After three years of research and development, the tech company Altis is releasing its interactive AI personal trainer to the public.  

The company’s software engineers have constructed a Movement Operating System designed to create a gamified, mixed-reality training regimen for users. The sleek product is seamlessly attached to any home screen and can be personalize individual workouts without the use of wearables or sensors.  

Altis utilizes a trademarked BodyGPS , or motion capture system, that uses computer vision to identify a user’s limbs and joints within one centimeter of pinpoint accuracy. With 4D capability, the system is able to monitor a user’s fatigue in real time to determine what weight and how many reps should be lifted during training.  

AltisVision is another trademarked mixed-reality aspect of the unit that gamifies the workout by creating a real-time avatar of the user, along with graphics and visual cues to ensure the user has proper technique. Via artificial intelligence, the unit’s machine learning also creates individualized short and long term workout suggestions for the user.  

Software engineer Andrew Rabinovich, the former leader of AI at Magic leap and co-founder of Headroom , was among the developers.

Sparta Science, a movement performance company specializing in force plate data, has partnered with seven healthcare organizations. The most recent addition is Orlando Health, a Central Florida hospital network that is also the official medical provider for MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, Orlando City SC of MLS and NWSL’s Orlando Pride. 

The cloud-based Sparta Science platform analyzes movement data and provides feedback to patients through a mobile app and to clinicians who can use the machine learning analysis as a second opinion to assess rehab protocols and plan treatment.

Among the other recent Sparta partners are Inflect Health, which has deployed Sparta in seven of its clinics, and Louisiana’s Ochsner Lafayette General. Founded by strength coach and physician Dr. Phil Wagner, Sparta’s roots are in elite athletics and tactical units.

Nielsen and LaLiga Tech, the technology subsidiary of Spain’s top soccer league, collaborated on a new study that found sports fans aged 34 and younger claimed to follow an average of 6.3 sports, a marginal increase compared to older generations. The survey is based on responses from 20,000 fans across the Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X and Baby boomer age groups.

The surveyed fans came from 15 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Fans 34 and under listed a total of 65 different sports as being of interest. Nearly half (46%) of the younger fans (Gen Z and Millennial) prefer to watch sports on smartphones or tablets. The same group is 41% more likely than older fans to engage with fantasy sports while watching a game broadcast while 55% of Gen Z fans expect to see and interact with live statistics during a broadcast, according to the report.

Of the 20,000 fans surveyed, 41% watch some sporting events via a streaming platform. Roughly half of that audience (47%) say they also watch traditional television simultaneously while streaming sports. According to Nielsen, multi-screen consumption for Gen Z increased 10% globally over the past year compared to a 5% increase for all demographics.

“This report underlines trends that we have been monitoring for some time; digital audiences are being attracted to sport through gaming, streaming content or mobile apps, but their level of fandom has not changed, in fact it may even be increasing,” LaLiga Tech product lead Fabio Gallo said in a statement. “Now is the time for sports organizations to prepare for the change by creating owned digital platforms that allow their content to be discovered by a new generation, using data analytics to create stronger fan links than we have ever seen before.”

Through a partnership with the cloud-based platform Spiideo, the elite youth Gothia Cup soccer tournament will be livestreamed in its entirety.

Every match of the Gothia Cup, to be played July 17-23 in Gothenburg, Sweden with a pool of approximately 35,000 players, will be available via Spiideo’s automated fixed and portable SmartCam systems. The automated application allows 1,620 matches to be shown along with graphics, match analytics and commentary. Streams will be live and then available to be watched via replay.

Spiideo's  technology will also be used for handball’s Partille Cup, July 4 through 9th and for the Gothia Floorball Cup in January of 2023 – which means the company will livestream a total of 6,000 sporting events in three sports.

Shift4 has partnered with the Tennessee Titans to become the official payment processor at Nissan Stadium. The company’s electronic payment solutions will process food and beverage concessions and retail sales at Nissan Stadium, starting with the WWE SummerSlam hosted July 30.

Founded in 1999, Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2020. As the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated touchless payments inside sports stadiums, Shift4 acquired point-of-sale provider VenueNext for  $72 million  in March 2021. VenueNext’s point-of-sale, mobile ordering, and mobile wallet systems will now be integrated into Nissan Stadium, which became cashless in 2021.

Shift4 added  Wells Fargo Center, Oracle Park, LoanDepot Park, Snapdragon Stadium and all of Ohio State’s athletic facilities as payments processing clients in the first quarter of 2022.

Shift4’s Head of Sports and entertainment Dustin Alpert will speak at SportTechie’s upcoming  Horizon Summit  hosted with the San Francisco 49ers from July 12-13 at Levi’s Stadium. In 2014, Levi’s Stadium became  the first pro sports venue  to add VenueNext’s payment processing systems.

SweatWorks, a digital agency focused on fitness and wellness, has reached a strategic partnership with Feed Music Group, a music licensor, to create new connected fitness products with high engagement rates.

Feed Music Group and SweatWorks have previously worked together on products for MYXFitness, CityRow, Openfit, CLMBR and Hygear. Research from FMG indicates that those who listen to its curated music stations during workouts have an average session that lasts 3.2 times longer and have a customer retention rate beyond 90 days that’s 1.6 times higher.

SweatWorks helps create custom hardware, software and AI for the fitness industry. FMG has also collaborated with Mirror, Nautilus and Tonal.

Youth baseball games played at Cooperstown All Star Village (CASV) this summer will be recorded and livestreamed using Pixellot’s AI-powered cameras. The partnership covers 5,000 games through Labor Day for players under 12 years old.

Pixellot DoublePlay, the baseball camera system that automatically follows ball and player movements, will be installed at all 12 fields at CASV, which is located about 20 miles from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The system includes a camera placed behind home plate and centerfield. The cameras require no human operator and can automatically switch angles and zoom in on the ball.

The video will be livestreamed to the All Star Village’s website, which also lets families of players save and share game footage and highlights. Each week, more than 10,000 youth players from 700 teams attend week-long baseball camps hosted by CASV throughout the summer.

Pixellot recently raised $161 million in Series D funding. MLB uses the company’s DoublePlay camera system to record and stream games for the MLB Draft League and Appalachian League.

Staige, an automated video production company, has received a significant investment from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and signed a partnership with Spanish youth soccer streaming platform Footters.

Originally founded as Soccerwatch in 2017, Staige uses AI-powered cameras to record and stream live sports and offers an integrated coaching tool for post-match analysis. Dortmund, a regular Champions League entry, invested €8.5 million ($8.9 million) earlier this month.

The agreement with Footters is for three years. The site has streamed Spain’s third-division league, RFEF, and carries the understated tagline, “Tenemos mucho fútbol,” or, “We have a lot of soccer.”

All Syracuse University athletes can potentially have their own personal NFTs after the school’s athletic department struck a partnership Fantastec SWAP.  

Any 2022-23 Syracuse athlete, from any sport, will be eligible to have an NFT via Name, Image and Likeness. Syracuse is the first collegiate program to have deal with Fantastec SWAP , which previously has produced NFTs for soccer clubs Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid.  

According to the university, the athletes’ NFTs can be collected, traded or sold through the Fantastec SWAP  APP. The first iteration of the partnership—Syracuse’s "Season Preview Collection"—will become available this Thursday, leading to more releases during the season.  

Related: More on NFTs will be covered at SportTechie’s upcoming  Horizon Summit, July 12-13.

Sports Gambling Guides, which represents nearly 1,000 social media content creators and influencers, has gained $2 million in funding as online gaming continues to be legalized nationwide.  

Astralis Capital, a venture capital firm known for backing companies in the digital gaming space, was among the top investors through its betting-focused Astralis Fund I LP. Considering Sports Gambling Guides is licensed in every legal on-line wagering state—with more states expected to legalize digital gambling soon—the funding will help it expand its reach.  

Sports Gambling Guides has gained notoriety as a top Instagram and Twitter gambling account. Birthed in 2020 by father and son founders, the company’s content creators have an aggregate audience of more than 22 million followers.   

The company’s client database boasts gaming brands such as PointsBet , PrizePicks , BetMGM , DraftKings and FanDuel .

FIFA and FIFPRO, the international union for professional soccer players, will launch a service to detect hate speech on social media during international tournaments. The service will monitor posts across social media platforms that are sent to a tournament’s participating team accounts, players, coaches, and referees. It will launch in time for November’s start of the men’s World Cup in Qatar.

The monitoring service will be programmed to scan recognized hate speech terms on social media during men’s and women’s international tournaments. Once an abusive post is detected, the comment will no longer be viewable by the tagged recipient and their followers. Offensive posts will remain viewable to the person who sent the post, enabling FIFA and FIFPRO to potentially report the account’s activity to the social media company and law enforcement authorities.

FIFA recently published a report that used artificial intelligence to track more than 400,000 social media posts sent during the semi-finals and finals of the UEFA Euro 2020 and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations men’s tournaments. More than 50% of participating players across the tournaments were found to have received discriminatory abuse on social media.

The report claims that a significant amount of abusive posts were sent from accounts located in the directed player’s home nation, and that homophobic (40%) and racist (38%) comments made up the majority of flagged comments. FIFA’s study also found that 90% of accounts flagged for publishing abusive posts have a “high probability” of identifying the person behind the account.