Southampton FC moves forward with 'Future of Football' programme winners
Southampton FC is set to move forward with Turfcoach and Atom Stars, the winners of the club's 'Future of Football' initiative which was made in collaboration with betting partner Yolo Group.
The programme got underway in March this year with 10 web3 and sport tech startups. Proceedings were launched at an event held at St.Mary's Stadium.
This four-week virtual sprint programme, powered by Sport Republic and Yolo Group, offered direct access to Southampton’s business and commercial decision-makers. In a collaborative environment, teams prototyped solutions to build future value for the club, on and off the pitch.
There were six participants in the finals, selected from a total of 260 applications from companies all over the world (45 countries total). The finale was judged by a panel of representatives from the club, Sport Republic, and Yolo Group. The winners will now go on to further develop their proposal with the club.
Atom Stars, one of the two winners, are providers of an ‘off-the-shelf gamified experience’ that enables clubs to experiment at speed and connect with fans. CEO of the company Jérôme Dewavrin said: “We believe we can change the landscape of fan engagement, by empowering Southampton FC, Sport Republic and Yolo Group with our technologies.”
“Together, we revolutionise the way sports organisations and brands engage, especially with Gen Z fans, by providing off-the-shelf gamified tailored experiences in virtual environments, allowing brands to experiment at speed and embrace this fantastic new channel.”
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Turfcoach, the other of the two winners, provides hardware and software solutions for automatic data collection across football pitches. Southampton are implementing Turfcoach's technology to protect players from injuries, reduce turf maintenance costs, increase potential pitch usage time, and as a unique data source for player performance tracking.
CEO of Turfcoach Christian Theil said: “Throughout the programme, we were able to interact with a variety of stakeholders at SFC, including groundskeepers, estate managers, and the performance team.”
“This collaborative approach enabled us to craft a tailored business proposal that was fortunately well-received.”
Other finalists included MLA, CollectID, Fanprime and X-Plora.
Director of Partnerships and Marketing for Southampton FC Sarah Batters said: “It’s been fantastic to work with all the teams involved and to have such a diverse range of organisations.
“Both Atom Stars and Turfcoach really push the boundaries and are at the forefront of technology in different ways. We would like to congratulate them as the winners and we look forward to working more closely with them in the future.”
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