Smart balls, when innovation is a matter of balls

Interestingly, in 1871, a year after the start of the analysis of the OECD report, Albert Goodwill Spalding began his professional career in the world of baseball. During his career he posted a .323 batting average and a .796 winning percentage. In 1876, the future Hall of Fame inductee retired and opened the AG Spalding & Bros. store in Chicago. Combining his business skills with his knowledge of the sport, he soon developed a baseball that would become the official ball of baseball. Major League Baseball for the next 100 years.

In 1891 Dr. Naismith invented basketball and, although they began to play with a soccer ball, by 1896 Albert Goodwill Spalding already provided the Spalding No. M, a ball made from eight pieces of leather sewn together from the best quality, English skin grainy. On the other side of the Atlantic, in Europe, it would be the Japanese Molten that would reign with its basketball, volleyball and soccer balls for countless competitions and Olympic Games from Tokyo 64 to Beijing 2008.

In the case of soccer, the first balls became popular in the United Kingdom in the 19th century. They were balls sewn with pieces of leather and called tiento because of the cord that closed the seams on the outside. Inside was a pig's bladder that was filled with hay, for example. They weren't completely spherical, they didn't bounce evenly, they had a bulge in the touch area that could even damage players. And, in addition, if they got wet they were much heavier and more difficult to control.

Although there are writings that say that Anne Boleyn's hair was used to fill tennis balls, traditionally the concept of the current ball was not born until 1870, and all thanks to the discovery of the vulcanization of rubber by Charles Goodyear, a fact that would mark not not only the evolution of a multitude of sports, but also that of the automotive industry.

A century and a half after those pioneering balls, the ones used today have nothing to do with their origins. The Taiwanese sports technology company Jingletek announced at the last edition of the CES in Las Vegas that it had obtained the financing to manufacture and mass market the Strike 1.0 smart baseball. Thanks to its built-in sensors, it allows to measure and analyze data that in Spalding's time were impossible to measure with the human eye: the speed of rotation, the axis of rotation, the speed, the trajectory and the location. A wide series of factors that help the pitcher to work on the launch and the effect of the balls, improve their effectiveness and prevent injuries.

It is not the only Smart ball. SeeHow has developed a smart cricket ball whose technology, sensors and machine learning algorithms allow it to measure speed, spin, seam position, seam consistency and delivery length. Information similar to that collected by the Sportcor cricket ball developed in collaboration with Kookaburra. Curious developments when you consider that the cricket ball has basically remained faithful for 250 years to the original design presented by the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1780.

The American manufacturer Wilson has put small sensors inside American football balls that collect data and send it to the app for analysis. The sensors do not interfere with any aspect of the ball's behavior, such as its spin, weight or speed, and allow valuable metrics to be recorded such as spiral efficiency, spin speed, release time, time between start of release and the moment the ball leaves the hand… Information that allows quarterbacks to identify areas for improvement and work on certain skills or, in the case of players coming out of an injury, help them speed up their recovery and work on those aspects in which his injury has most influenced. The American company also has smart balls for basketball in a partnership with Shot Tracker to offer a higher level of statistics in real time to provide new insights into the game. Something that NCAA college teams are already benefiting from.

Some statistics that are also collected by the DribbleUP smart basketball and soccer balls that, in connection with the Tablet or the smartphone, allow to improve the bounce and control, something that Adidas already tested almost ten years ago when it announced the Adidas miCoach Smart Ball . For its part, Torrx has developed an intelligent inflator with an LED screen to inflate or deflate the balls to the optimum pressure without the need to squeeze, bounce or guess if the pressure of the ball is perfect at all times.

How innovation in sport is born

Innovation has always been an intrinsic part of the sport, be it updating the rules of the game, changing the formats of the competitions and, lately, incorporating technology. Although the combination of sport and technology is almost as old as the ENIAC computer (acronym for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) from 1945, considered the father of computers. For example, with the emergence of the first electronic scoreboards in the 1950s, such as the one at Yankee Stadium in New York, although the "Lifelike Baseball Scoreboard" invented by George Coleman already contained more than 5.7 kilometers of cable and 400 slides stereoscopic with an electric bulb for each slide. Five men were required to operate the large board, including the telegraph operator who received play-by-play information from the field. Photo

In the 1980s, the predecessor of the hawk's eye made its debut on the Wimbledon courts. Invented by Bill Carlton and Margaret Parnis England in 1979, the Cyclops was the first electronic system to help linesmen determine whether or not the ball entered the lane. By means of a series of boxes with reflected infrared it was possible to determine the trajectory of the ball. Today, smart balls like the S-Koda 3.0 allow you to measure the force, speed and spin of the shot in real time.

These are just some of the many examples of innovation associated with sports that we can find and that have something in common: a combination of seeking all possible advantages to win games and finding new ways to increase fan loyalty, increase the audience and win money. Or as Adi Dasler, founder of Adidas, would say, innovations to make athletes better.

In fact, find an exact definition of what is innovation? it's complicated. Google returns 12 million results. Among them that of Wikipedia, which defines innovation as "a process that introduces novelties and that refers to modifying existing elements in order to improve them, although it is also possible in the implementation of totally new elements". The Oxford dictionary states that to innovate is “to make changes to something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products”. Something that would endorse one of the classic conceptions that innovation is not what innovators do, but what consumers adopt. And, under this prism, it is enough to evoke the unforgettable names of Tango, Etrusco, Jabulani of the Adidas soccer balls that were used for different world championships, including the 1982 World Cup in Spain and Naranjito, to reconfirm that innovation in the sport has been successful.

And although the slogan of “Impossible is Nothing” is from 2004, twenty years earlier in 1984, Adidas was already doing something that seemed impossible: putting a computer inside a pair of sneakers. The Micropacer, now reissued in a collector's edition, was an innovation that was ahead of its time. Designed for a group of runners for the 84 Los Angeles Olympic Games, they were the first running shoes to integrate a pedometer together with a monochrome LCD screen that showed the time spent, the calories consumed and the number of strides in the race. .

What types of innovation are there?

From IEBS Business School they point out that there are four types of innovations. In the first place, the marginal innovation that consists of improving the value proposition of a product or service. These are small changes that, although they may fail, will do so with little harm to the companies. This group ranges from new product packaging to adding a little functionality that was missing or creating a name for existing concepts to make it more attractive.

Second, there is incremental innovation. This type of innovation consists of increasing the value proposition of a product or service. In other words, it is about adding features or improving a product to make it more attractive to the customer and, failing that, to improve their user experience. Keep in mind that not always a product that has more functions or does more things will be more attractive.

The third type is found in disruptive or radical innovation. This is the best known, and consists of creating a completely new value proposition for a product or service. It is an invention with a tremendous impact that solves a problem that perhaps we were not aware of and we realize once we use it or know of its existence.

Finally, open innovation is a trend that has gained a lot of strength in recent years and is increasingly followed by companies around the world. It consists of importing new processes thanks to the cooperation with external professionals or organizations. The objective is to add joint capacities by promoting the internal and external flow of knowledge. In short, open innovation challenges the idea that creativity must come from within a company.

Under this approach, can we talk about innovation in sport? “Innovation can be defined as the creation of something new with an impact on the market, and if we stick to this definition, there has been no clear innovation in sport for many years. It is true that there are some experiments or investigations with the possibility of generating such an impact, but up to now, the performance of work in innovation has not been very productive”, considers Pascual Parada, Academic and Innovation Director of IEBS. “If we go to the sport that moves the most money, such as soccer, I would say that the business is run by very few and very powerful companies. In this context, it is difficult for a disruptive innovation to occur for two reasons: first, due to the interests of those organizations that are within the business that do not feel pressure to seek new models, and, secondly, because these organizations will introduce all the possible barriers to limit the innovation capacity of small companies for fear of losing what they have achieved. This is not just an issue in the sports sector, it happens in all sectors where a few, but powerful, control the market”, adds the expert.

Peter Druker, who has a prolific body of work on business and innovation, insisted that innovation is work and requires knowledge, ingenuity, creativity... and that perseverance in a specific area led to innovation. To be successful, innovators must play to their own strengths, look for opportunities in a wide range of areas, and then ask which of those opportunities is the best fit for the company.

Drucker wrote that innovation by its nature is risky, like any economic activity. However, most innovations, especially successful ones, are the result of a conscious and determined search for innovation opportunities, which are found only in a few situations. Druker believes that there are four such opportunity areas within a business or industry: unexpected events, inconsistencies, process needs, and industry and market changes; and three additional sources of opportunity outside a company in its social and intellectual environment: demographic changes, changes in perception, and new knowledge.

From athletes to innovators

It is precisely knowledge and personal experience that has led many players to exploit deficiencies and take advantage of them to turn them into business opportunities. Albert Spalding was one of those pioneers who, upon retiring from it, took advantage of his experience and commercial ability to found a benchmark in the manufacture of sports equipment 150 years ago. Tony Hawk's talent and passion for skateboards, in addition to starring in a legendary video game saga, led him to found Birdhouse in 1992, his own skateboard, fashion and accessories company. Former New York Yankees baseball player Derek Jeter raised $8 million in funding (Alphabet among them) to launch The Players' Tribune, a media platform that allows athletes to connect openly and personally with fans.

In recent years, technology has not stopped seducing athletes, whether through investments, the foundation of startups linked to technology and sports, the management of social networks to build their digital brands or the growing interest in the sports sector. the esports. Whether they are active players (Kevin Durant, Gerard Piqué, Serena Williams, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Stephen Curry…) or retired players (Shaquille O'Neal, Joe Montana, Íker Casillas, Louis Saha, Lance Armstrong, Tom Brady…), technology and innovation are part of their lives.

Here in Spain, Javier Sánchez Broto, a former goalkeeper for Zaragoza, Glasgow Celtic or Getafe, among others, devised a store project during his stay in Scotland that would make up for the shortcomings that goalkeepers had when it came to finding specific material. From this idea Soloporteros arises, a store specializing in sports equipment for soccer goalkeepers. The company evolved, and when it had already left its niche of soccer goalkeepers, it was renamed Futbol Emotion in June 2016, to more clearly encompass the rest of soccer and futsal players.

Another example of an athlete who has taken advantage of his experience to innovate is that of Esteban Granero (current Marbella player and former Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Espanyol player) and CEO of Olocip, a pioneering international company in the development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence for the optimization of strategies and the decision-making process under the endorsement and scientific rigor in a complementary way to the professional experience, and that is born from his time in the Real and his experience seeing how plays and matches were analyzed.

“In the case of Olocip, Esteban's experience and knowledge have been essential when creating the solutions we offer. His professional career has allowed him to detect some very important needs regarding decision-making in the football sector and his analytical mentality has led him to shape a series of solutions that facilitate the daily work of the club . The Artificial Intelligence models that we have developed for these solutions are very detailed and specific and for this it has been necessary to have a deep knowledge of what happens inside and outside the field. In my opinion, little by little, more value is given to this type of complementary knowledge that has been acquired experientially, since it has a series of nuances and a level of depth that is sometimes difficult to acquire in any other way”, explains the CTO of the company, Gaizka San Vicente.

For San Vicente, science and technology are evolving rapidly. Every day many new discoveries are published and countless new technological developments are carried out. Such is the amount of progress that occurs daily that it is very difficult to assimilate what we are progressing in science and technology. This phenomenon is occurring in all areas of life and also in sports. And he highlights three elements that are favoring this progress: greater knowledge regarding the human body and its performance; the creation of new devices and sensors for the monitoring and measurement of the medical-sports variables of the players; and, finally, the development of tools that extract all the power of data through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. “So much progress is being made in all these areas that it is difficult to find sports disciplines in which important innovations are not being incorporated into sports practice or training itself. However, the big leap is yet to come. As soon as society and industry assimilate all the potential that current technology has, the change will be colossal”, warns San Vicente.

Perhaps part of this acceleration and innovation occurs within sports clubs, where the different Spanish teams are launching their own innovation hubs to support, finance and accompany sportstech startups.

The innovation hubs

Real Madrid announced in January 2020 the launch of Real Madrid Next, the brand under which they develop innovation projects. Real Madrid Next focuses on six work areas: e-health, performance, fan engagement, audiovisual content generation, cybersecurity and technological and social infrastructures with the aim of seeking excellence and the greatest possible technological advance. In September 2020, Real Madrid Next and FundingBox announced a collaboration agreement for the financing and development of European innovation projects for startups. Each of the parties undertook to set aside 4.5 million euros for a project that will manage up to 9 million euros over three years.

What are the effects of having more or fewer rest days between two highly competitive basketball games? What are the effects of age on the identification and development of sports talent? Do footballers get injured more than before?... These and many other questions are being answered by the Barça Innovation Hub launched in 2017 by FC Barcelona with the aim of creating an ecosystem that reinforces knowledge and innovation . An ecosystem based on a model that promotes a culture of excellence and collaboration with prestigious brands, universities, research centers, startups, entrepreneurs, students, athletes, investors and visionaries from around the world. "We want to show the decades of knowledge that FC Barcelona has accumulated on issues such as health, nutrition, high sports performance, the digital field and all issues related to sport and its impact on society", they point out from the entity who has also been responsible for the new digital strategy behind the launch of the official e-commerce of the Barça Store at the Camp Nou.

Also aware that the world is moving very fast and football clubs are no strangers to these changes, Valencia launched the 'VCF Innovation Hub' last year, an innovation project that looks to the future focused on four areas: Sports , Medical, Smart Stadium and Fan Engagement. Together with Startup Valencia, which currently brings together more than 600 companies from the technology and digital sector, the 'VCF Innovation Hub' has started working on various projects that are at the forefront using technological tools such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Social Listening, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality, among others, to detect trends, improve the fan experience, anticipate future needs and grow by generating new business channels around innovation and technology.

Franco Segarra, Chief Innovation Officer of Valencia CF, recently pointed out in the Sportstech Innovation Talks launched by the Barcelona sportstech innovation hub, Hub23, that "we will support the startups of young talent in Valencia and act as a catalyst for their initiatives in the technological and digital field to enhance its global projection and increase its impact”.

Juan Iraola, Director of Innovation at Real Sociedad and Sports Innovation Alliance, also participated in these talks on innovation, explaining the objective of RS-KONEKTA, the innovation hub of Real Sociedad: “the objective is to create partnerships with innovative companies, create new sources of income for the club, collaborate with other innovation spaces or companies, and build a startup lab connected to the Sports Innovation Alliance”.

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RS-KONEKTA's mission is to become a benchmark in the world of innovation and football, both locally, nationally and internationally. Connecting is collaborating and, precisely, collaboration, along with curiosity and creativity, are the engines of RS-KONEKTA. And one of those legs of collaboration resides in the Sports Innovation Alliance that the San Sebastian club is leading together with 21 other sports clubs from as many countries.

Another of the pioneering clubs in innovation has been Celta with its CeltaLab1923, the Vigo club's commitment to an open and "lean" innovation model, creating a vehicle with the capacity to support, incubate and interact with startups, entrepreneurs and other actors in the ecosystem. “The CeltaLab1923 arises as a clear response to the need to adapt to a constantly changing market in which technological innovation offers a large number of opportunities in the areas that we have previously mentioned. Exploring new ways to strengthen the relationship with the fan, extend the athlete's life, improve and/or optimize the internal processes or logistics of a club, are some clear examples of the usefulness of an open innovation center such as CeltaLab1923. At CeltaLab1923 we have marked the year 2023 with the aim of becoming a national benchmark in the world of innovation in sports and making the appropriate technology available to all sports properties for every need”, explains Íñigo de la Iglesia, head of the Celtalab1923 ecosystem.

As in any business with its R&D area, the question is whether these innovations end up being brought to the market and whether sports entities will be able to allocate the same budgets to innovation that they allocate to signing players.

According to 2020 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard data, Alphabet ($23.16 billion), Microsoft ($17,152), Huawei ($16,712), Samsung ($15,525), and Apple ($14,435) were the top five R&D investors. The average investment in R&D of a European company has gone from 306.3 million in 2010 to 509.6 million in 2019 (66.4%), while in the US it has grown from 324 million to 604.8 million (86.7%). Some exorbitant figures for sports budgets that it is difficult for them to end up investing in R&D as much as in signings.

“I don't think it will happen, not at least in mass sports. You have to think that the signings of stars, which are the biggest outlay of a team, are made not only for what they can contribute to the team, but because they are image and increase sales and marketing of the team without making a 'pure' investment in marketing. I think that R&D is here to stay (a clear example is our national soccer team), but the cost of these technologies will not be that much since it is trying to 'democratize' them”, considers Alberto Moreno, director of technology by Syntonize.

An opinion similar to that of Íñigo de la Iglesia: “It is difficult to think that this will end up happening. After all, sports performance and results, as well as competition, will continue to be the main source of income for professional clubs. We must not forget that the application of technological innovations has two fundamental benefits: the generation of new sources of income and the improvement and optimization of the different processes and activities carried out in a professional team”.

Regarding the time of adoption of the innovations, the person in charge of the Celtalab1923 ecosystem, considers that “it depends a lot on the stage or phase in which each project is and the specific problem to which that technological solution is directed. There are projects that require months of work based on proofs of concept to adapt the specific technology to a new business area, such as streaming club matches, or others that require a few weeks of work, such as the launch of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) of digital or physical assets of a computer”.

The advantages of open innovation

This acceleration in proofs of concept is something that the open innovation model so common in the business world pursues. For example, the French sports products giant Decathlon launched the "Open Oxylane" initiative in 2014, an open platform for Internet users and athletes to launch their product proposals and ideas: from an unbreakable ping-pong ball to the soccer ball. soccer that returns only to the center of the field. “We place the user at the heart of our mission. So by watching athletes as they practice, and listening to them, we as salespeople, product managers, designers, and engineers envision the products of tomorrow. The product that will facilitate the practice, comfort, enjoyment and safety of the user. And thanks to the opinions of our customers, innovation continues, since they allow us to progress existing products or imagine the innovations of tomorrow”, they commented from the company.

Euroleague Basketball have also opened their doors to innovators with the launch of the 2021 FanXP Innovation Challenge, inviting the latest generation of tech startups to join the sports fan revolution by creating new and unique experiences for devotees. fans of their competitions. "Now more than ever, we're focused on bringing fans to a higher level of experience with our unique brand of basketball, and the 2021 FanXP Innovation Challenge will help us bring the latest market insights to that effort," said Roser. Queralto, Chief Business Officer of the Euroleague basketball. "In a rapidly changing global and entertainment marketplace, our fans are used to us bringing them something new and more exciting each season. With the help of these innovators, we will continue to deliver on that promise," he said.

For Íñigo de la Iglesia, the open innovation model has a clear advantage and that is the agility in disseminating technological knowledge, as well as greater ease in capturing and applying innovative solutions. "The sports sector is an industry that is currently growing very fast thanks to technology, so using an open model allows innovation hubs to be much more flexible and promote digital transformation in a greater number of sports entities," he highlights.

“As in any company, in a club it is essential to have a group of people in charge of innovation. The way in which the innovation strategy is articulated depends on many factors, but its objective must be to solve problems and improve the system. Today we are experiencing great advances and clubs need to have specialized personnel who know the needs of their entity well and know how to choose the best solutions in a rigorous and well-founded manner. In general, this team is not usually sufficient to carry out all the tasks and has to rely on external agents such as universities and other companies. In any case, the interconnection with other entities enriches points of view and facilitates scientific and technological monitoring, which is why it is important to generate ecosystems that favor the exchange of knowledge”, says San Vicente.

From Paradigma Digital, they believe that the trend will be to move towards a mixed model of open innovation: universities, innovation hubs, support from large technology corporations and thriving startups... "Within the field of innovation, universities have always been an engine that drives it , provided freshness and new points of view, typical of minds clean of the constraints of a company. The sport will be based on this push to probably lead the most disruptive projects”, values ​​Alberto Grande, head of Innovation at Paradigma Digital.

“On the other hand, specialized companies with innovative services and products aimed at the sports world are continually appearing. These companies are gaining more and more weight and the possibility of providing a proven product is a plus for a sports club that seeks to obtain performance from the first moment. Lastly, we think that the creation of our own innovation hubs will go hand in hand with the agreements with the 'technological giants' since they will serve as accelerators while maintaining control over the development of innovative projects, allowing clubs to direct hand the direction that innovation projects should follow. The largest clubs already have their own innovation environments”, adds Alberto Serrano, head of Data at Paradigma Digital.

For UEFA, innovation goes far beyond digital transformation and the use of the latest technologies. Innovation also implies being able to capture trends, anticipate the future and be able to operate with agility to remain a relevant player.

Por eso en 2018 puso en marcha su propio hub de innovación abierta como respuesta a los cambios constantes ya un entorno cada vez más exigente para el fútbol. A través de nuevas asociaciones y diversas colaboraciones con una amplia gama de partes interesadas (incluidas startups, instituciones académicas, federaciones de deportes cruzados…), el centro de innovación viene apoyando a la UEFA en la adaptación a estos cambios y en la implementación de la estrategia de la UEFA 2019-24.

El centro de innovación abierta de la UEFA está en Lausana, en el cantón suizo de Vaud, en un intento de crear una especie de Silicon Valley del deporte. Y es que las ciudades de todo el mundo tienen ante ellas una interesante oportunidad de crecimiento económico y liderazgo tecnológico apalancándose en la innovación sportstech.

Ciudades que atraen innovación sportstech

“En los últimos años ha surgido una nueva tendencia: incubadoras y aceleradoras dedicadas a la tecnología deportiva. Su capacidad para conectar dos mundos, el deporte y la innovación, brinda a las ciudades la oportunidad de crear nuevos empleos, atraer nuevos talentos y desarrollar la economía local. Estos son solo algunos ejemplos de los beneficios que pueden aportar a una ciudad”, escribe Grégoire Junod, alcalde de Lausana y Presidente de la Unión Mundial de Ciudades Olímpicas en la presentación del estudio sobre Sports Innovation Hubs y su impacto en las ciudades.

“Al crear un ecosistema competitivo que permita el desarrollo de las startups deportivas, una ciudad podría beneficiarse de muchas ventajas que incluyen: la creación de empleo, la atracción de talento, el posicionamiento de su ciudad como centro de innovación deportiva, nuevas iniciativas y proyectos, etc. Éstos son muchos de los beneficios que también pueden traer los eventos deportivos; pero quizás, durante un período de tiempo menos continuo y más corto. Para maximizar completamente estos beneficios, las ciudades deben comprender el potencial de las incubadoras y aceleradoras deportivas y definir cómo quieren activar estas plataformas para satisfacer sus necesidades”, destaca Mélanie Duparc, secretaria general de la Unión Mundial de Ciudades Olímpicas.

Algo que están aprovechando ya diferentes ciudades de todo el mundo. Como por ejemplo Nueva York, donde el año pasado, las startups de sportstech consiguieron levantar 489,7 millones de dólares en financiación, según datos del Global Sportstech VC Report. La ciudad de los rascacielos lidera la captación de inversiones en fases tempranas desde 2015, con 4.116 millones de dólares. El Top 5 de ciudades con startups sportstech que más dinero han levantado desde 2015 está compuesto por Nueva York, Pekín (2.026 millones), San Francisco (1.411 millones), Wuhan (1.109 millones) y Guangzhou (864 millones).

La única ciudad europea que aparece en el Top 15 es Londres con 550,6 millones de dólares. Nueva York continúa su papel como capital indiscutible de sportstech del mundo. Llama la atención el hecho de que Londres ocupe el segundo lugar en número de acuerdos durante el período con 248, ligeramente por detrás de los 273 de Nueva York, pero la diferencia en el tamaño promedio de las rondas de inversión es enorme con Londres una media de 2,9 millones, mientras que Nueva York la media alcanza los 21,2 millones de dólares. Lo que refrenda las peticiones de las startups españolas y europeas por incentivar un mejor marco socioeconómico y legal para incentivar la cultura del Venture Capital al estilo americano.

Si ponemos el foco en Europa, con el European Sportstech Report 2020 comprobamos que no ha habido muchos cambios en el Top10 y que las seis primeras ciudades del ranking (Londres, París, Berlín, Copenhague y Estocolmo) representan a más del 60% de las startups de tecnología y deporte en Europa. El Reino Unido sigue dominando el panorama, con Francia en segundo lugar y Alemania aumentando su participación un 1,5% acercándose al segundo puesto.

España ocupa un meritorio cuarto lugar acaparando el 7,2% de las inversiones sportstech (gracias a Barcelona y Madrid), siendo junto a Alemania (con Berlín y Múnich) el único país europeo con dos ciudades representadas en el Top 10. Barcelona aglutina al 2,2% de las sportstech startups (con un ligero descenso respecto a 2019) y Madrid al 2,1%.

En la capital catalana destaca HUB23, uno de los emergentes hubs de innovación de tecnología y deporte que quiere aprovechar el apoyo institucional para atraer talento. “El principal objetivo es crear un gran hub público-privado y descentralizado que permita impulsar el ecosistema del sportstech. Queremos atraer más talento y capital para conseguir la transformación digital del deporte y, en definitiva, ayudar a la mejora de la práctica deportiva y la salud”, señala Josep Monti, presidente de HUB23.

Una misión similar a SPINN Hub, una iniciativa de Barrabes.biz para desarrollar el liderazgo global desde la industria del deporte español en innovación mediante una colaboración real, abierta y orientada a la acción entre agentes del sector reuniendo a deportistas y entidades deportivas, federaciones, fundaciones, competiciones, corporaciones, startups, fans y administraciones públicas, para colaborar y consolidar la cultura innovadora del deporte español.

No son los únicos ejemplos de hubs de innovación unidos a ciudades. En Bruselas se encuentra la European Platform for Sport Innovation (EPSI). Una organización sin ánimo de lucro que se centra en la innovación en las áreas de deporte, actividad física, estilo de vida saludable, vitalidad, medio ambiente y todos los sectores asociados. La EPSI, que cuenta con más de un centenar de miembros, se esfuerza por lograr condiciones más favorables a la innovación para el ecosistema deportivo de la UE, con el fin de estimular la innovación tecnológica y establecer y desarrollar empresas con un enfoque en todo el espectro de la innovación.

En Berlín se creó en 2017 el leAD Sports Accelerator un programa de aceleración de empresas inspirado en el legado de innovación y deporte de Adi Dassler, fundador de Adidas. Un programa que obtiene, financia e impulsa el crecimiento de nuevas empresas de tecnología de deportes y salud en etapas tempranas a nivel mundial. LEAD trabaja con soluciones innovadoras en los verticales de relación con los fans, los atletas conectados y la salud y bienestar conectadas.

En Tel Aviv, el Colosseum Sports Lab aglutina a más de 170 startups con el objetivo de servir de punto de encuentro entre las tecnologías más disruptivas y los líderes de la industria deportiva.

En Sídney, aprovechando el legado de las olimpiadas de Sídney 2000, el gobierno de Nueva Gales del Sur impulsó el programa Sydney Sports Incubator que acoge a más de medio centenar de empresas punteras.

En Doha encontramos el programa de aceleración de empresas de Qatar SportsTech, que cada nueve meses recorre el mundo en busca de las startups más innovadoras en el ámbito del deporte y la tecnología.

En París, Le Tremplin es considerado como una de las primeras plataformas de innovación, con más de sesenta startups sportstech y habiendo logrado más de 100 millones de euros en financiación, como parte de una apuesta por proporcionar las condiciones óptimas para encontrar soluciones tecnológicas rápidas a los grandes desafíos deportivos, mejorando la práctica del deporte para los ciudadanos dentro del contexto urbano de París, pero también a nivel nacional e internacional.

El apoyo de las corporaciones tecnológicas

Precisamente el acceso universal a la tecnología más puntera son el objetivo de los diversos programas y proyectos que las grandes corporaciones tecnológicas tienen en marcha para fomentar la innovación y el negocio en los deportes y favorecer el acceso a la innovación y la tecnología de cualquier entidad deportiva. Están los ejemplos de Amazon y Fantastic que han iniciado una particular guerra para erigirse en las tiendas oficiales de infinidad de entidades de todos los tamaños y deportes; el de Microsoft, que cuenta con el Global Sports Innovation Center, y acaba de ampliar de su acuerdo con LaLiga centrado en la transformación digital de la experiencia deportiva a nivel mundial impulsando la oferta tecnología de la asociación LaLiga Tech; el de Apple y las distintas colaboraciones que tiene para impulsar el deporte conectado a través de sus dispositivos o las de Sony y su Smart Tennis Sensor que inició la revolución del registro de datos asociados al manejo de la raqueta; el de Telefónica que a través de Wayra ha dado salida a startups como Humanox y sus espinilleras inteligentes o la plataforma Fancision, que fue seleccionada el año pasado para participar en el programa de aceleración de Qatar SportsTech, con una inversión de 150.000 dólares; o el de Vodafone que participa en varios proyectos asociados a la retransmisión en 5G y que ha apoyado a empresas como Esportter y su app Seyu para la relación con los fans.

El apoyo de estas grandes corporaciones en combinación con las sportstech startups es vital para que las entidades deportivas y federaciones más modestas encuentren nuevas vías de negocio adoptando tecnologías a las que habitualmente no tendrían acceso o les costaría implementar. Por ejemplo, de la mano de Seyu, el CD Leganés activó durante la pandemia una campaña de marketing que permitió al club pepinero aumentar las ventas un 47%. Víctor Marín, director de marketing del club, comentó que “lo más importante fue que pudimos adaptar el servicio de Seyu muy rápidamente y pudieron brindar ayuda inmediata a través de una nueva forma de comunicarse con los fanáticos y servir a los patrocinadores. En lugar del proceso habitual de aprendizaje de 3 meses para nuevas tecnologías, todo el sistema se implementó en cuestión de días, lo que nos permitió lanzar la campaña conjunta a la velocidad del rayo y abrir ocho plataformas comerciales digitales más para el patrocinador".

Aunque el acceso a las soluciones del 'state-of-the-art' constituya una seria barrera de entrada para las entidades deportivas más modestas, “afortunadamente, hay un conjunto de tecnologías, prácticas y casos de uso que poco a poco se están convirtiendo en un 'commodity', de fácil acceso y con unos costes de adquisición y operación de tecnología relativamente reducidos”, explican Alberto Grande y Alberto Serrano de Paradigma.

Para los expertos, la cada vez mayor riqueza de servicios de datos e IA en el cloud y la reducción de costes de estos servicios, acompañada además de una mayor granularidad en cuanto a oferta y modelos de pricing, hace que sea más asequible el optar por el cloud y reducir costes de infraestructura y operaciones.

Por otra parte, cada vez hay una oferta más amplia de dispositivos a utilizar para la analítica en el deporte, a un coste que los está convirtiendo de nuevo en 'commodities', como cámaras, drones, smartwatches o smartbands con capacidades más sofisticadas, como la medición de la saturación de oxígeno, la capacidad de hacer un ECG, o medir de forma continua parámetros de actividad o medidas como la presión arterial o el nivel de glucosa en sangre. “Evidentemente, esto no va a evitar un mínimo de inversión en talento e infraestructura, pero sí reducir significativamente los costes de inversión y permitir la adopción de tecnologías que nos permitan obtener más valor a nuestros datos”, apuntan.

¿Dónde veremos las próximas innovaciones sportstech?

Y en este contexto de tecnología más accesible, aumento de hubs de innovación, startups sportstech punteras y grandes corporaciones tecnológicas y deportivas trabajando de forma conjunta para unir la tecnología y el deporte, ¿en qué áreas veremos las próximas innovaciones?

“Es difícil saber por dónde vendrán. Ahora mismo creo que lo más inmediato es la investigación e innovación aplicada al rendimiento de los jugadores. Las mayores innovaciones se han hecho en ese campo y en el tema de infraestructuras (césped retráctil, techos movibles, etc.), pero las que más han fracasado por no adoptarse son las innovaciones en las relaciones con los aficionados ya sean tours virtuales y cosas similares. Las primeras pueden aplicarse sin la intervención de un tercero, pero la última depende de que la gente acoja esas nuevas formas de interacción”, apunta Alberto Moreno.

En el caso de los fabricantes de materiales deportivos, gran parte de la innovación se está volcando en la creación de pelotas y equipamiento sostenible que reduzcan el impacto en el planeta. Durante los últimos 50 años lo único que ha cambiado en las pelotas de tenis ha sido su color (de blancas a amarillas) y los envases para guardarlas (de aluminio a plástico) afirman desde Wilson. La multinacional americana dice que su pelota de tenis Triniti es una pelota eco consciente de alto rendimiento, con un embalaje 100% sostenible que dura hasta cuatro veces más, reduciendo el consumo y el desperdicio.

Adidas, que en 2019 anunció que produciría 11 millones de pares de zapatos a partir de plástico marino reciclado mediante la interceptación de desechos plásticos en playas, islas remotas y comunidades costeras, empezará a comercializar esta primavera-verano las primeras zapatillas basadas en la economía circular: FUTURECRAFT.LOOP, un enfoque transformador para diseñar zapatos de alto rendimiento que están hechos para ser rehechos desde el principio, utilizando un único tipo de material y sin pegamento. Cada componente está hecho de TPU 100% reutilizable: se hila en hilo, se teje, se moldea y se fusiona en una entre suela BOOST utilizando la tecnología Adidas SPEEDFACTORY. Una vez que los zapatos llegan al final de su primera vida y se devuelven a Adidas, se lavan, se muelen hasta convertirlos en gránulos y se funden en material para los componentes de un nuevo par de zapatos, sin desperdicio y sin tirar nada.

Para no desperdiciar ningún dato en la práctica del deporte, la inteligencia artificial será uno de los protagonistas de la innovación durante los próximos años. “Todo apunta a que la relación de los aficionados con el club y los jugadores cambiará notablemente. Gracias a la IA todo va a ser más personalizado y cercano, de manera que el público cobrará mucho más protagonismo. Es posible que una de las claves resida en el poder de decisión que pueda llegar a tener el espectador en lo que pase en el campo. Por otro lado, creo que habrá avances muy importantes en la monitorización de los jugadores. Se está investigando mucho en el ámbito de los sensores flexibles integrados en los textiles y dentro de unos años seguramente veremos a los jugadores con ropa que permitirá medir el nivel de hidratación, la carga muscular, el grado de cansancio y un largo etcétera”, pronostica Gaizka San Vicente. “Lo bueno de la innovación es que siempre te sorprende”, concluye.

“Es posible que por el contexto actual veamos en el corto plazo más aplicaciones de nuevas tecnologías en el área de smart venues para que los seguidores de un deporte se sientan seguros de volver a los estadios, a la vez que los clubes y organizaciones deportivas emplean tecnologías como el 5G, VR/AR, o la inteligencia artificial para ofrecer nuevas experiencias a los aficionados. De todas maneras, si tuviéramos que destacar dos áreas de innovación por encima del resto, sin duda sería el fan engagement y el activity & performance”, vaticina Íñigo de la Iglesia. “En los próximos años podremos ver una clara disrupción en la aplicación de desarrollos tecnológicos para incrementar el valor de la industria del deporte ya que existe una creciente tendencia en la inversión en este sector”, añade.

Desde Paradigma Digital, Alberto Grande y Alberto Serrano anticipan diversas etapas de innovación: “desde el punto de vista de los clubes, apostaríamos por la analítica aplicada a jugadores, llevando a soluciones cada vez más sofisticadas y personalizadas, gracias a las tecnologías de Big Data e Inteligencia Artificial. Una analítica que se verá enriquecida por el uso de drones y de dispositivos wearables que ofrecerán una visión del comportamiento del jugador, tanto desde la perspectiva visual (ej. cómo se está moviendo un jugador en el terreno de juego) como desde la de las biomediciones (ej. qué grado de esfuerzo está haciendo un jugador), todo ello en tiempo real”.

Posteriormente la innovación iría calando a los estadios, pero nos encontramos con la barrera del coste de adaptar todo un estadio para que realmente se pueda aprovechar todo su potencial. Aun así, ya hemos visto distintos casos en los cuáles se ha avanzado en este aspecto, con estadios que aportan múltiples mejoras (cámaras multi-ángulo, análisis en tiempo real de las gradas para la detección temprana de incidentes…). Estos son sólo los primeros pasos de todos los que vendrán.

Finalmente, aunque quizás sea menos relevante desde un punto de vista puramente deportivo, vivimos en la era del consumo de medios. En este contexto, los eventos deportivos suponen unos de los contenidos más atractivos. En eventos deportivos donde la variedad y cantidad de contenidos es significativa, como puede ser el caso de unas Olimpiadas, la tecnología actual nos permite, en función del perfil y gustos de la audiencia, identificar y recomendar los contenidos más atractivos, e incluso crear modelos de negocio con contenidos de valor añadido.

“Cabe destacar, sin embargo, que algunas de estas 'supuestas mejoras' luego son rechazadas por los propios seguidores ya que en algunos casos pueden llegar a desvirtuar la emoción del deporte (en Fórmula 1 sucedió un caso así recientemente, en el que se mostraba qué ocurriría si un coche saliese por delante o detrás de su competidor tras una parada en boxes). Está claro que debemos llegar a un equilibrio entre enriquecer el deporte y la emoción que la incertidumbre aporta”, apuntan los expertos de Paradigma.

Albert Einstein dijo que el verdadero signo de inteligencia no es el conocimiento, sino la imaginación. Así que puestos a imaginar igual gracias a la tecnología podremos sentir las emociones del futbolista que lanza un penalti o notar la tensión y sangre fría del jugador de baloncesto que debe encestar un tiro libre para ganar un partido. O puede que una camisa o una zapatilla nos hable para corregir la postura de yoga o el tipo de zancada que damos. Quizá los dispositivos del salón de mi casa me permitan vivir un partido de Roland Garros como si estuviera a pie de pista o sentir las olas de cualquiera de los veleros que disputan la Vendée Globe. O igual puede que el próximo entrenador del Real Madrid no sea Zidane, sino un bot que optimizará las alineaciones para asegurar títulos, y que un algoritmo permita adivinar dónde nacerá el próximo Messi o Cristiano o anticiparse a cualquier dolencia y enfermedad para evitar incidentes mortales en el deporte.

Al final, la innovación presupone identificar un reto y resolverlo para aportar valor tanto para la compañía como para el consumidor. Henry Ford decía que si hubiera preguntado a la gente lo que quería seguramente le hubieran pedido caballos más veloces. El fundador de Amazon, Jeff Bezos, lo resumía en otra frase: “creo que tienes que estar dispuesto a que te malinterpreten si vas a innovar". O, como diría el común de los mortales, la innovación es cosa de pelotas.