WFS Award Best SportsTech Startup – Finalists
We are almost there. In just a couple of days, the award ceremony of the World Football Summit will take place in Sevilla, and we will have the privilege of awarding the Best Sports Tech Startups. After an intense week of evaluating all the applications, our jury members have selected three startups as finalists for the Award. The three finalists have stood out with their solutions that support football organisations to overcome their current challenges, and today, we are proud to introduce them to you:
Footbar
Footbar is the story of two engineers with a passion for football who met at school. They developed an artificial intelligence system for years by watching thousands of football videos and gathering a substantial database of players and teams. Created in 2014, the French Startups evaluate soccer players using a small sensor placed behind the player's calf.
The solution combines sensor and video streams to give players, coaches, and teams the ability to track performance on the pitch in much the same way that professional players can with their advanced - and more expensive - technology.
Footbar breaks barriers in innovative ways while always keeping users' and communities’ best interests in mind, from pricing to data privacy and youth development. Footbar’s solution to develop the Meteor is innovative on many levels. The wearable technology that is currently on the market is limited by the software's capabilities to understand movements and the bulky size of the technology.
Footbar has worked for eight years on developing accurate and reliable algorithms that understand the movements made on the pitch during games and in practice. The product's small size and light weight allow for comfortable use during sessions.
SkillCorner
SkillCorner is a French start-up specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) tracking with an expanding global client base and team. The company has built an AI-powered video tracking technology based on deep learning capable of recognizing, positioning and following the football players, referee and ball from any match broadcast.
SkillCorner provides performance data and analytics to football clubs and federations worldwide, primarily to support player recruitment and scouting, but with cross-over to match analysis and coach development. This is achieved through the provision of deeper technical and tactical insights beyond event-level data, or measuring and monitoring players' physical performance at scale, from any league where the video is available.
SkillCorner technology transforms broadcast videos into data, unlocking a deeper understanding of football performance for every minute played, helping clubs get greater analytical depth at scale, driving competitive advantage in player recruitment and reducing the risks associated with it.
SkillCorner is excited to announce that full continuous player tracking is now available. The simulation option follows an extensive 12 month period of development, in order to estimate player movement off-camera, during replays and close ups.
— SkillCorner (@SkillCorner) April 23, 2021
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Track160
Track160 is an Israeli-based start-up combining the talents of computer vision scientists with experts in sports coaching, strategy, and analytics. The company helps football youth clubs take their game to the next level with FIFA-certified performance analytics and videos for every team and every player. Using a single camera position to capture every action on the field, instead of a full array of dozens of cameras, makes the Track160 set-up very affordable to clubs with limited budgets.
Combining that with the FIFA EPTS certified patented technology that automatically identifies each player by their skeletal form and tracks them at all times through Optical Tracking, as opposed to GPS components that are attached to players’ bodies, the platform captures every action, metric and many more insights to which community clubs, coaches and players have never before had access to.
Coaches receive access to a state-of-the art web interface, with exactly the same level of data professional coaches and analysts are getting, while players get their own app, fuelled by their team and personalised stats, along with shareable action clips and game highlights – straight to their mobile.
Track160’s pioneering technology is the breakthrough for this industry to bring elite league analytics experiences and more to football clubs at any level.
Congratulations to all startups that applied; you are all doing great work to take sports organisations to the next level. Now it’s time to wait for the award ceremony on September 29 at Sevilla, to know the 2022 WFS Awards winners.
About World Football Summit:
World Football Summit is where football industry leaders meet to shape the future of the game and the business. They host the largest and most influential community in football, providing a voice to the multiple stakeholders involved; allowing them to meet, discuss, promote and generate business opportunities amongst each other.
WFS has evolved from an annual gathering in Madrid to a powerful platform that connects leaders and brands across a growing series of physical and digital events, delivering tailor-made solutions for those aiming to stand out in the growing, complex and highly competitive business of sports.
About WFS Award:
When the game starts, football belongs to the players. They are the only stars. But for footballers to shine on the pitch, the hidden work of countless professionals across the industry’s multiple sectors is required. The WFS Awards were created to acknowledge and reward the achievements of these executives, managers, sponsors, agencies, media, NGOs and other professionals whose talent, passion, and dedication help make football the greatest show of our time.