā Eliminated its B/R Mag vertical

91%: Following Microsoftās shuttering of its video game streaming service Mixer, Amazon-owned Twitch extended its domination of the market. In the third quarter of 2020, TwitchĀ controlled 91% of live video game streaming.
More than 206 million hours of content was livestreamed on Twitch during the quarter. While that was only a 1% increase from the previous quarter, Twitch had 185 million more hours streamed than Facebook and YouTube combined.
Video Game Livestream Share:
Twitch:Ā 91%
YouTube:Ā 6%
Facebook Gaming:Ā 3.4%

90: Sporting events are a hot ticket these days, with seats for each World Series gameĀ selling out in approximately 90 minutesĀ last week. Tickets were sold in four-seat āpodsā as a social distancing measure to safely fit 11,550 fans ā the World Series will fill up about 29% of Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

5.6%: August was the fourth straight month of the U.S. gaming industryās recovery ā which includes casino, sports betting and online gaming revenue. Nationwide revenue from the segments were up 5.6% compared to July, but down 19.8% year-over-year, according to the American Gaming Association.

šø Snapshots of the Week
Nadal wins 20th grand slam, ties Federer:Ā RafaelĀ Nadal wins 13th French OpenĀ in victory over NovakĀ Djokovic.Ā NadalĀ secured the title in a tense match āĀ winningĀ 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 ā which also marks his 20th Grand SlamĀ win.Ā

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