Highlight Reel: FIFA’s incredible World Cup streaming experiment ⚽️
This week's top stories feature FIFA, MLS, Naomi Osaka, Patrick Mahomes, Shikhar Dhawan, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Netflix, and the ATP and WTA Tours.
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Happy Friday!
Building up to the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, my attention (since England’s exit) has turned to a number of interesting innovations off the pitch, from providing players their data, to a streaming experiment that went beyond their own platform. Here’s my 5 stories for the week👇
MLP ushers in promotion and relegation as Osaka and Mahomes buy in
FIFA’s incredible World Cup streaming experiment
Shikhar Dhawan launches $75m tech fund
US seeking to block Microsoft's $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard
FIFA Player App proving huge success at 2022 World Cup
Bonus: Netflix releases Break Point teaser and announces January premiere
MLP ushers in promotion and relegation as Osaka and Mahomes buy in 🎾
Major League Pickleball has finalised the format and schedule for 2023, which will see the league double its number of teams (12 to 24) and events (three to six), while ushering in promotion and relegation, according to a report from Axios’ Kendall Baker.
Following in the footsteps of LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Kevin Durant, this has since opened up the opportunity for both tennis ace Naomi Osaka and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to invest into a new Major League Pickleball team.
FIFA’s incredible World Cup streaming experiment ⚽️
Ahead of the tournament, FIFA reached a deal with Brazilian gaming streamer, Casimiro. The deal allowed him to show one match a day live to his followers, which totalled 3.4m on Twitch and 5m on YouTube.
According to Streams Charts, his broadcast of Brazil’s penalty loss to Croatia was the most-watched YouTube live stream of 2022, with a peak audience of over 6m people. This content has also helped propel him to the top of the Twitch charts, making him the most popular account in the world for the first week of December.
Having made the playbook work in Brazil, the FT’s weekly newsletter Scoreboard has suggested that there is now scope to look at rolling it out in other markets, or for other events such as the Women’s World Cup next year.
Shikhar Dhawan launches $75m tech fund 🏏
Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has announced a $75m global investment fund to invest in sportstech startups, becoming the first Asian sportsperson to launch a venture capital fund, according to Business Standard.
The cricketer has been actively investing in India’s startup ecosystem over the past few years. He is a part of a star-studded cast who are the backers of yoga startup Sarva. Dhawan also founded Da-One Group, a startup which has a chain of sports academies across India.
US seeking to block $69bn Activision Blizzard acquisition 🎮
The US is entering a legal battle with Xbox-maker Microsoft to block its $69bn plan to purchase Activision Blizzard, the gaming firm behind the likes of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, citing competition concerns.
There is a fear that if the deal went through, Activision Blizzard's games would stop being offered on non-Microsoft gaming consoles. However, Microsoft president and vice chairman Brad Smith has said Xbox's acquisition is fair because PlayStation has significantly more exclusive games.
FIFA Player App proving huge success at 2022 World Cup 🧮
When the FIFA World Cup began a few weeks ago, participating players received a unique QR code giving them access to the FIFA Player App, a bespoke analytics tool that improves players’ access to and use of match data.
Based on input from professional players, in collaboration with FIFPRO, the app provides the opportunity for each player to access their individual performance data, linked to videos of relevant match action, minutes after each match.
“I believe we have over 400 players that are consistently using the app right after the match, which is, of course, very exciting. This also sets a new standard for football data distribution in the future,” explained FIFA Football Data Scientist Bahaeddine El Fakir.
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BONUS
Netflix releases Break Point teaser and announces January premiere 🎾
Get ready to grab your popcorn (…on January 13th)!
Netflix on Wednesday released a teaser for Break Point, the upcoming behind the scenes doc-series from the team behind F1: Drive To Survive.
As tennis’ legends like Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, and Williams all reach the twilight of their careers, this is the chance for a new generation to claim the spotlight. Break Point gets up close and personal with players on the ATP and WTA Tours over a year competing across the globe.
