Ai In Sports

SBJ's Tech Awards: Winners Span Data, Performance, Fan Access

SBJ's 2026 SBA: Tech awards named winners in AI, athlete performance, fan accessibility and venue operations, including Elevate's EPIC and OneCourt.

Pre-World Cup Forecast Projected $135M in Lost Naming-Rights Value

A pre-tournament Navigate analysis, published in June 2026, projected up to $135M in lost naming-rights media value at World Cup stadiums.

Pollstar names winners of 2026 Excellence in Concessions Awards

Pollstar published its 2026 Excellence in Concessions Awards on Sept. 2, recognizing venue food, beverage and hospitality programs across the U.S.

Euroleague Plans Unified Digital Platform as US Open Venue Upgrade Continues

SportsPro reporting details Euroleague's planned direct-to-consumer platform and the US Open's US$800 million stadium renovation.

Turkish Airlines to Replace Standard Chartered on Liverpool Shirts

Turkish Airlines agreed to sponsor Liverpool’s shirts from 2027-28 in a five-year deal reported at about $81 million annually.

NFL Puts The Athletic Content on NFL.com, Renews TikTok Deal

The NFL finalized a deal placing The Athletic's articles on NFL.com and renewed a multiyear TikTok partnership, per Front Office Sports and MediaPost.

Sports venues are now being specced like IT projects

Facilities teams are planning for connectivity, drones and LED lighting while projects like a proposed $70M Louisiana complex show pipelines getting bigger

Presidio’s Resonate uses agentic AI to turn sports archives into searchable inventory

Presidio is pushing agentic AI into sports media ops, pairing Captivate fan experiences with Resonate back-end search, tagging, and clip generation on AWS Media

Cosm’s 700-seat domes make NFL rights run like venue operations

Cosm will show NFL games in its 12K LED domes in Los Angeles and Dallas, forcing venue ops teams to plan like broadcasters.

Fastbreak AI is quietly becoming the scheduling engine for 50-plus pro leagues

Fastbreak AI says its software now schedules 50+ pro leagues. For ops teams, the real shift is treating schedules like constrained optimization, not calendar wo

YouTube TV adds ESPN Unlimited inside the app as ESPN raises DTC prices

YouTube TV added ESPN Unlimited in-app as ESPN lifts DTC prices on Sept. 17, shifting how operators should value bundled sports streaming versus stand-alone tie

Record $9.612B Seahawks sale turns ticketing controls and sponsor deliverables into board-level work

NFL owners approved the $9.612B Seahawks sale. For operators, ticketing controls, resale leakage and partner deliverables move from back office detail to board-

Snow League’s NBC, Peacock and YouTube plan makes Season Two a production workflow test

The Snow League adds YouTube simulcasts, >50 hours on Peacock, and a second U.S. stop. For media ops teams, it’s a multi-platform workflow problem.

SBJ Tech: Timberwolves’ reported “$5M-plus” ticket-revenue gain puts tech ROI under the microscope

SBJ Tech reported that the Timberwolves posted a “$5M-plus” increase in ticket revenue, as EA Sports, Next League and venue technology teams look for clearer ti

Sports rights deals are being won with data and distribution, not bigger checks

New survey data and fresh rights moves show platforms are negotiating for reach, data and packaging, while local carriage deals get more targeted.

SportBusiness is selling Deals Tracker as a dataset of 2,000 sponsorship portfolios

SportBusiness is pitching Deals Tracker as a dataset covering 2,000 sponsorship portfolios and 10,000 decision-maker contacts, as rights holders and sponsors mo

Microsoft’s Blue Jays deal brings Copilot signs and Azure data into stadium operations

Microsoft’s multi-year Blue Jays partnership signals a playbook: cloud-first data stacks, AI-branded fan moments, and tighter links between venues and talent pi

$2.3 billion Rays stadium plan highlights how venues are starting to resemble utilities

Tampa's $2.3B Rays ballpark deal restructures an $80M piece into a 35-year revenue-sharing plan for city infrastructure, part of a wider look at how venues manage funding, automation, and sustainability.

AI translation is turning sports broadcasts into on-demand language feeds

From the 2026 World Cup to esports, AI localization is moving into the live workflow, changing how rights teams test markets and package inventory.

Texas Tech's $75M Galaxy Stadium deal adds a data center partner designation

A 15-year, $75M naming-rights deal with Galaxy adds NIL activation and an "official data center and digital assets partner" designation for Texas Tech Athletics.

A $150m shared training center in Portland is changing how women’s sports facilities get built

RAJ Sports’ Kaiser Permanente Performance Center adds a 100,000-sq-ft, dual-team model, and it changes how operators should spec rooms, gear, and event tech.

BlackSun’s $1bn first close shifts more sports teams into funds

BlackSun says it has raised $1bn toward a $7bn target, a sign that sports ownership is shifting toward fund platforms that bundle teams with media, tech, and re

Apple’s 5-year U.S. F1 deal treats sports rights like a product bundle

Apple’s five-year U.S. F1 package starts in 2026, and it’s priced like a rights deal but built like a product bundle.

Telestream and ScorePlay pipe live sports feeds into the media library

Telestream Vantage ingest now feeds ScorePlay’s media platform, turning live feeds into searchable clips faster and raising the bar for monitoring and metadata

DAZN becomes a new way to buy Monumental+ in Washington’s live sports market

Monumental+ will become available through DAZN in a multiyear deal for the DC-Maryland-Virginia region, though a launch date is still TBD.

ESPN’s Little League uses 60 cameras for alt-casts and HDR

RailCam returns, 4DReplay renders in under five seconds, and ESPN adds an alumni alt-cast in Williamsport.

Spain Won the World Cup. Here Is the $13 Billion B2B Story Behind It.

Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium. The trophy went to one country. The $13 billion in commercial returns went to every enterprise brand that understood what this tournament actually was: the largest B2B attention event on earth. Here is the business story behind the final.

Gaming investment hits highest quarterly level in a year at $2.5B+ in Q2 2026

Drake Star's Q2 2026 Global Gaming Report finds financing hit a 12-month high across 96 rounds, with AI tools, AdTech, and hardware drawing the largest checks.

Building Stadium Experiences for Everyone

At InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas, Josh Barney, CEO of the Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT), stepped off the Spotlight stage after delivering a talk that touched on one of the industry's most pressing shifts: stadiums are no longer built solely around the sports product. They are b

USA’s perfect World Cup start and the business case behind the hype

The USMNT won its first two 2026 World Cup matches as co-host. Here is what the momentum means for sponsorship, hospitality, and B2B demand.