WHITEFISH, MT / ACCESSWIRE / June 10, 2015 / The Dallas Cowboys recently made news by partnering with a virtual reality startup, StriVR Labs, to provide live-action 3D replays to its players through a VR headset. StriVR already has deals with six major college football programs and hopes to sign more professional teams in the near future. This might seem a sudden development, one of the world's most valuable pro sports franchises embracing such an early stage technology. To those who have been paying attention, however, it is just another in a long line of marriages between professional sports and virtual and/or augmented reality.
The National Football League is partnered with Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ: ZBRA), utilizing the company's radio frequency identification (RFID) product to track in real-time the location, motion and direction of more than 2000 NFL players last year. The technology just won the prestigious Sports Business Journal's Best in Sports Technology award for 2015. Major League Soccer teams are partnering with STATSports to provide real-time movement and fitness data through the use of wearables. GoPro (NASDAQ: GPRO) is partnered with the National Hockey League and Vislink. During the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend, players wore GoPro cameras and viewers were given real-time access to the unique points of view, enabling them to immerse more fully in the experience of their favorite players.
This year, the NHL's San Jose Sharks partnered with The Guitammer Company (OTC: GTMM) to televise home games utilizing the company's patented '4D Sports' haptic-tactile broadcast technology. Sensors were placed in the boards around the arena and the haptic-tactile data was broadcast in real time, allowing viewers to feel the impact of the checks right in their living rooms. The company hopes to corner the emerging market for the broadcast of haptic data, enabling other technology innovators to capitalize on Guitammer's patented haptic broadcasts through licensing agreements.
These technologies are either being used to enhance the fan experience, or to enhance the effectiveness of player training and coaching. Taken together, however, they form the foundation of the future of immersive and personalized sports viewing. In the not-too-distant future, fans will be able to gather incredibly detailed information about their favorite players in real-time: how far they've run, what their current heart rate is, how quickly they reacted when the play blew up. Even further, fans will be able to experience in real-time what things look like from their favorite player's point of view, what it feels like to be tackled by a 300-pound lineman, how difficult it is to read and react to the blocking at the line of scrimmage.
Take a look at the Tesla Suit by Tesla Studios (no relation to the car company), or the KOR-FX Gaming Vest. These products give users something that is missing from the virtual headset experience, and it is an element that is crucial to the immersive experience: tactile or physical feedback. Without feeling impacts and motion and pressure, virtual reality users will never be fully convinced that their experience is 'real'. The idea of 'presence' is central to the virtual experience and requires the engagement of as many senses as possible. Technologies like these suits and vests are beginning to address the very important sense of touch.
So how do we get to the virtual experience of live sports? Simply connect the dots laid out above. Visual data can be provided by both on-person cameras and by assembling various camera angles and 360-degree technologies into a virtual athletic space. Sound is already well covered. Tactile data can be broadcast using Guitammer's technology. Personalized athlete data can be gathered by wearable sensors like Zebra's and STATSports'. The consumer can experience all this in a virtual, multi-sensory setting using headsets and headphones (conveniently combined in Vuzix Corp's (NASDAQ: VUZI) upcoming iWear 720 product which visually simulates a 130-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away) and vests. Pretty soon you can see how a fan might be able to experience, in the comfort of her own home, their favorite athlete's world.
How much would sports fans pay to experience this? Consider that live sports remains one of the most consistent draws on television, even in the face of the explosion of content offerings via the internet and streaming services. Super Bowls account for the 21 most-watched programs in American TV history by total audience, and this year's game tops the list with 168 million viewers. Consider that fantasy sports is played by an estimated 41.5 million people in the United States and Canada alone, and that this group averages $111/year in direct spending per person according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. That alone is a pretty lucrative market, and you can bet that a good number of these passionate sports fans would leap at the chance to 'play as' their favorite players.
Investors should be aware of these developments and the companies that are providing the technology along the way to a truly 'Virtual Live Sports' experience. For instance, The Guitammer Company currently trades with a market cap in the neighborhood of $8-$12 million. Guitammer already has the Sharks' broadcasts under its belt, plus National Hot Rod Association races broadcast over ESPN2 the year before. These were basically proof-of-concept trials. If it is successful in its stated attempt to develop a licensing business around the company's haptic broadcast technology, the upside potential is tremendous. That is an extreme example, but all of these companies would stand to benefit greatly as our culture changes the way that live sports are broadcast and consumed.
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