Tag: National Football League

RFID Tracking Chip To Be Placed On Every NFL Player

Posted on by Lab Team

You get a tracker. And you get a tracker. Everybody in the NFL games is getting a tracker! Oprah jokes aside, the trend towards big data has made its way to another stats-friendly domain: sports. The National Football League announced today that it is teaming up with Zebra Technology to deploy in-game player tracking chips in 17 stadiums for the 2014 season, effectively generating a myriad of proprietary new statistics in real time.

Two RFID chips will be place on each player’s shoulder pads and will provide various data, including positioning velocity, acceleration, distance run, and impact measurements, to Zebra’s real-time location system (RTLS). This move could transform the way teams and fans evaluate the personal performance of every NFL player, potentially changing the way America watches its favorite sport.

NFL Highlights Come To Twitter

Posted on by Lab Team

As Twitter continues to work towards going public, it’s trying harder to become intertwined with the television industry. On September 26th, NFL and Twitter agreed to a deal that would allow custom NFL video content to appear on Twitter, the first partnership of it’s kind. It falls under the umbrella of Twitter Amplify, Twitter’s advertising initiative that dates back to May, whose stated goal is to “amplify” the social TV conversation with real time, dual-screen sponsorships. The ultimate goal, for Twitter, is to provide a unique viewing experience that deepens engagement across the social network while increasing its potential value for future advertising and brand partners. And with content that’s as popular as the NFL, it appears as though they’re well on the way to doing just that. 

NFL Unifies App Offerings

Posted on by Lab Team

Unlike last season, NFL fans will have one app for all of their official football news and multi-media extras. Sponsored by Verizon, the new NFL Mobile app includes highlights, analysis, fantasy tools, and statistical updates for basic members, while Verizon customers can pay $5 for live coverage of Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football broadcasts. This merger of apps speaks to the overall goal of appealing to customers as well as brands – it’s much easier to target advertising and branded opportunities through one, widely utilized channel than through an app web. In one fell swoop the NFL unified its increasingly large mobile userbase under one roof.