Interviewing Malik Shishtawi, Founder of Arab SportsTech & Gaming Expo

Arab SportsTech & Gaming Expo is based in Qatar and is an opportunity to meet key players & leaders from the Sports Tech, eSports & Sports world in Qatar and the world, & to discuss latest trends and solutions in the industry. It focuses on providing real-world case studies, and learnings, enabling companies, teams, and individuals to excel in the sports industry. 

In this conversation, Malik talks about how everyone now has their eyes on the middle east. The main objective is to bring the right audience and stakeholders together. Mangusteen is the event company that hosts the expo. It was previously known as the Arab SportsTech Forum and is now the Arab SportsTech & Gaming Expo. What started out of passion for exploring the internet and following its evolution. Malik first launched the Arab Social Media forum once he identified a gap in the region. What spanned across 6 countries and 8 editions had attendees who now hold very prominent positions in international companies heading social media or the digital departments, accomplishing their initial mission as a forum. Malik also sheds light on the legacy of the World Cup and its impact on development of sport in the Middle East. He also talks about plans to launch an investor and startup matchmaking platform for the region. 

To learn more, visit http://arabstge.com

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Mohammad Ali Abbaspour, Founder and CEO at Sponixtech  

Sponixtech is a technology company that provides services and solutions which helps broadcasters, TV channels and advertisers increase viewers and enhance fan experiences. Through the ‘Immersive Replay technology’, Sponix Tech assists its clients to acquire more viewers, enhance their fan engagement and experience by producing immersive content. And the Virtual ‘Advertisement technology’, helps sponsors increase their engagement with fans. It creates a new era of sponsorship in the sports industry.

In this conversation, Mohammad discusses customizing the main solutions that we offer for various sports is their main  priority at the moment. Football, basketball, tennis, paddle, ice hockey and futsal are sports that Sponixtech have adapted technology for, cricket is of big interest and they now have their eyes on the huge market that the sport garners. Mohammad breaks down their clients into 4 categories: Rights holders like UEFA. Federations and leagues like the UAE Pro League, Serie A, Brazil Football Federation and a few more. Clubs - Crystal Palace, Benfica and they are now speaking to a few more top clubs in Europe. Broadcasters - Bein Sport, Sky Sport and recently in the US with Telemondo. Using the Sponixtech technology, leagues have created replay goals during the 90 minute live game to enhance fan experience.  

To learn more, visit http://sponixtech.com

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Petr Zhukov, Founder & CEO at Indigo SportsTech

Founded in 2019 Indigo Sports Tech focuses exclusively on sports tech ventures and participated in Seed pre-A and A rounds. With a segment focus spanning from smart wearables and gadgets to sports media and marketing, fan engagement and e-sports. The fund's geographic focus is the EU, but it also has exposure to the US and Israel. With 9 investments and 3 exits Indigo is one of the most experienced investors in this space worldwide.

In this conversation, Petr talks about the origins of Indigo SportsTech that stems from Indigo Capital. It was established in 2019 as an early stage investment fund. Pioneers in sports tech investments in Europe, Indigo SportsTech has started to make investments overseas and across sectors. He also discusses the new Association with SportsTechX as Rohn joins in as a Venture Partner. Petr also gives us an insight into the deployment of a new fund that has a rich pipeline of good companies. He also notes that AI will penetrate the sports market soon enough and we are currently picking our bets. There’s the application of AI in all areas of sport and there's a lot of money to be saved and to be made.  

To learn more, visit http://indigosportstech.com

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Vasu Kulkarni, Partner at Courtside Ventures 

Courtside Ventures is built on the backs of highly specialized sports and media entrepreneurs and investors. They look to utilize  industry networks and deep domain knowledge to bring unparalleled value to the companies that they invest in and support. 

In this conversation, Vasu discusses his love for playing basketball that led him to starting his first software company in 2008. He highlights his struggles to raise funding from VC’s and getting them to believe in the sports area. He talks about Dan and his willingness to back them up as they went on to set up a one of a kind (at the time) sports focused fund. And that set them off onto their journey of letting people know that sports is actually an investable industry. 7 years later, they are now on their third fund and over $200 million under management which is a great stamp of approval. 

To learn more, visit http://www.courtsidevc.com

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Machar Reid, Head of innovation at Tennis Australia and General partner at Wildcard Ventures

Wildcard Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on SportsTech startups, led by Tennis Australia and supported by prominent figures in the tennis industry.

In this conversation, Machar discusses the Australian Open's objective of becoming the most accessible and enjoyable sports event globally. To accomplish this objective, they continuously invest in  innovation. He elaborates on how, a decade ago, the Australian Open perceived innovative ideas from a client's perspective, but now they view these ideas from the lens of an investor. This strategy allows them to achieve higher returns rather than expending resources to adopt new innovations. Machar, also discusses the startups that AO Startups & Wildcard ventures has invested in and how they are not limited to supporting tennis but also emerging racquet sports.

To learn more, visit https://www.wildcardventures.vc/ and https://aostartups.ausopen.com/

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Max Feldstein, Vice President of Elysian Park

Elysian Park, owned by the LA Dodgers, is a global investment platform focusing on the intersection of sports with health, culture, commerce, and technology. They work across stages from seed to growth to provide companies with perspective, relationships, capital, and powerful strategic resources, their investments include Trailblazer Venture Studio, Draft Kings, COPA90, PitchVision, Fitt Insider, and EP Golf Ventures in partnership with PGA of America, among others.

In this conversation, Max talks about how Elysian Park broadened its key focus area from investing majorly in sports technology & entertainment to now expanding their investments across sports culture, health, commerce & technology. To know more visit www.elysianpark.ventures

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Simon Thompson, Founder of Trickshot

Trickshot is a London-based sports technology company that uses 3D data from live sports to create engaging augmented & virtual reality experiences for fans

In this conversation, Simon gives us an insight on how Trickshot's technology can help sports organizations attract younger audiences who are passionate about esports and seek the dynamic and immersive viewing experiences that regular sports broadcasts does not offer, resulting in a drop in viewership numbers from younger audiences.The discussion explores different approaches to utilizing their technology, which empowers fans to recreate their favorite moments and generate their own content using footage from the game. Simon also highlights their successful partnership with AFC Wimbledon, and sheds light on a few ongoing discussions with sports leagues and brands to expand and optimize the diverse applications of the technology

To learn more, visit http://www.trickshot.dev

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Brennon D’souza, Founder & CEO of DIBZ

DIBZ is an extremely fast upgrade experience that is facilitated through text messaging, for Professional Sports, Concerts & Music Festivals. DIBZ Works closely with the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLS, CFL, NASCAR, WWE, Ticketmaster, TDC, MLSE, etc. Based out of London & Atlanta, DIBZ is a tech startup that is a full-service texting engagement platform.

In this conversation, Brennon talks about how he noticed a lot of empty seats in stadiums and wondered why or how they could be filled. He thought if you can figure out how to get these seats full very quickly with a great user experience you’d be the king in the space, that was how DIBZ was born. Instead of virtually getting fans into those empty sets DIBZ works on actually getting them into those seats via text. They work across leagues and vertices and Brennon mentions that it’s really about taking their secret sauce and making sure they work fit  in all the different areas and vertices and leagues

To learn more, visit http://www.dibz.com

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Piyush Kumar, CEO of Rooter

Rooter is India’s leading Game Streaming and eSports platform. The company is on a mission to provide a fair and inspiring platform to gaming content creators, helping them produce entertaining content that is unique to their personas while benefiting from monetizable opportunities for their efforts. At the same time, by building a rich and diverse content repository, driving effortless discovery, personalized recommendations, and convenient share-ability, the platform offers immersive community experiences for gaming enthusiasts to connect and bond over. With close to 50 mn downloads to date, Rooter is the No. 1 sports app on Google Playstore – a rank it retains since October 2020. Rooter has raised over USD 32 Mn in capital from a marque investor base and is playing a key role in driving India’s gaming

creator economy. The company now envisions becoming India’s first unicorn in the game streaming space. To learn more, visit https://www.rooter.gg/

In this conversation, Piyush talks about his journey that began in advertising to then moving across various sectors in the corporate world to then starting Rooter in 2016. It was set up on the basis of a crystal clear objective - to bring like minded people together into one platform. He talks about how the drop in cost of data usage in India boosted the use of mobiles and online gaming and content consumption. He also highlights how the lockdown caused an unimaginable surge and growth around the gaming industry and by 2020 the Indian content marketing was at its peak. Piyush also deep dives into Rooter by numbers giving us in depth insights into the growth and trajectory.

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

Interviewing Neil Zhang, Co-Founder of Frontrunner

Frontrunner is a A decentralized sports prediction market built on blockchain. It is the first zero gas fee, decentralized sports prediction market built on blockchain where you get the best odds with no house edge. Frontrunner is a decentralized sports prediction market where users can buy shares of sports propositions and trade them like they would stocks or options. Unlike traditional sportsbooks where users place a bet and wait, Frontrunner gives users full control over their portfolios, allowing them to dynamically buy and sell positions as the odds change. By leveraging the power of free markets and the blockchain, we create transparent markets and liquid positions to reduce counterparty risk, create new types of sports-related markets, and fundamentally change the way in which people invest in their sports knowledge and beliefs. To learn more, visit www.getfrontrunner.com

In this conversation, Neil talks about how because of a full level of control in traditional sports betting, the house always wins. Frontrunner was started on one of the core themes that there's a convergence of gaming, finance and crypto and web3 and so they began building a ‘Robin Hood’ style sports betting platform built on a decentralized web3 backend. Making it a market driven model rather than a user or price book model. He talks about how there are an increasing number of firms who are now interested in the sports trading world. Their demographics are shaded about 50/50 between the western world and the asian markets. Frontrunner aims to target the smaller communities to see if they can get a proof point there with users who are looking for new things.

Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.