🤖 The New Sports Tech Stack: From Replit to Meta x Oakley and Beyond

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Welcome to the fifth edition of The Sports Stack. This week’s presenting partner is Morning Brew, which is incredible! I remember stumbling across Morning Brew five or six years ago when they ignited the daily newsletter movement, so it's pretty cool to have them as a partner in this week’s edition. 

In this week’s edition we’ll cover:

• From Baseball Scores to Workout Apps: The No-Code Revolution.

• First-Person Sports: Through The Athlete’s Eyes.

• Making AI Human: The Art of Tech Storytelling in Technology.

• Quick Hits: This Week’s Stories & Updates.

But first, a short ad from our presenting partner Morning Brew. If you enjoy quick and insightful updates about the business world, then I recommend signing up!

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⚾ From Baseball Scores to Workout Apps: The No-Code Revolution.

You may or may not be aware of Replit. Founded in 2016, Replit is transforming software development with its browser-based platform. It simplifies coding and deployment for all skill levels, enabling those without coding experience to build software products. 

A few weeks ago, Replit launched a mobile app: Replit: Idea to app, fast. This app allows users to build iOS and Android apps with natural language prompts. Its possibilities blew me away, and we are now truly living in a time when you can execute any idea you have.

This chapter highlights the sporting use cases tools like Replit could generate, demonstrating their potential to empower people, clubs and leagues. It includes an amazing story from Jeff Burke. Additionally, I’ll demo the simplicity of creating your own apps with Replit, allowing you to address that persistent ‘I wish there was an app for that’ sentiment.

I could’ve written this week’s entire edition on the following story: it’s that incredible. 

• Jeff Burke was left with a problem to solve when his grandfather-in-law informed him that the SF Chronicle had stopped including baseball scores in its daily paper, meaning he was unable to catch up on the latest in MLB.

• His grandfather-in-law was not tech-savvy, and he decided that attempting to download the ESPN app to his phone wouldn’t work, so Jeff had a different idea.

• Through Replit, he created an application that gathers daily MLB scores and emails them to his grandfather-in-law at 6 am each morning, just before his coffee, so he can print the results.

These types of everyday feel-good stories happen when we reduce the barriers to entry in software development. Click here for the whole story. 

Not so moving & impactful is the workout tracker that I built for my gym sessions using Replit, but it’s still pretty cool. It’s incredibly easy and only requires:

• Downloading Replit

• Creating a prompt & ask Replit to build it.

• Guiding the agent through the build process, answering simple questions, and prompting further actions.

Watch this short video to see it in action!

If you want to try it out for free, you can download Replit for iOS here.

I’m not suggesting that non-technical people will now be able to build, deploy and manage a mobile app through the full software lifecycle, however the barriers to access are continually being lowered.

I am also likely to purchase a more polished and robust workout app from the app store for £0.99 per month. However, we are still in the early stages, and enabling everyone to create will create an incredibly imaginative future - one that belongs to the creators.

How will the low code / no code revolution impact the Sports industry?

• Data and IP are becoming increasingly important and valuable in a world where software is becoming commoditised. In Jeff’s example, he bypasses this by scraping a scoring website; as data becomes more valuable, more IP owners will guard against these practices. 

• Market testing and validation become easier. New ideas and concepts can be tested quickly with minimal investment and adopted based on real feedback. Sports entities can put new app ideas in the hands of fans in record time and even launch unique event / match-specific apps to supplement their current product portfolios.

• Smaller teams can build impactful analytics tools and dashboards to enhance performance without requiring large development teams, reducing costs. 

• [Watch-out] Due to the market's oversaturation, apps could become less impactful, and it will take more quality to cut through the noise.

👓 First-Person Sports: Through The Athlete’s Eyes.

I’ve written extensively about the future of the athlete and the creator, but I wanted to take some time to focus on an area that could soon explode. In a recent newsletter, I mentioned the future of wearables and Meta’s upcoming collaboration with Oakley. 

Oakley has a rich history rooted in sports, innovation and collaborations with athletes, making it a natural partner for Meta. The brand holds over 600 patents for technologies in its glasses! According to SBJ, the upcoming collaboration will place cameras in the centre of the frame and include an augmented reality display on the lens. It’s the camera I’m really interested in. 

Predictions: 

• Extreme sports athletes with existing Oakley endorsements will leverage this new hardware to unlock incredible new footage and content for fans. 

• These experiences will be so captivating that broadcasts will increasingly advocate for this hardware to be more fully integrated within sports.

  • Imagine Min Woo Lee playing The 16th at the Waste Management Open and providing fans with a first-person view of that. 

  • Cyclists wearing these glasses giving fans a first-person view of the peloton, reducing the need for the crazy cameramen on bikes. 

  • Freestyle snowboarders and skiers unlocking incredible new angles of their racing and events. 

• In theory, any sport where an athlete is already comfortable wearing glasses or sunglasses could unlock these new experiences for fans and create an incredible partnership and content opportunity for brands and athletes.

🤖 Making AI Human: The Importance of Storytelling in Technology.

Last week, I shared that this year’s Super Bowl ads were the most expensive ever, at $8m per 30 seconds. When you spend that much on an advert, and you have the attention of a mass audience, storytelling is vital.

I also mentioned that AI would take centre stage, and with only 30% of Americans accurately identifying six examples of AI’s use in daily life, storytelling becomes even more vital if your product and business are AI-focused.

That’s why Google’s ‘Dream Job’ Super Bowl ad was incredible. It takes a complex topic and focuses on its impact on our lives, utilising its new Pixel phone and Gemini assistant. 

This is in contrast to Open AI’s approximately $16m advert, which is too abstract to cut through and really have a lasting impact.

However, it’s worth noting that Google still has a long way to go to catch up with ChatGPT’s AI usage compared to Gemini's, so maybe ChatGPT can afford to lose this particular battle.

🗞️ Quick Hits: This Week’s Stories & Updates.

Did you know that artists aren’t paid that much for a Super Bowl Halftime performance? According to Joe Pompliano Kendrick Lamar was paid around $1000 for his performance (approx the minimum wage). 

The impact and exposure that artists get, plus the large production budget the sponsor provides, helps put the NFL in a strong negotiating position. However, even with what was widely described as a ‘poor performance’ (I don’t agree), it’s clear to see why artists like Kendrick Lamar would agree to this deal: 

• According to SportBusiness, Major League Baseball has taken an equity stake in Sportradar as part of their new eight-year agreement. The agreement has finally been signed off, more than a year after the two parties entered early renewal discussions.

• After two delays, Football Manager 2025 is officially dead. Significant technical challenges directly related to its proposed overhaul were cited as the reason. 

• Perplexity’s different approach to Super Bowl promotions drove 50% additional app installs. They ran a sweepstakes for $1m during the Super Bowl. All you had to do was ask a question.

Thanks for reading!
Mark