🏟️ Upside Trip Recap: 2023 NBA Summer League & NBA Tech Expo: Key Trends & Takeaways
🏟️ Upside Trip Recap: 2023 NBA Summer League & NBA Tech Expo: Key Trends & Takeaways
Dear colleague,
We attended the 2023 NBA Summer League and NBA Tech Expo in Las Vegas last week. As part of that we had the opportunity to catch up with NBA teams and sports tech startups. So here is our recap:
Las Vegas is the place to be to meet NBA teams and players
If you are a sports tech startup and you want to meet NBA teams there is no better place than the NBA Summer League. Now there is one thing to keep in mind about Las Vegas at this time of the year. It is very hot so get ready for that if you haven’t attended the NBA Summer League before. So make sure that you drink frequently and that you are are fully hydrated when stepping outside in Las Vegas.
Now more seriously, we thought that the atmosphere was electric. You could feel the excitement from the NBA fans on the young NBA rookies. The 2023 NBA draft, which we attended a few weeks ago, is considered by many, as a very strong NBA draft. So last week was a great opportunity for us to see NBA rookies such as Victor Wembanyama, Amen and Ausar Thompson, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller and many more. There is a lot to be excited for the upcoming 2023 NBA season.
All eyes were on Wemby at the 2023 NBA Summer league
Many experts and players have called the French player Victor Wembanyama, also known as Wemby, a “generational talent”. Lebron James said of Wemby that he was an "alien" because "he's nothing like we've ever seen before.
"Everybody's been a unicorn over the last few years. Well, he's more like an alien”, said Lebron.
Now Wemby had a rough first game at the NBA Summer League with 9 points on 2-for-13 shooting, and eight rebounds. That being said he had 5 blocks and 3 assists which was a bit overlooked by the media. The pressure probably got the best of him. But Wemby showed everyone the type of player he is during his second game with 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 12-rebound double-double while adding 3 blocks.
That being said many of the NBA teams and performance staff members that we talked to agreed that Wemby will need to bulk up in the next few years in order to adapt to the physicality of the NBA games. Playing at least 82 games in the NBA will require some adjustment from him. Last year Wemby played a total of 68 games. Now we think it was the right decision for the Spurs to rest Wemby for the remaining of the NBA Summer league to prevent any potential injuries and focus on getting ready for his NBA debut in October 2023. We also think that the Spurs and Gregg Popovich’s team are the perfect organization for Wemby to adapt to the NBA, and develop to its full potential.
AI is becoming more prominent in the sports tech industry
At the 2023 NBA Summer league, AI was a key ingredient used by sports tech startups In fact, in Las Vegas, we came across a variety of sports tech startups that use AI and ML to assess the potential risk of injuries, analyze MRIs or motions, or provide training to athletes. You can check out the list of AI based startups that we mentioned in the upcoming sections.
The possibilities with AI are endless and we believe that AI, with now the emergence of generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT, OpenAI, Google’s bar..) will continue to get better. We expect to see the emergence of more advanced AI based sports tech startups in the coming years with capabilities that we have never seen before.
To learn more about generative AI and what the future holds, we recommend that you check out our interview with Adam Cheyer, Co-Founder of Siri (Apple) & Viv Labs on ChatGPT & Generative AI.
Advanced wearables with advanced sensors are emerging
Another key trends that we saw what the continued emergence of advanced wearables with advanced sensors. For example, a vendor called Supersapiens was showcasing its glucose monitoring patch at the NBA Tech Expo.
Picture: Supersapiens glucose monitoring patch (right)
Now a few years ago hydration/electrolyte sensors were emerging and now we are seeing the emerging of next gen sensors to measure glucose, lactate, cortisol, and more in real time. We believe that there is tremendous value for teams and athletes to use such sensors in order to improve performance, maximize nutrition, and help reduce injuries. We expect new startups in this area to emerge in the next 24 months.
Growing interest towards mental health and cognitive training systems
In the past 2 years mental health and how to improve the mental toughness and cognitive response of athletes, have become a hot topic among pro teams. So it was not a surprise to us to see a number of vendors in this area such as cognitive training vendor Okkulo. and human movement control assessment vendor Prism Neuro present at the NBA Tech expo. We expect to see more NBA teams gravitating towards those types of solutions in order to make their NBA players stronger mentally and with a better cognitive response.
NBA teams are looking for cutting edge technologies but it needs to fit their workflow
Based on our meeting with NBA Teams at the 2023 NBA Summer league it became quite clear that load management, sleep management, injury reduction remain top of mind for the majority of NBA teams.
Generally speaking NBA teams are looking for cutting edge technologies that can give them a competitive advantage to help their players reduce injuries, improve their sleep, recover from injuries faster, or get mentally stronger. Sometimes it makes a huge difference.
That being said, NBA teams, or any top teams for that matter, are always looking for technologies that can fit into their workflow and not the other way around. If it requires for NBA performance staff members and players to disrupt their daily routine it will be a tough sell. And if the performance staff does not properly communicate to the other staff members, coaching staff, why they are using certain technologies, what the goal are with those technologies, chances are that the adoption of those technologies will also decline over time. And this is where sometimes things fall apart for some of those technologies.
Some NBA teams will find the extra budget to invest in new cutting emerging technologies to get an edge over the competition
Generally speaking when teams come across a new cutting emerging technology but no longer have budget to spend on new technologies they have to wait for the next year to budget it. Now based on our conversations with some NBA teams last week, some NBA teams, if they really like some new emerging technologies, will find the extra budget to buy such technologies before the next budgeting starts. Now this is true as long as these emerging technologies are available at a reasonable. The bottom line is that when it is crunch time, when the NBA season is on the line, NBA teams will look for anything that can give them an edge over the competition.
By the way we are seeing such phenomenon not only with NBA teams but with teams in other leagues (Premier League, NFL, national teams, etc.). This is one of the main reasons why we decided to launch our Upside Sports tech scouting platform: To help those teams find cutting edge emerging technologies in a faster and more efficient way and enable those teams to see what other teams are using, how they rate those vendors, the price range they are paying for for those technologies, and so on.
Growing appetite among NBA teams for time sensitive research and studies
Another key takeaway from our various meetings at the NBA Summer league is that practitioners (ATs, head of performance, sports scientists..) are more and more interested in getting access to timely and relevant studies and research papers as it relates to injury reduction, sleep management, concussions, and so many more relevant topics. Why is that? Because practitioners are always looking for ways to get better at what they do, grow their knowledge, learn new findings, or methodologies. They want to know about the latest research and studies in their fields are. This is actually one of the main reasons why we at Upside, are frequently re-publishing timely studies that we believe would be of interest to practitioners of teams.
The NBA is doubling down of its support for the WNBA All Star. WNBA All Star was on full display in Las Vegas.
If you were at the 2023 NBA Summer League you could not miss the signs for the 2023 WNBA All Star Game during the NBA Summer league. This is not a coincidence. We think this is a smart move from the NBA as they have an opportunity to tap into the fanbase of the NBA Summer League to help grow the popularity of the WNBA in general. This also fits nicely into the NBA’s recent new CBA agreement which now allows NBA players to take ownership into WNBA teams.
2023 NBA tech expo was the go to event for Sports tech vendors
We also attended the NBA Tech Expo and we thought that the expo was well organized. There was a great energy with a good variety of startups. About 40 startups exhibited at the NBA Tech Expo.
Here is the full list of the 40 startups that exhibited:
AMS vendors: Apollo V2, EDGE10, Orreco, Kitman Labs
Video analysis vendors: Second Spectrum, SkillCorner, PlaySight Interactive, HawkEye.
Communication platforms: Teamworks, Kairos
Workflow and automation platform: Just Play
AI based injury reduction tools: Zone7, Orreco, Gemini Sports Analytics
Thermography: ThermoHuman
HR monitoring vendors: Firstbeat
Wearables: Betterguards, Nextiles, Supersapiens
AR/VR training: Rezzil
Motion capture analysis: Uplift Labs, Qualisys, DARI Motion, Reboot Motion
Cooling therapy: Coolmitt (Arteria Technology)
Recruiting tools for athletes: FastModel Sports, Cerebro Sports, Sports Info Solutions,
Digital motorized strength training equipment: 1080 Motion.
Testing & training equipment: KangaTech
AI based 3D muscle analysis: Springbok Analytics.
AI based musculoskeletal (MSK) analysis: Phy Health.
Cognitive training: Okkulo.
Data visualization: BreakAway Data
BioCentric Lighting: BrainLit.
Human movement control assessment: Prism Neuro
AI based nutrition platform: Hexis, Notemeal (part of Teamworks)
While all these startups had interesting technologies, here are the startups that caught our attention and that we decided to profile in this recap. If you are a startup and we did not profile you, feel free to reach out to us at julien@sportscouncilsv.com. thank you.
1. Betterguards
Founded: 2011
HQ: Berlin (Germany)
Amount money raised: TBD
Website: https://betterguards.com/
Total employees: 18
Customers / partners: NBA teams and players
Company/product description: Betterguards is an innovative and fast-driven Berlin based company pioneering adaptive footwear technology. Their mission is to impact people's lives and to break the limitations of injuries with an adaptive technology that combines effective ankle protection with natural range of motion. Fusing protection with free moving performance for the first time we have created a whole new category of footwear.
Here is a video that explains how it works:
2. Coolmitt
Founded: 2020
HQ: Boca Raton, FL
Amount money raised: $2.6M
Website: https://www.coolmitt.com/
Total full-time employees: 4
Customers / partners: Their 85 pro and college programs (including many NBA teams and players), Olympians, Tour de France Teams, UFC fighters, Special Forces – in all, athletes in 40 sports are customers of CoolMitt®.
Company/product description: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US advance on Baghdad was frequently halted because the troops were becoming overheated and fatigued, and they needed to time to recover. The delays jeopardized operations. Based on the technology effects on human performance, numerous teams from the Stanford Athletic Department began successfully deploying the technology in prototype devices in training and at competitions.
The CoolMitt®device chills water to the ideal cool-but-not-too-cold temperature and circulates it to a cooling pad where you have placed your hand. The palms of your hand are like radiators that exchange heat through the patented CoolMitt® interface.
The company began selling CoolMitts in 2022, and through word-of-mouth gained significant traction. Vasocooling has benefits well beyond sports, with first responders, military, people working in extreme conditions all beginning to reach out to the CoolMitt team, seeking a safety and wellness solution.
In a rapidly warming world, CoolMitt is proven as the best way to address an over-heated body.
Here is a video that explains how the technology works:
Here’s a video explaining the benefits to performance of CoolMitt’s vasocooling technology:
3. Rezzil
Founded: 2017
HQ: Manchester, England (UK)
Amount money raised: $2.75M
Website: https://rezzil.com/
Total employees: 21
Customers / partners: Premier league (Manchester City fc, Leceister fc), Calcio (Juventus fc, NBA, NFL (Atlanta Falcons) teams, sports brands (Nike, adidas, Red Bull…).
Company/product description: The Rezzil AR/VR platform is complementary to field work, using drills designed and tested by the world’s best players: Rezzil improves cognition, decision making and overall resilience. Rezzil drills are academically shown to identify a player’s strengths and areas to improve; with scores on accuracy under pressure, technical adaptability and their proprietary Rezzil Index athletes can quickly see how to step up to the next level.
Here is a video explaining how the technology works:
3. Orreco
Founded: 2010
HQ: Galway (Ireland) with offices in London and Los Angeles.
Amount money raised: $10M
Website: https://www.orreco.com/
Total employees: 42
Customers / partners: Orreco works with Olympians, Global governing bodies, NBA, NFL and NHL franchises, English Premier League teams, Champions League teams, WNBA players, PGA Tour golfers and F1 drivers.
Company/product description: Orreco are pioneering novel advancements in applied physiology, biostatistics and cognitive computing to arm coaches, medical practitioners, trainers and athletes with knowledge and actionable insights to maximize availability and sustain peak performance.
Here is a video about Orreco:
Listen to our interview with Dr Brian Moore, CEO of Orreco, by clicking on the link below:
4. EDGE10 Group (EDGE10 acquired Quesd NV in June 2023 and Athlete RMS Inc in January 2019)
Founded: 2012
HQ: London, UK
Amount money raised: TBD
Website: www.edge10group.com
Investors: Octopus Ventures, Guiness Asset Management
Total employees: 90
Customers / partners: 1,000+ sports teams including Major League Baseball and its 30 franchises, National Hockey League and its 31 clubs, and teams across the Premier League, English Football League, National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, Australian Football League, as well as NCAA schools, and multiple amateur organizations from the UK, Australia, Japan to India, the USA and Canada.
Company/product description: EDGE10 Group is a market leading powerhouse in Athlete Analytics SaaS. Working down the sporting pyramid from elite sport to grass roots, providing leagues, teams and sporting organizations with the world’s leading health, performance and physical testing solutions to maximize performance, reduce injuries and identify & develop the talent of the future.
5. Zone7
Founded: 2017
HQ: Palo Alto, CA
Amount money raised: $10.5M
Sector: AI based injury prevention tool
Website: https://zone7.ai/
Investors: Blumberg Capital, Resolute Ventures, UpWest, PLG Ventures and Joyance Partners.
Total employees: 25
Customers / partners: Zone7 partners with stakeholders across sports. We are deployed in professional and collegiate sporting environments. Select clients include Liverpool FC, Napoli, LAFC and more.
Company/product description: Zone7 is the human uptime company. Our mission to harness the power of AI to help sporting organizations better achieve their goals through the enablement of greater health and longevity. Our suite of services includes human performance data services, player resiliency reporting, schedule and travel optimizations, long-term injury risk and explainability reporting and an AI-powered injury risk forecasting platform for leagues and teams. Data is collected from wearables, medical profiles and physio & screening products to ensure the utmost accuracy and trust.
Here is a video explaining how the technology works:
6. ThermoHuman
Founded: 2011
HQ: Madrid (Spain)
Amount money raised: Self funded
Website: http://www.thermohuman.com
Investors: None
Total employees: 10
Customers / partners: New York Knicks (NBA), Inter Miami FC (MLS), Orlando City (MLS), FC Barcelona (LaLiga), VfL Wolfsburg (Bundesliga), Mexican Football Federation or Panathinaikos BC (Greece), Sevilla FC, FC Emirates, PSG, FC Orenburg, just to name a few.
Company/product description: ThermoHuman is a pioneer company specialized in the application of Infrared Thermography for injury prevention/monitoring and internal load quantification. Fast, non-invasive and objective skin temperature measurement. For that, we provide thermal cameras, training and our unique software using computer vision algorithms and AI to help sport and health professionals to better understand thermal physiology and to provide better decision making. 12 years of experience, 52 scientific articles published and customers in more than 30 countries.
Listen to our interview with Ismael Fernandez, ThermoHuman CEO, by clicking on the link below:
7. Supersapiens
Founded: 2019
HQ: Atlanta, GA (USA)
Amount money raised: $31M
Website: https://www.supersapiens.com/
Total employees: 35
Customers / partners: adidas, Abbott, Garmin, Wahoo, Oura, Team Jumbo-Visma, F1 Drivers, teams within MLB, NHL, NBA, various Olympic Federations, PGA players, Premier League, ATP, Redbull Performance Center, and more.
Company/product description: With biowearable technology, Supersapiens develops innovative insights around glucose data that drives lasting positive behavior change and helps unlock better performance and recovery. Supersapiens utilizes technology that analyzes glucose data to inform athletes how nutrition impacts their well-being, sleep, recovery, and athletic performance.
Here is a video that shows how the technology works:
8. 1080 Motion
Founded: 2013
HQ: Lidingö (Sweden)
Amount money raised: TBD
Website: https://1080motion.com/
Total employees: TBD
Customers / partners: 1080 Motion products are currently being used by hundreds of pro teams (NHL, NBA, NFL, NCAA, Premier League, Bundesliga) as well as universities, federations, Olympic facilities, and high performance centers. They currently have about 900 machines all over the world.
Company/product description: Founded in 2013, 1080 Motion is recognized as the world leader in professional grade digital motorized strength training equipment. The intelligence in their solutions resides in the software and algorithms designed to control the electrical engines that are used in their different machines, specifically the 1080 Sprint, Quantum and Cable. Both are used to analyze and train the physical factors that determine performance. As pioneers in their field, they are pushing the boundaries of not only the development of athletic performance, but also testing and rehabilitation. Their development efforts are always focused on bringing professional users the best and most efficient ways of helping athletes and patients.
Essentially, their products function as follows: the computer controlled electrical engine is connected to a drum with a line. Based on the type of machine different movements such as sprinting, change of direction, squats, jumps, pushes and pulls can be performed. Since the electrical engine is controlled by a computer loads and speeds in the different phases of the movement can be controlled as well how the resistance behaves.
Their unique and highly effective resistance type that is widely used by teams in both rehabilitation interventions, the return to play process as well as strength training, is isokinetic resistance. With a slow speed setting, nearly any type of movement can be trained isokinetically. What makes isokinetic resistance unique is the machine controlled speed and matching force provided by the athlete. This makes it very safe as no large external load is required for high force outputs.
Picture: 1080 Motion products.
1080 Motion recently introduced a new product: The Sprint 2, which is a battery operated, portable machine with a built-in screen that teams, athletes and coaches can easily travel with the device.
Picture: 1080 Motion’s Sprint 2
Here is a video explaining how the 1080 Motion Sprint 2 works:
Listen to our podcast interview with Anna-Carin Månsson, CEO, and Ola Eriksrud, co-Founder at 1080 Motion, by clicking on the link below:
9. Uplift Labs
Founded: 2017
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Amount money raised: $8.5M
Website: https://uplift.ai
Total employees: 12
Customers / partners: Over a third of MLB teams, the NBA League, GOLFTEC (the world’s largest golf instruction company), and numerous private sports academies and colleges are notable clients.
Company/product description: Uplift was founded by 3 technology veterans. Masa served as President of Tesla Japan and held leadership roles at innovative global companies such as Apple and LEGO. CTO Jonathan Wills is a serial entrepreneur who sold his image recognition firm that he founded to GoPro in 2015. Uplift's Chief AI Officer, Rahul Rajan, earned his Ph.D. in considerate systems at Carnegie Mellon University.
In January, Uplift joined the NBA Launchpad, a new incubator program for tech that advance the league’s top basketball priorities. Uplift is also backed by NBA star Seth Curry and his wife Callie Rivers Curry, a former professional volleyball player, as well as retired basketball players such as former NBA All-Star Marc Gasol and Atlanta Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery. Other notable investors include former National Football League (NFL) player Andrew Luck and David DeCastro, RCVC, Softbank subsidiary DEEPCORE, Atma Capital, Stadia Ventures, Oregon Sports Angels, Black Lab Sports and Gaingels.
Here is a picture of Uplift Capture’s Cloud Visualizer:
Picture: Uplift Labs
While other motion capture systems rely on pricey wearables and require complex calibration, Uplift’s solution called Uplift Capture only requires a pair of iPhones or iPads and tripods. Footage of the athlete is recreated in accurate 3D. Uplift's AI then generates key biomechancial metrics of the movements.
“It’s two phones, no markers, easy calibration, just walk in and go to work (..) That saves probably like 70% of the time”, explains Keke Lyles, Uplift’s Director of Performance, and Golden State Warriors’ former Performance Director.
Picture: Uplift Labs
Listen to our podcast interview with Masa Kabayama, CEO of Uplift Labs by clicking on the button below:
10. Springbok analytics
Founded: 2013
HQ: Charlottesville, Virginia
Amount money raised: $3M
Website: https://www.springbokanalytics.com/
Total employees: 31
Customers / partners: They have worked with professional sports teams and leagues including the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, and MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays. The Eagles use the technology in rehabilitation after player injuries. The analytics and imaging can tell trainers whether the rehabilitation is working and ways to adjust a training regimen.
As shown below, Springbok Analytics also works with a number of research institutes.
Company/product description: At Springbok Analytics, their AI-powered platform transforms MRIs into three-dimensional analyses of muscle to enable true precision medicine. They deliver value for the health and wellness of large, diverse populations by providing objective insight to inform physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers and scientists in personalizing the care of patients. Their first-to-market clinical decision support tools have a wide range of application, including injury management, performance optimization, and the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.
Here is the video explaining how the technology works:
11. Brainlit
Founded: 2012
HQ: Lund, Skane County, Sweden, and New York, NY (USA)
Amount money raised: TBD
Website: https://www.brainlit.com
Total employees: 30
Customers / partners: Teams across NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, IMSA, NASCAR, Premier League, CPL
Company/product description: BrainLit is a health technology company, that focuses on light to deliver significant health and well-being improvements.
With Biocentric lighting, indoor environments are enhanced to help players, coaches, and staff entrain their bodies to their natural circadian rhythm to avoid sleep disruption. The platform is future-proof and allows for patented recipe development to meet an organization’s requirements whether it be pre-game focus/energy, post-game decompression/relaxation, and jetlag mitigation. The Brainlit platform can be implemented as a floorlamp (Alven, see photos) or full enterprise-wide facilities enhancement (Elven)
More focus and energy during the day, better sleep, and recovery at night create a passive advantage for organizations seeking better health, wellness, and performance.
Here is a video that explains how the technology works:
12. DARI Motion
Founded: 2009
HQ: Overland Park, Kansas (USA)
Amount money raised: TBD
Website: https://darimotion.com
Total employees: TBD
Customers / partners: Exos, ASMI, Life Time, Biocore.
Company/product description: Used for 10+ years to improve athlete performance at the highest level, DARI Motion offers a premier musculoskeletal analysis that helps reduce injury and drive better results.
Bottom line: Overall we thought that the 2023 NBA Summer league was a great event to attend. Load management, sleep management, injury reduction continue to be top priorities for the majority of NBA teams we talked to. We also came across some innovative sports tech startups in Las Vegas. As we noted earlier, AI is becoming more prominent in the sports tech industry. Advanced wearables with advanced sensors continue to emerge, and there is a growing interest towards mental health and cognitive training systems. In the next 24 months we expect to see the emergence of new innovative startups with capabilities that we have never seen before. It will also be interesting to see whether or not the NBA will start allowing the use of wearable technologies during live NBA games. We have been talking to NBA teams about this for years and we have yet to see this materialize. We are looking forward to be back next year at the 2024 NBA Summer league.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
Best,
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