Beyond Sports will bring artificial intelligence data visualization capabilities to create simulations for Sony’s growing sports business.
Sony has reached an agreement to acquire Beyond Sports, an artificial intelligence-based data visualization company specializing in fan engagement. The Dutch technology company will join optical tracking provider Hawk-Eye and digital media platform Pulselive among Sony’s sports ventures.
Beyond Sports can use player tracking data to create photorealistic simulations – some of which are used by pro sports clubs – but have developed a particular level in rendering graphic representations that target the young demographic of fans.
For example, Outside Sports animated highlights during Nickelodeon’s broadcast of the NFL wild-card game two seasons ago; That’s how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creates precise formations and player movements. Beyond Sports also created a cartoon of building blocks during the NHL playoff game last June.
“We believe we are experiencing a once-in-a-generation change in how fans consume sports content, and there is a huge shift from a passive, backward-leaning viewing experience to a more forward-leaning, interactive, immersive experience,” Rufus Hack said. , CEO of Sony’s sports business. “And we believe that Beyond Sports is very much on the cutting edge of some of those contextual trends and has the tools and technology to help the world’s top sports rights holders – our clients – think about how they can drive new commercial opportunities and also try new ways to engage the fans.”
Sony has partnered with 23 of the 25 global sports rights holders, Hack said, and trusted relationships are fueling conversations about the next frontier for content creation. At the same time, the co-founders of Beyond Sports Sander Schouten and Nicolaas Westerhof independently wrote a short list of companies with which they could push their business further.
“The ink is not even dry,” said Schouten, when Sony – one of the names on the list – reached out with interest.
“I think it all starts with knowing who you are, what you are and what you’re good at,” says Schouten, the CEO. Added Westerhof, CTO, “We think, with our technology, it will be the best for us, and we will be very good, to be part of something bigger.”
Beyond Sports sits in the middle of the sports media ecosystem, ingesting tracking data (such as Hawk-Eye’s), imagining new experiences and then publishing that through other platforms (such as Pulselive’s). Sony now offers an end-to-end solution for that workflow, enabling leagues, federations and broadcasters to shop one-stop for partners.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, other than Sony buying 100% of Beyond Sports shares. Beyond Sports will remain data-agnostic and will still be compatible with other tracking data systems.
“I fundamentally believe that there is a disconnect between the supply of sports and the demand among the younger generation,” added Hack. “I don’t believe that the younger generation cares more about sports than we did or our parents. And don’t think that we have provided, as an industry, sports in the way that they want to eat sports.
Schouten worked in video streaming and Westerhof was a video analyst for Dutch football power Ajax before starting Beyond Sports in 2014. With feedback from the national federation in the Netherlands, they started creating a virtual world for tactical analysis before recognizing the consumer appeal of the product.
Beyond Sports has its roots in the immersive world and can create compelling 3D figures in AR and VR but not limited to those mediums. The image can be viewed on a smartphone or website or incorporated into a digital world such as, for example, Roblox or games on the Sony PlayStation.
In the Netherlands, Beyond Sports powers the Gameface app which enables interactive streaming of Eredivisie matches. Fans can customize features: replace players with cartoons, recreate the game on Mars, even superimpose their own face on an athlete. When the Brazilian player scored a goal, the highlight was not available in his home country, but the recreation made on Gameface was viewed more than 300,000 times on social networks.
“It’s kind of an eye opener for the league here to say, ‘Wow, so we’re actually getting eyeballs from Brazil now even though we don’t have the broadcast rights sold to that country,'” Schouten said. “People are making their own clips and [executives] can see what they like or don’t like, and that behavior becomes very important because it’s a new generation that they’re doing, that a lot of leagues are struggling to keep up with them. or really engage with them in the first place.”
Hack claims that Sony is not maximizing the commercial potential of its raw material, tracking data. The technology has been upgraded to detect 29 points on the body, including the movement of the limbs and the direction of the head, providing a new opportunity for Beyond Sports to capture the emotions and other subtleties of athletes.
“Hawk-Eye is in a unique position where we effectively collect tracking data at most of the biggest sporting events in the world, but really, we’ve never done much downstream with that data in terms of generating it to create value,” Hack added. “Beyond Sports is incredibly competitive” in producing interesting content for fans and brands.
As Sony Pictures, Sony Music and Sony Interactive Entertainment (including PlayStation) are all multibillion-dollar subsidiaries, the sports business could be the parent company’s next acceleration.
“Sony has great ambitions in sports,” said Hack, adding: “Sports has been identified as one of the genres of entertainment where, at the moment, we have great efforts in Hawk-Eye and Pulselive, but not on that scale. So we are very interested to try to drive acquisition growth as well as organic growth through the Sony family to achieve greater scale, and Beyond Sports is the first step on that stage.
