Louvre-ing SportsTech
Innovation takes center-stage at Global Sports Week Paris
The iconic Pei Pyramid, the Monalisa, the Coronation of Napolean. On a regular day those are probably the main attractions at the Louvre. However on Feb 6 & 7 sports fans had another reason to visit the iconic venue as it hosted the first edition of the Global Sports Week (GSW) Paris. Under the High Patronage of the the President of France and the support of the French Ministry of Sports along with other partners, the city, soon-to-be host of the 2024 Olympic Games, served as a perfect rendezvous point for industry leaders to “shake, shape and share,” the future of sport.
Held in the beautiful Le Carrousel Du Louvre, attendees were immersed in two days of insightful discussions, presentations and competitions all focused on what’s next in the world of sports. Having been to a lot of SportsTech conferences, it’s hard to say I’ve been to one at a cooler venue.
“Inverting the Pyramid” on Day 1
Having sufficiently recovered from the VIP welcome cocktail the previous night (the champagne was indeed flowing!) the first day greeted me with stunning visuals at the entrance of the conference. The symmetry of the event logo and the venues iconic structures reminded me of Jonathan Wilson’s book with the same name on the origin of football tactics, one of my favourite books about sports. The bar had indeed been set high (pun intended).
In the opening ceremony we heard from an impressive lineup of speakers including 3-time Olympic Champion & President of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet, Paris Saint-Germain Professional Footballer, Nadia Nadim, French Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu and International Paralympic Committee President, Andrew Parsons, all moderated by CNN’s Amanda Davies.
Next up, was an insightful talk from Yannick Bolloré, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Vivendi and Chairman & CEO at Havas Group. A leader in media and entertainment, Yannick discussed his vision for the role of brands and media in the development of sports. The rest of the day’s agenda was full of interesting talks but there was plenty of networking to be done outside the main arena as well!
Le Tremplin Invest Finals
I must admit I was looking forward to this the most, to check out the startups at the Le Tremplin Invest Finals. Organized by the French Ministry of Sport and Le Tremplin, 16 SportsTech startups had the chance to pitch their projects to a large pool of investors on an international stage.
Managing Director, Charles Fremont, introduced the initiative, explaining the event’s coordination with GSW and its aim to connect international startups and investors and create new networking and investment opportunities in the global SportsTech ecosystem.
Presenting startups either qualified for these finals through smaller competitions or were selected from various other international SportsTech initiatives including Thinksport (Switzerland), Wylab (Italy), Qatar SportsTech (Qatar), Sport Tech Hub (UK), Sports Tech Tokyo (Japan), leAD Sport Accelerator (Germany) and Colosseum Sport (Israel).
Here are the 16 startups that presented:
Advanced Sport Instruments specializes in the development of electronic performance tracking solutions in the sports industry.
Clim8 has developed a technology that knows when and how to keep you at the right temperature with thermal sensors linked to a mobile app to adjust to your needs.
Creative Bot provides plug-and-play solutions to enable 1-to-1 conversations at scale between sports organizations and their fans on any digital platform.
Dazzl is a mobile app and cloud-based video production suite. The app allows for multi-camera video content to be created and distributed from a smartphone or professional camera anywhere in the world along with live broadcast capabilities for social media and streaming platforms.
Edisn.ai is an AI powered fan engagement platform with state-of-the-art player recognition and contextual content delivery.
Enervibe develops MEMS-based vibration energy harvesting chips. Their products provide power to battery-less or battery supported devices.
FanAxn encourages fan engagement by allowing sports fans to enjoy free-to-play betting and prediction games and have the chance to win real cash and prizes.
Funder is a fundraising platform that uses white-label sweepstakes and lotteries to incentivise more people to give to good causes they care about on a regular basis with chances to win money themselves.
My Sport Market is a marketplace that is fighting against the waste of sport products. The company helps sport shops sell and de-stock while helping clients purchase quality products while being eco-friendly.
PremedIT harnesses sport medicine and data to develop e-health solutions for physical activity.
Rabble helps boosts your fitness levels with innovative games while allowing you to meet new people and have fun all while exercising.
Sportall is an end-to-end OTT video solution for all sports. It brings a brand new video fan experience delivered by state-of-the-art multi-tenant cloud video platform and application.
SportClubby is a social platform for sport including tools to help you search for a sport activity, where to practice, and other options to help in sharing the experience of sport.
ST37 develops an innovative, affordable sports arbitration video solution with robotization and artificial intelligence for 37 Olympic sports.
Trainme is an application to book a home sports class in France at an affordable price in just a few clicks.
Urban Expé offers collective gamified sports adventures indoors. With scripted interactive experiences, the app can offer a fun and fresh game-like workout experience.
The day continued with some really interesting sessions. The Athlete-preneur with Sir Russell Coutts, Olympic Gold Medalist Skipper and CEO at SailGP moderated by David Meltzer, Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing, was a a great listen but what followed was really the highlight of the day and possibly the event.
The next sessions were with a group of inspiring women in sport. First, we heard from soccer freestyler, Lisa Simouche and Founder-President of the Nascimento Project, and eldest daughter of the legendary Pele, Kely Nascimento. Lisa spoke with passion about her struggles in the male dominated sport while Kely talked about her work with the Nascimento Project and especially the soon to be released feature length documentary, Warriors of a Beautiful Game, highlighting stories of progress toward equality in the game.
To close the day, we heard from Laurence Fischer, a Sport Ambassador for the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs along side the truly inspirational Marcelia, Terres en Mêlées Ambassador for gender equality by sport who told her story of using Rugby to establish her standing in her community after having given birth at the tender age of 13 in a session called “Madagascar, The Young Girl and the Rugby Ball”. The deserved standing ovation she received was a truly fantastic way to end day one.
Day 2 and FFF Innovation Awards
The highlight of day two was another exciting event for us at SportsTechX. The FFF Innovation Awards (FFFIA) were held Friday morning which saw nine finalists out of 250 candidates in Fan Engagement, Sport Performance and Social Responsibility present for a chance at winning the opportunity to collaborate with the French Football Federation. As part of FFF’s aim to become a global leader in innovation, the FFFIA began last year as a way to reinforce their commitment. The awards allow startups to pitch their project in front of leaders and decision-makers in the global sport industry as well as gaining media exposure through FFF’s digital platform and media partners. Florence Hardouin, Director General of the FFF led the awards ceremony where three startups (one per category) were established as winners of this year’s FFFIA. Here are the nine startups that competed:
Fan Engagement
Crazy Nets is a French company that produces LightNet, a new media option for live sport advertising that specializes in enhancing the in-stadium experience for fans and boosts the interest of advertisers.
Immersive.io is a Paris-based startup and augmented reality software solution that reinvents the fan experience by offering augmented reality applications that immerse fans within sports events.
Sceenic would win the Fan Engagement category. The London-based company provides solutions to power interactive viewing experiences. Through its “Watch Together” technology, media companies create watch together experiences for their audiences, offering friends and family a deeper, more engaging and interactive group viewing experience.
Sport Performance
Rezzil is a startup from the UK and VR training and cognitive development tool for elite footballers which has been installed at world leading football clubs.
Track160 is a quantifying performance and tactics metrics in team sports. The Israel-based startup uses AI and deep learning techniques to track and identify the players throughout the match as well as track the ball’s trajectories from a single viewpoint video.
Physimax took home the award in the the Sport Performance category. Based in Israel, the startup created an AI-powered musculoskeletal self-assessment and optimization platform which provides an individualized training program based on sophisticated real-time personal analysis of human motion.
Social Responsibility
Mobicoop is a French carpooling, car-sharing and solidarity mobility services startup that focuses on ecological solutions for car sharing in “sparse” and rural areas to prevent greenhouse gases from intensifying.
Myfairjob is a French company that has revolutionized the search for jobs and internships as an accelerator of professional connections and creator of employment opportunities.
Tiraka was recognized as the winner in the Social Responsibility Category. A French invention, Tiraka is a cleaning brush that helps clean the crampons on cleats and sports boots quickly and ecologically.
An accident between the Paris night and my phone meant that there aren’t too many pictures from day 2 unfortunately, sorry.
Paris on the SportsTech Map
GSW made sure to cover a wide range of topics regarding the future of sport and its impact on society. Yet another reminder that Paris is one of Europe’s most important SportsTech hubs. Huge thanks to Arnaud Drijard for the invitation and kudos to the whole team for pulling off a really top class event. I thoroughly enjoyed taking a closer look at all of the SportsTech developments that came out of in Paris and France as a whole in 2019. Until next time, au revoir Paris!
Keep an eye out for our latest insights in the European SportsTech Report 2020, sign up here to be notified once it’s released. Can’t wait until the report is out? Then feel free to take a tour of the global landscape yourself on our comprehensive SportsTech platform, SportsTechDB.
Rohn Malhotra is a Co-Founder at Berlin based SportsTechX — Data & insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem. You can get in touch via LinkedIn, Twitter or email.
