Open Call for applications: Unlocking the True Power of Web3 - Transforming Sport Data and Analytics market into a Collaborative Economy

Sport tech experts, sport organisations and other interested parties are invited to apply now for participation in the dedicated Innovation Booster “Web3 for Sport Data”. The booster aims at leveraging Web3 technology and its new paradigms to transform the sport data and analytics industry into a data supply chain economy. The first physical meeting to ideate, explore and contextualise this innovation challenge will take place on 29 November 2023 in Bern from 9:00 to 17:00.

Discover the game-changing potential of Web3 tools like Tokens, Smart Contracts, and ledger technology for the sport data and analytics market. Delve into the benefits of user-owned and open data to allow specialisation along the data supply chain and co-shape how this transformation paves the way for more innovative and cost-effective products while maintaining fair and good governance by design.

Apply here until 15 November 2023 to become part of this important challenge, which is led by BlockSpirit AG in close cooperation with the Swiss Association of Computer Science in Sports (SACSS).

What can you expect from this innovation booster?

Participants will be introduced to the toolbox that Web3 has to offer and how it can help:

• overcoming data silos by making data accessible (“open”) to foster innovation by crowd-sourcing;
• improving data products and reduce costs by specialisation (“specialise”) along the data value chain, by data standards and by business automation; and
• maintaining good governance by design (“user-owned”).

Based on these observations, the main questions of the Challenge are:

• What will be the impact of these new paradigms in sport (“open”, “user-owned”, “specialise” and “standardise”)? What are the strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats and how can potential risks be mitigated?
• How to speed up the adoption of Web3 technologies amongst stakeholders of the sports data and analytics industry?
• What are the key aspects of a business model canvas for 2-3 viable use cases in the sports and analytics industry?
• What are the generic aspects of these use cases?

Expected outcomes

After the ideation workshop, BlockSpirit and SACSS will identify and test two use cases with the participants. These cases should create immediate value while addressing single or multiple parts of a data supply chain economy. The aim is to establish the requirements for these cases using proven frameworks in order to advance efficiently into the testing phase with two proof-of-concepts.

Context

The true potential of Web3 in sport is still largely misunderstood and so far limited to use cases including collectibles often in combination with elements from fantasy sport.

In fact, Web3 and blockchain technology is really a governance technology. It offers a set of tools (e.g. Tokens, SmartContracts, Blockchains / Ledger) that can be used to create the infrastructure necessary to build more collaborative economics that allows privacy regulations by design, incentivises data exchange and thus fosters innovation.

This is relevant for the sports data and analytics market as sport tech startups and established industry leaders continue to face a highly challenging environment. Their products and services are notoriously difficult to scale and thus achieving sustainable return on investment is tough. This is due to the fact that development needs significant domain expertise and is expensive while products find limited customer segments with highly individual needs and limited budgets outside of soccer/US Pro Sports.

As a result, sport organisations as the buying customers in an ever intensifying battle for better performance and entertainment are left with mediocre and expensive isolated solutions. The latter creates data silos which is further amplified by the competitive nature of sports. The lack of data accessibility thus has innovation in a deadlock. Moreover, pressure is growing from athletes and regulators with respect to data privacy in general and fair value distribution when sports data is monetised.