SBJ Power Up: New Masters app features live up to hype

A quick not-so-humble brag: I have first round co-leader Brooks Koepka on my Masters office pool team.

On tap today:

• Masters app innovations impress
• Inside Tempus Ex-Chelsea deal
• Sports betting startup prioritizing digital rewards
• Op-ed: Reaching Gen Z fans requires new tech
• T-Mobile, MLB keep focus on tech advancements

Masters app, website features continue to impress golf fans, media

Day 1 of the 2023 Masters was a success on and off the course, as the game's best players created a stacked leaderboard after the tournament's first round and Augusta National flexed its muscle with new digital fan innovations.

With the debut of AI commentary and new features like the Watch Party function, here's a sampling of the chatter on social media around the Masters' popular app and website:

• Sports business reporter Joe Pompliano: "The Masters app may only be used for a few days each year, but it's BY FAR the best app in sports."
• Greenfly's Neil Horowitz: "A tradition unlike any other ... The Masters app gets its annual praise and it deserves it."
• Sports Video Group's Brandon Costa: "Annual reminder that the Masters App is monopolizing a secret level of image quality and hiding it from the rest of the industry."
• ESPN's Booger McFarland: "Masters app! Outstanding."
• Covers' Chris Hatfield: "The Masters App is the best app for absolutely any sport. Perfection."
• Minneapolis-based KFXN-FM's John Kriese: "The 'Favorites' feature of the Masters app ... basically plays a Red Zone Channel of the tournament. So awesome."
• Media exec Jon Weisgard: "Masters app is seriously good. Option to see every single shot, from every single player with AI commentary. Impressive stuff."

What do you think of the Masters app and website? If you're watching digitally today, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What Tempus Ex-Chelsea deals means for fans, burgeoning tech company

 A key element of video- and data-syncing company Tempus Ex Machina that impressed Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali enough to agree to a seven-year partnership with the young company was its ability to “provide many features they have never seen before” in order “to reshape parts of the fan experience.”

In discussing potential products that can built off the FusionFeed API, Tempus Ex CEO Charlie Ebersol detailed the concept of an NFT where the fan truly owns something that can’t be found elsewhere. While most video-based tokens are highlights that anyone can access, he speculated about a blockchain-backed product that uses a never-seen-before camera angle of the same play that won’t exist anywhere else.

Ebersol also discussed a scenario in which a fan watching an OTT platform can input his or her bets, fantasy team, favorite player and team merchandise preferences and receive a stream that highlights all that pertinent info.

“This is the first time, from our perspective, where we have an opportunity to take this massive, scaled audience and treat it as individual 330 million people as opposed to, ‘Here, you'll just get this one thing,’” he said.

Sports betting startup looks to integrate app rewards

The latest company featured in our Startup series is Scrimmage, a rewards program for sports bettors that lets users connect their sportsbook accounts on the app and earn tokens they can redeem for cash or other prizes.

"If you’re a new bettor, this is a fun addition to your sports betting process," Scrimmage co-founder Daniel Taren told SBJ Tech. "If you’re a more seasoned sports bettor, it’s cash back on your bets, which basically lowers your cost per trade long term."

Op-ed: Gen Z requires innovation in digital age

In order to survive in this new digitally focused era, sports must innovate to reinject excitement for Gen Z to create games and competitions that younger fans will enjoy, Jump! Innovation partner and head of market UK Lee Geraghty writes in an op-ed for SBJ.

The NBA, for example, embeds short-form, interactive social content and understands that the closer the vlogs and social media channels are to the players, the better for Gen Z interaction. Gen Z engagement in sports heavily depends on that.

Additionally, for sports to truly excel and tap into this hard-to-reach generation, they must not overlook the power of the esports/gaming industry.

to read the full submission, which first appeared in the SBJ Unpackshere.

• Technology is at the center of T-Mobile's MLB extension, which was made official yesterday. The mobile carrier will continue to offer free MLB.tv subscriptions to customers through 2028 and will test an automated ball-strike system powered by its 5G network, as my colleague Terry Leftonfirst reported last month.

• Virtual footwear company NXTG3NZ, in concert with rapper Lil Durk, will stage a public minting next Monday for their 7220 “phygital’’ sneaker collection which features both digital and physical versions. 

• As part of Socios adding PFL fighter Shane Burgos to its list of athlete endorsers, fans who have bought the PFL Fan Token on the Socios platform will be able to vote on what walk-out song Burgos will come out to for his next event on April 14 in Las Vegas.

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Image credits: Scrimmage (Startup)