The first edition of the EB Tech Challenge, a collaboration between the University of La Salle-URL and Euroleague Basketball, came to an end on Friday as finalist startups and projects pitched their presentations to the six-member jury in Barcelona, Spain.
The nine presenting finalists were selected from among a total of 62 projects from 17 different countries that applied in January and February to share their most innovative technologies that could solve existing challenges within the professional sports industry or create new revenue generation and fan engagement opportunities.
Meet the finalists:
• Accredito - Accredito.com is a unique, cloud-based platform where sport clubs, leagues, associations or venues can run their press offices online. Accredito.com is currently the only solution offering a set of tools to encompass both press office and journalist relations.
• Bubbllz - Bubbllz is a social media marketing app. It rewards users for generating and sharing content for brands/stores/eshops (BSE) promotion purposes.
• Content Stadium - Content Stadium empowers editorial teams of sports organizations to create and publish premium branded visuals, animations and video for social media within seconds.
• Couch Coach - Couch Coach is a second-screen application for basketball fans where they can coach from the couch, propose players, and win or lose points based on real-time decisions.
• NFCSound - NFCSound uses ultrasound technology to reach and engage fans through sound without internet or WiFi. We send data over sound: we turn any speaker or sound/music source into a tool to send data offline.
• NGAGE - NGAGE is a cloud-based Fan Engagement and Sponsor Management platform which enables both teams and sponsors to create fun, fan-centric competitions using virtually any game.
• Pico GP - Pico allows organizations to transform their 1-to-many communications to a 1-to-1 strategy allowing interactivity with the audience and creating revenue opportunities.
• The Perfect Trip - The perfect trip creates a widely extended live fan experience while providing the arena and club manager with detailed data regarding behavior and individual preferences of the fan.
• Watchity - Watchity is the agile live video production platform for digital channels that simplifies the creation of live video using smartphone cams and easy-to-use web editing tools.
Los finalistas tuvieron la oportunidad de trabajar durante toda la semana junto con ejecutivos de Euroleague Basketball en el desarrollo de sus soluciones para garantizar que resuelva mejor los desafíos concretos de Euroleague Basketball, sus clubes, sus socios y otras organizaciones deportivas. Además, los participantes asistieron a conferencias de profesores de La Salle-URL y la dirección de baloncesto de Euroleague sobre emprendimiento y negocios deportivos, y además pudieron conectarse con líderes de la industria en eventos de networking.
Los proyectos ganadores son:
- Ganador general de EB Tech Challenge: NFCSound
- Mejor Solución Disruptiva: NFC Sound
- Mejor Presentación: PICO GP
- Mención Especial: NGAGE
"Estamos extremadamente abrumados por la calidad de todos los proyectos que se presentaron, y especialmente de los nueve finalistas. Empresas como estas son las que moldearán el futuro del consumo deportivo ", comentó Jordi Bertomeu, presidente y CEO de Euroleague Basketball. "Esperamos explorar más a fondo los beneficios y oportunidades que algunas de estas soluciones tecnológicas pueden potencialmente aportar al ecosistema de Euroleague".
"Estamos muy orgullosos de haber podido compartir esta semana con startups de alto potencial de todo el mundo que han demostrado como la industria del deporte puede ser disruptiva", dijo Josep M. Santos, director general de La Salle-URL. "Estamos muy agradecidos al jurado por su participación en este proyecto y por el valor que han aportado con su experiencia durante la selección y la fase de deliberación".
Euroleague Basketball y La Salle-URL quieren agradecer especialmente su participación a los miembros del Jurado:
Salvador Alemany – President, Abertis
Xavier Bidault- Commercial Director, Basketball IMG Media.
Sree Varma – Founder & CEO, iSportconnect & iSportconnect Capital
Luis Vicente – Founder & Chairman, 3vs Sports Partners
Jordi Bertomeu – President & CEO, Euroleague Basketball
Josep M. Santos – General Manager, La Salle-URL