VAR's Biggest Change Yet...

May 12, 2023

It’s the end of the week, and you know what that means… Yep, another Newsletter. We know, we know – Exciting stuff, right? Wow, to be honest, that week went by VERY quick. Nearly as quick as AC Milan’s Champions League hopes 😉

Here's what we got for ya today:

  • VAR is Changing Big Time…

  • LaLiga x AI

  • Baseball: To The Point

  • MORE ROBOTS

Most valuable public market sports teams

Let's get into it!

VAR is Changing Forever

Football fans are a stubborn bunch.

With fans finding it near-on impossible to find things to agree on, there’s one thing that – in our opinion – united Football fans the world.

Whether you like the fact it’s used or not, something has to be done about VAR.

Having already touched upon *most* of what’s wrong with its usage, today we’re focusing on something more specific…

How many times in the last couple seasons have you been watching a game and thought to yourself: “How ON EARTH have they come to that decision!?”

Because we have. A lot.

Truly, sometimes it just feels as though a decision is brought to VAR just because referees are bored…

With French media making headlines recently due to their coverage of referees, fans were offered an insight unlike any other. Hearing referees’ thoughts behind their decision making rationalised their choices in many fans’ minds and left little to argue about.

So, with that, fans obviously called for the Premier League to implement the system.

Well, it looks like they’re about to get what they’ve been asking for!

Stating last month that there is a strong desire within the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) to increase transparency, it looks like the Premier league will release some never before seen footage.

Releasing a new TV series next week, it’s said that VAR discussions will already be included in the Pilot episode.

Now, this could get VERY interesting.

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LaLiga: The AI Revolution is Coming

Teaming up with Sports Startup Accelerator, Sportsboost, in 2022, LaLiga is ready to bring the partnership to the next level.

Wanting to optimise their systems in order to improve large-scale productivity, the two have teamed up to launch the ‘Meet LaLiga’ initiative.

AI, it’s time to Meet Laliga.

Cringey, we get it. Sorry.

But seriously, aiming for AI to be at the forefront of operations, this is what we know so far:

  • Wanting to attract startups which already have had products launched onto the market, up to five companies will be chosen as winners

  • Winners will be given the opportunity to showcase their products and interact with key players in the sports and technology industries

  • Being fairly broad in its specifications for what the task, multiple aspects of LaLiga’s operations could see a significant shift.

Importantly, the digital assets and media plan developed by the two will serve to benefit the startups.

The structure of such competitions isn’t uncommon in modern day Sport. With teams trying to jump ahead of the curve, the use of AI holds serious significance.

Having heavily fallen behind leagues such as the Premier League, unique uses of technology could help LaLiga return to former glory.

Being heavily based around improving the way fans interact with the league’s content, who’s to say that these changes can’t have serious ramifications.

We sure hope they do!

Baseball’s Newest Tech

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. It’s now harder than ever for talented athletes to gain recognition on the world-scale.

To combat this, American Baseball has come up with a VERY good system – The Pioneer League.

Giving some of America’s best talent outside of the MLB an opportunity to showcase their skills, the league holds serious value. Although an independent league, the Pioneer League is a designated MLB Partner League.

Specifically, the Pioneer League offers the MLB a wealth of information regarding scouting so these players don’t go missing.

Well, that information is about to get A LOT more accurate.

Partnering with Trackman, an AI-based data analysis company, the league will be able to retrieve precise data on all areas of the game.

From ball tracking data to player analysis, the partnership will allow the league further development in their own league to eventually impact the MLB.

“The Pioneer League is all about developing and promoting young ballplayers… We're so excited to partner with TrackMan, the industry leader in data tracking, to provide better analytics for our club coaches, better performance data for MLB scouts and better information for our fans.”

Mike Shapiro,President of the Pioneer League

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We Need to Talk About: Football’s Newest Robot

Ah, it’ll never get old, will it?

Another week, another crazy Football playing robot. OP3 Soccer, welcome to the beautiful game 😅

Look, this isn’t the first time we have spoken about Footballing robots on The Sports Road. I mean with the Robocup only getting closer and closer, we can’t say it doesn’t make sense.

And yes, the Robocup is exactly what it sounds like. It is literally a robot Football tournament. Anything is better than the Carabao Cup to be fair…

While OP3 unfortunately cannot compete in the cup, it may actually offer the developmental team – Deepmind — some benefits.

Not having to follow the rigid rules associated with robot design in the cup, Deepmind can actually allow OP3 more expression in its movements.

As is seen in the above video, OP3’s hands can be seen waving around its hands and having a more human-like approach to movement.

Remind you of anyone? 😂

“We used Deep [Reinforcement Learning] to train a humanoid robot with 20 actuated joints to play a simplified 1v1 soccer game. The resulting policy exhibits robust and dynamic movement skills such as rapid fall recovery, walking, turning, kicking and more; and transitions between them in a smooth, stable, and efficient manner – well beyond what is intuitively expected from the robot.”

OP3 Developers

Quick bites

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Quote of the day

"You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you'll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit."

Joe Paterno

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Chat to ya on Monday! ☮️