PingPod, a startup using technology to enhance the table tennis experience, announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Heritage.
Each PingPod location is 24/7 accessible and self-serve, with reservations, opponent pairings and remote access handled through an app, which eliminates the need for onsite employees. The ping pong pods are all equipped with connected video so that players can order replays for an additional fee, choosing either individual shots or entire matches.
To date, PingPod has three locations in New York City with another three under development and a first Philadelphia location also coming soon. Former UBS equity research associate David Silberman brainstormed the idea for the company and founded the startup alongside former Super Soccer Stars executive Max Kogler and former No. 1 ranked U.S. table tennis player Ernesto Ebuen, who is now a coach.
Sportec Solutions, a joint venture between the German Football League (DFL) and Deltatre, has acquired majority ownership in soccer officiating technology specialist Vieww. The Bundesliga will also utilize Vieww’s goal-line technology and video assistant referee (VAR) for the next five seasons.
Vieww’s deal begins with the 2022-23 season and will see its technology deployed across all Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 games, including relegation playoffs and Super Cup matches. FIFA’s Innovation Program accepted Vieww as one of its three inaugural members last year. Vieww’s automatic goal detection uses computer vision cameras capable of capturing 200 images per second. STS and Vieww will replace Hawk-Eye, which the Bundesliga has used since 2015.
Sportec Solutions (STS) will seek to expand Vieww’s goal-line technology across global soccer federations. STS is the Bundesliga’s match data provider and is majority-owned by Deltatre, the digital services and OTT streaming provider to MLS, MLB and NFL Game Pass. The Bundesliga’s VAR deal with Vieww comes after FIFA has already begun trialing new AI camera systems to track offsides for potential use at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
“The opportunities afforded by a fully integrated data and officiating ecosystem, coupled with Deltatre’s fan engagement expertise, represent a significant and exciting evolution in our proposition for leagues and federations,” Sportec Solutions managing director Hendrik Weber said in a statement.
Formula 1 team Mercedes-AMG Petronas has a new deal with Eight Sleep to supply its drivers with the company’s smart mattress and temperature-controlled bedding products. Eight Sleep raised $86 million last August, and its investors include retired and current MLB stars Alex Rodriguez, Kris Bryant and J.D. Martinez, as well as former NBA player Matthew Dellavedova.
Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro mattress is embedded with sensors to track metrics such as heart rate and heart rate variability throughout various sleep stages. The data is shown through daily reports on the company’s connected app. Eight Sleep’s materials have built-in AI to monitor body temperature and to then heat or cool down the mattress for a user’s optimized sleeping temperature.
Mercedes’ F1 car will be branded with Eight Sleep during the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in early May. Eight Sleep’s logo will also be on the team’s car covers throughout the 2022 season. Eight Sleep’s athlete endorsers include Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno, former English Premier League star Daniel Sturridge and CrossFit athlete Brooke Wells.
Cricket NFT marketplace FanCraze is raising a $100 million funding round with backers that include soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, according to Bloomberg. Venture capital firms B Capital Group and Insight Partners are leading the Series A round, which Bloomberg reports could be announced in the coming weeks.
The International Cricket Council, the governing body of the sport, partnered with FanCraze in January to release NFTs. The partnership’s first offering of digital collectibles included video highlight NFTs from the 2015 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2015 and the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
FanCraze, previously known as Faze Technologies, raised a $17.4 million seed round last year that was led by Tiger Global. The startup’s investors also include NBA Top Shot-developer Dapper Labs and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé.
At-home connected rowing company Hydrow has raised $55 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Constitution Capital with participation from Liberty Street, Activant Capital and Sandbridge Capital—as well as existing investors L Catterton and RX3 Ventures, the firm co-founded by Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers, the back-to-back NFL MVP, saw his Rx3 Ventures previously invest in Hydrow’s $25 million round led by L Catterton in 2020. Hydrow’s indoor machine comes with a touch-screen to stream more than 4,000 live and on-demand workouts. Some of the workouts are led by professional athletes and Olympic rowers as they operate boats on waters around the world.
Hydrow has more than 200,000 users, and its new funding will support product innovation, global expansion and brand marketing efforts. Actor Kevin Hart joined Hydrow as its creative director in 2020. The new funding comes as Hyrdow navigates competition from other at-home rowing machines such as the Colin Kaepernick-backed Ergatta and gamified rower Aviron.
Mantra Health, a digital mental health care platform, has partnered with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to make its services available to student-athletes at all 252 NAIA member schools.
Founded in 2018, Mantra Health seeks to work collaboratively with existing campus care staff and other resources, using evidence-based recommendations to offer treatment plans including weekly motivations to make lifestyle changes. Students who use Mantra take an online assessment and then are paired with a provider for a video consultation.
More than 50 higher ed institutions, including MIT and Penn State, had already adopted Mantra Health prior to this athlete-centric announcement. The company raised a $22 million Series A in Jan. 2022. Other mental health apps working with teenage and young adult athletes include The Zone and InspireTek.
Microsoft is the new official technology partner of the Atlanta Track Club, a non-profit running organization. The club’s kids program that reaches more than 40 schools in the Atlanta area will see youth learn how to code a running-themed video game via Microsoft’s MakeCode online platform.
The partnership will focus on bringing STEM educational opportunities to youth in the Atlanta area. Microsoft will also become the title sponsor of Peachtree Junior, the track club’s marquee youth event held in July.
Microsoft and LeBron James previously hosted a coding contest that asked kids to create an Xbox video game inspired by the latest Space Jam film. The tech giant acquired video game developer Activision Blizzard in January to expand its presence in gaming and esports.
Blockchain-based video game The Sandbox has partnered with banking company HSBC to “take sports engagement to a new level in gaming metaverse,” the companies announced Wednesday. HSBC will buy a plot of virtual land in The Sandbox to interact with the game’s sports and esports communities.
“The metaverse is how people will experience Web3, the next generation of the Internet—using immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality and extended reality,” Suresh Balaji, CMO of HSBC Asia-Pacific, said in a statement.
HBSC’s existing sports sponsorships include deals with the Wimbledon tennis tournament, English soccer’s Tottenham Hotspur, the World Rugby Sevens Series and golf events such as the British Open and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
More than 200 brands have deals to operate in The Sandbox—including Adidas, Warner Music Group, Gucci, Atari, Ubisoft and athletes such as Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti. The Sandbox is owned by Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands, which also made Olympic pin NFTs used in a mobile game launched by the IOC.
HSBC is not the first bank to make a metaverse deposit. JP Morgan opened a virtual lounge earlier this year in Decentraland, another digital world where users buy in-game real estate and perks with cryptocurrency.
Animoca Brands partnered with Formula 1 in 2019 to launch F1 Delta Time, an Ethereum-based mobile game. The game shut down Wednesday as F1 did not renew its licensing deal with Animoca Brands. Users will effectively lose their NFTs purchased in the game. Animoca plans to provide those users with NFT cars from another racing game it operates, according to Decrypt.
TrackMan radar will track pitches during SEC baseball games this season to evaluate the accuracy of ball and strike calls made by home plate umpires. The technology will be used during all conference games and the SEC tournament.
The TrackMan device uses a 3-D doppler radar to measure ball flight data. MLB installed TrackMan at Atlantic League stadiums in 2019 for the first trial of its automated ball-strike system. MLB has since replaced TrackMan’s radar system with Hawk-Eye’s optical cameras for its electronic strike zone, which will call balls and strikes in Triple-A games this season and be used to challenge calls in Low-A.
Pitch data from TrackMan will help the SEC train, evaluate and improve performance of the conference’s human umpires. TrackMan’s ball-tracking technology is also used by college baseball programs to evaluate potential high school recruits through the company’s partnership with Prep Baseball Report.
“This is another innovative step to improving the accuracy and performance of SEC officiating,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement.
ESPN will debut graphics powered by Second Spectrum’s optical tracking system during its broadcasts of the NCAA Women’s Final Four and National Championship basketball games. Such visualization will include real-time shot probabilities and shot distances, as well as special effects for three-pointers.
The network plans to offer the augmented feed as an alternate viewing option to ESPN’s main telecast of the games. ESPN says it will be the first live augmented video feed for women’s basketball.
Second Spectrum, which is owned by Genius Sports, is also providing advanced data graphics for Turner’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. ESPN first used Second Spectrum to create its Marvel-themed NBA alternate broadcast last year. Second Spectrum’s AI camera system tracks data for the NBA, English Premier League and MLS.
MLB’s new CBA blocks the league from selling a player’s biometric data tracked during training sessions, according to Mark Saxon of US Bets. The protective clause comes as sports betting companies increasingly seek data from wearables and optical camera systems to fuel their oddsmaking and prop bets.
“It shall be illegal for Major League Baseball and any club to sell and/or license a player’s confidential medical information, personal biometric data, or any nonpublic data used to evaluate player performance in practices or training sessions,” reads the collective bargaining agreement.
In 2017, Whoop became the first wearable device approved to be worn by players during MLB games. Leagues such as NASCAR, the PGA Tour and WTA have since struck deals to equip their athletes with Whoop’s wrist-worn device to have biometric data such as a player’s live heart rate appear during broadcasts.
“I think there is a world where you’re seeing heart rate data or recovery data leading into a game,” Whoop’s VP of performance science Kristin Holmes told SportTechie in 2020. “You can see heart rate data as a pro golfer approaches a putt, and fans betting on it in real time based on some of that biometric feedback.” Holmes will speak at next month’s State Of The Industry conference in NYC.
MLB already has existing deals with gambling companies such as MGM Resorts and FanDuel to share in-game data from Statcast, the league’s player-tracking system powered by Hawk-Eye’s optical cameras.
The new CBA also gives active MLB players the right to sign sponsorships with sports betting companies for the first time. Earlier this month, NHL star Connor McDavid signed with BetMGM— the first active player in any major U.S. pro league to endorse a regulated North American sportsbook.
As part of the new CBA, all MLB teams are required to set up a hotline to report sports betting-related threats made against players and their families. Last year, gambler Benjamin Tucker Patz pleaded guilty to sending Instagram messages that threatened to kill members of the Tampa Bay Rays after they lost a game.
This upcoming season will see MLB’s first connected in-venue sportsbooks operate at home stadiums for the Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks. Chicago’s Wrigley Field also plans to open a DraftKings Sportsbook in 2023.