Ticketmaster Sport, SecuTix and SeatGeek Sport have joined forces to develop a set of guidelines to support the return of fans to live sporting events in the UK.
The work to identify a framework of ticketing standards for the industry was carried out on behalf of the Sports Technology and Innovation Group (STIG), which was set up by the UK Government in September to identify technological solutions for the safe return of fans.
The guidelines include a 10-step process through the fan journey from ticket purchase to post-event communication. The steps include a fan risk assessment, identifying modes of transport, a pre-event health questionnaire and notifications before and after the event. It identifies the minimum requirement for ticketing companies, along with the gold standard to aim for.

www.theticketingbusiness.com/2020/12/01/tm-sport-secutix-seatgeek-develop-guidelines-return-fans/

Pixellot, the world’s leading provider of AI-Automated™ sports production solutions, announced today they have partnered with Chinese tech company, Earth Mountain Technology to introduce AI-automated production and produce live sports content in China.
Earth Mountain Technology is a technological innovator focusing on broadcasting, graphics and digital video products. It has been producing content for the Chinese broadcasting and cable TV market as well as digital videos, for more than 20 years.
In July 2020 Pixellot and Earth Mountain provided AI production for the Nike High School Basketball Tournament which took place in two cities. More than 1,000 athletes competed in the 17-day tournament that was viewed by more than a million unique viewers on the Migu Sports App.
“The opportunity to work with a leading sports technology company such as Pixellot is a valuable asset for Earth Mountain. We’re exploring many interesting local partnerships in professional sports the youth market and in the education space,” said Earth Mountain Director of New Media Production Business Development, Shen Jun.
Earth Mountain will introduce Pixellot to the local market, with the intention of opening a local Pixellot office and co-developing new solutions that will be specifically tailored to the requirements of the Chinese market. One of the strategic projects being discussed is with China Unicom, one of the official sponsors of the 2022 Olympic games, to stream winter sports exclusively over their new 5G network.
“This partnership will allow the Pixellot platform to be used in one of the most unique and exciting markets in the world,” said Pixellot CEO Alon Werber. “We’re thrilled that this partnership is off to a great start following the Nike Basketball tournament. Earth Mountain is a veteran in the field and their experience in sports production as well as IT Infrastructure will allow us to grow quickly and adhere to the requirements of the Chinese market. Last month, Pixellot reached a major milestone of 1,000,000 hours of live sports production and this partnership with Earth Mountain will enable Pixellot to reach the two million production hours much faster.”
Pixellot’s AI-based automated production solution provides the sports market with easy and affordable ways to produce and distribute high-quality game video and data. The system is installed at the venue once and afterwards it functions automatically – producing and streaming games live and on-demand. Pixellot’s AI-automated technology ensures high-quality broadcasts without any human operators at the venue including advanced graphics and statistics. Computer vision algorithms monitor the movement of the ball and the players, and automatically select the action and highlights sports fans want to watch. Pixellot works with schools, clubs, leagues, and federations worldwide, and currently streams more than 40,000 live games per month from over 10,000 fields and venues.

It’s hard to see the big picture – especially when you are managing hundreds of people. Smart spaces start by engaging guests in the solution to help solve inefficiencies. WaitTime leverages real-time crowd intelligence and shares important data with operations and guests so that everyone can make smart decisions – leading to healthier, safer, more efficient spaces.
The key to making the most out of your spaces is distribution – your customer space is often overloaded in one area and under loaded in another due to foot traffic, schedules, line-ups, or even guest preference. It’s hard to identify and solve distribution issues without being able to see where people are-you can’t track or improve what you can’t measure. WaitTime not only helps to identify issues but also solves them directly by powering friendly and intuitive guest interfaces that direct guests and provide operational alerts and helpful reporting. Know where people are and then do something about it!

www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/solution-overview-c22-744452.html

Sports data specialist Stats Perform has acquired two fan engagement platforms from automated video highlights company Thuuz Sports in a move the firm says will ‘generate new opportunities for media, technology and betting customers’.
Following the acquisition, Palo Alto-based Thuuz Sports’ patented SmartReels and SmartRatings technologies will now be incorporated into Stats Perform’s existing product portfolio.
SmartReels is an AI-powered platform for generating video highlight reels that can be exported to any website, application or editing suite, while SmartRatings is a service which delivers customised alerts to fans based on their level of excitement or affinity for a given sport.
Stats Perform, which owns Opta, distributes official statistics and betting data for a host of sports clients, including the Premier League, La Liga and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), with whom it recently signed a new six-year deal.

www.sportspromedia.com/news/stats-perform-thuuz-sports-automated-fan-engagement-technology

Manchester United, one of the wealthiest and most decorated soccer clubs in the word, is still recovering from a disruption of its computer systems that it revealed 11 days ago.
Beyond a statement blaming “organized cybercriminals” for the incident, the club has declined to comment on who was behind the breach or whether it involved ransomware. The club said it took “swift action to contain the attack” and worked with outside security experts to minimize disruption to its IT systems.
But the incident speaks for itself in some ways. It’s a stark reminder that major sports franchises have a target on their backs from cybercriminals, even if regulators and the press don’t apply the same amount of scrutiny to data protection strategies in athletics as in other sectors, like energy and finance.
www.cyberscoop.com/manchester-united-hack-ransom-cyberattack/