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Héctor Prieto (YBVR): “80% of the WFS StartCup jury were potential clients of ours”

Héctor Prieto (YBVR): “80% of the WFS StartCup jury were potential clients of ours” 2048 1365 WFS Live

Héctor Prieto is the co-founder of YBVR a technology start-up, building the next generation VR video distribution platform. We met Prieto two years ago, when YBVR became the winner of the WFS StartCup by GSIC. We recently caught up with him to talk about the challenges that the sports industry will have to face in the “new normal” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and how technology can help overcome these challenges.

Q. First of all, tell us briefly about your company, what solutions does it provide and what partners are you currently working with with in the sports industry?
A. We provide a solution for 360º video streaming platform. We currently can provide from 360 production to the device application and including the streaming platform. We work with any right owner that aims to distribute its content to its customers, for example companies such as (for example) Australian Open, Movistar, Rakuten or whoever owns the sports content.

Héctor Prieto, during his pitch at WFS18.

Q. What impact did winning the WFS StartCup competition have on your project?
A. We had a very good visibility among stakeholders in the industry. YBVR, as a company, does not serve the audience directly; we provide a solution to other companies like (as industry examples) LaLiga, Movistar or Australian Open. That’s why the WFS StartCup worked so well for us, a lot of interesting things came out of it. For example, the jury of the startup competition, which was composed of around 18 people, was formed by around 80% of potential clients to us.

Q. Technology has been playing a crucial role in sports for quite some time now, but its importance will still be increasing in the upcoming years. In which areas would you say we can expect more impact in the coming years?
A. Data & analytics, media distribution (due to Covid-19 limitations) and gaming.

Q. Covid-19 is going to present new and unprecedented challenges for the sports industry once competitions resume. How do you think technology can help overcome these challenges? What new developments do you eye?
A. The limitations in accessing stadiums is increasing the use of Internet for work and leisure. People will thus be more used to technology. For media distribution, technology will need to bring the standards quality to TV concepts much faster. Also this will enhance the interactivity, either with other virtual users and also with the sport being played, which will be a big change in the industry. We are actively working in a Virtual Feedback functionality to be soon included in our product line.

Casillas and Villa, among the World Champions to join the lineup

Casillas and Villa, among the World Champions to join the lineup 1200 800 WFS Live

For a long time, the senior national male team was the weak link of Spain’s impressive football chain. Spain had won almost every existing U- 17, U-19 and U-21 nation competition as well as the Olympic Gold Medal, and LaLiga clubs were consistently among the most successful teams in UEFA competitions. However, when it came to Eurocups and World Cups, Spain’s journey always ended abruptly in painful quarter final defeats.

Over the years, some of the country’s most talented players succumbed to what seemed to be an unbreakable curse. Until a unique generation of footballers, most of which were no more than 1,70 m tall, came together around the much celebrated ‘tiki-taka’, a style that teams across the world still strive to replicate due to its unmatchable mix of beauty and efficiency.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the most remarkable success of that unique generation of players: the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The victory against the Netherlands in Johannesburg meant tearing down the final wall for Spanish football. It brought the whole country together in the midst of a global economic crisis that was devastating for its citizens, and its importance went far beyond the playing field. The World Cup ignited the professionalization and modernization of all the structures of the sport in the country, consolidating Spanish football as a powerful industry and one of the pillars of Spain’s country brand.

To celebrate this tenth anniversary, WFS Live powered by Octagon and Senn, Ferrero Sports&Entertainment are bringing together some of the key actors of that historical victory: Fernando Hierro, former Sporting Director of the Spanish Football Federation; Vicente del Bosque, Manager of the team from 2008 to 2016; Iker Casillas, the captain, David Villa, top scorer, and Juan Mata, who was one of the team’s rising stars in South Africa, will be sharing their memories with moderator Julio Senn in a session that will surely touch the heart of all the fans of that remarkable team.

‘La caída del muro: A decade from Spain’s historic World Cup win’ will take place on Friday July 10th a day that has been added to the WFS Live powered by Octagon schedule, which will run from July 6th to 10th. This extra day will be focused on discussing on the pitch issues and will feature some of the game’s biggest legends.

Ismael Fernández (ThermoHuman): “Technology is going to be crucial to make things feel normal”

Ismael Fernández (ThermoHuman): “Technology is going to be crucial to make things feel normal” 1840 1209 WFS Live

Ismael Fernández is the co-founder of ThermoHuman, a pioneer company specialized in the use of Infrared Thermography to prevent injuries. We met Casado two years ago, when ThermoHuman became the second winner of the WFS StartCup by GSIC. We recently caught up with him to talk about the challenges that the sports industry will have to face in the “new normal” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and how technology can help overcome these challenges.

Q. First of all, tell us briefly about your company, what solutions does it provide and what partners are you currently working with with in the sports industry?

A. ThermoHuman is a pioneer company specialized in the use of Infrared Thermography to prevent injuries, to monitor them and to improve performance in humans. During the last 10 years we have been researching (8 PhD and more that 40 scientific articles published) and working with health, research and sport institutions (LaLiga, PSG, Everton FC, Houston Rockets, etc.). The results showed up to a 70% reduction of muscle injuries. The system is based on a camera that takes thermal images from subjects and a software that uses computer vision algorithms to let us know in a matter of seconds which body regions might have any potential risk of injury: fast, non-invasive and objective. Our main added value is focused in creating artificial intelligence based on machine learning and computer vision algorithms to identify automatically body regions in thermal images from humans, and also neural networks to create prediction features associated with thermal patterns and pathologies/injuries. In addition to that, we have now developed a specific application for COVID-19 based on elevated temperature face detection in real time.

Q. Why did you decide to participate in the WFS StartCup competition? What goals were you aiming to achieve?

A. We know very well the reputation of such an event and we considered that our technology fits perfectly in the approach of WFS StartCup by GSIC Our goals were to test if experts on the field and the audience might think the same, to show and explain our technology and benefits (which are unknown for almost everyone) and obviously to gain visibility and strength our brand in the sector.

 

Ismael Fernández receives the WFS StartCup award from Iris Cordoba in 2017.

Q. What impact did winning the WFS StartCup competition have on your project?

A. World Football Summit has become a reference event at a national and international level in a very short time. Having had the fortune to participate and win the StartCup has been an immense help in our great objective of publicizing the application of thermography for the prevention and monitoring of injuries in sports and health sector. It is difficult to measure the impact, but it has certainly helped us improve our positioning and brand image, and that is something very valuable in a project like ours.

Q. Technology has been playing a crucial role in sports for quite some time now, but its importance will still be increasing in the upcoming years. In which areas would you say we can expect more impact in the coming years?

A. No doubt we are going to undergo a long process to what we knew as “normality”. In our opinion, technology is going to play a crucial role in making everything seem as “normal” as possible: fan engagement, stadiums, television, sharing experiences, health control, etc.

 

Q. COVID-19 is going to present new and unprecedented challenges for the sports industry once competitions resume. How do you think technology can help overcome these challenges? What new developments do you eye?

A. As I mentioned before, technology is going the help us feel we are closer to what we know as “normality”. Reducing the COVID-19 risk and making the football experience as much real as possible are the main challenges. From our side, we can help mitigating the risk of infection using our technology in sport venues and stadiums by screening fans and players to detect body elevated temperature.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino to address the aftermath of Covid-19 at WFS Live

FIFA President Gianni Infantino to address the aftermath of Covid-19 at WFS Live 2560 1707 WFS Live

WFS Live powered by Octagon is proud to announce that FIFA President Gianni Infantino has joined our lineup of speakers. He will be taking the virtual stage at the closing session of this online and fund-raising event that will gather industry leaders across the globe to discuss the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. The FIFA President will share insights on how football’s global governing body envisions the future of the game.

Gianni Infantino was re-elected FIFA President for a second term by acclamation in June 2019 after successfully implementing a number of crucial governance and administration reforms that completely revamped football’s governing body and lead to unprecedented financial success.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

For this new term, he established the mission of “making football truly global”, which includes “paving the way to a landscape in which, one day, we will have at least 50 national teams and 50 clubs from all continents who can compete at the highest levels worldwide.”

“I am happy to accept the invitation of my friend and FIFA Legend Ronaldo to participate at the event that he is hosting online. This is a time for the global football community to be united, and this event provides a unique platform for leaders and stakeholders across the world to join forces and work together while raising funds to tackle the effects of Covid-19 on vulnerable communities,” said Gianni Infantino.

“I am happy to accept the invitation of my friend and FIFA Legend Ronaldo to participate at the event that he is hosting online. This is a time for the global football community to be united, and this event provides a unique platform for leaders and stakeholders across the world to join forces and work together while raising funds to tackle the effects of Covid-19 on vulnerable communities,” – Gianni Infantino, FIFA President.

“The industry needs true leaders more than ever and we can’t think of a more inspiring figure in football than Mr. Gianni Infantino. His job at FIFA has helped globalize, popularize and democratize football for the benefit of the entire world. I think it is great news that stakeholders across the globe will be able to hear from him at WFS Live powered by Octagon, and we are truly honored to have him,” said Ronaldo Nazário.

Gianni Infantino leads a stellar lineup that will feature up to 50 top-notch leaders representing the sports industry’s major properties and brands.

WFS Live powered by Octagon is an online, fund-raising event, co-organised by World Football Summit, Ronaldo Nazário and Octagon Brasil, that will bring football’s global leaders together from July 6th to 9th to discuss the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the game and the industry. All net proceeds will be donated to Common Goal and Fundação Fenômenos to help tackle the effects of coronavirus on vulnerable communities.

Francis Casado (MMC) on how to guarantee revenue with venues at 30% capacity

Francis Casado (MMC) on how to guarantee revenue with venues at 30% capacity 1794 907 WFS Live

Francis Casado is the Head of Business Development of Mobile Media Contenta company providing virtual visualisation technology for major sport venues across the world. We met Casado four years ago, when MMC became the first winner of the WFS StartCup by GSIC. We recently caught up with him to talk about the challenges that the sports industry will have to face in the “new normal” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and how technology can help overcome these challenges.

Q. First of all, Mr. Casado, tell us briefly about your company, what solutions does it provide and what partners are you currently working with with in the sports industry?

A. MMC has developed a platform called 3D Digital Venue. 3DDV is a B2B SaaS company delivering the world’s most accurate 3D-VR venue digitalization technology for the Sports and Performing Arts industries. The company has developed 3D Digital Venue, a unique scalable API-based technology platform, providing 360-degree seat views of every single seat to any ticketing system worldwide.

Q. Why did you decide to participate in the WFS StartCup competition? What goals were you aiming to achieve?

A. MMC with its 3DDV has been growing at a global scale thanks to its technology and the partners that have decided to work with us. 3D Digital Venue platform has become a de facto standard for vast majority of ticketing platforms. Although the platform has been quite successful in the foreign countries, we have been struggling to land national clients. We believe the Spanish league has a lot of potential and interesting clients.

Q. What impact did winning the WFS StartCup competition have on your startup?

A. We were promoted in several newspapers and especially in social media. We received some calls from local companies and a couple of clubs interested in exploring synergies.

Q. Technology has been playing a crucial role in sports for quite some time now, but its importance will still be increasing in the upcoming years. In which areas would you say we can expect more impact in the coming years?

A. We believe that premium sales are going to increase in the following years, especially due to the influence of Covid-19. Social Distancing tools are also technologies that have risen the interest of clubs and venue managers. Last but not least, being able to attend events remotely or interact with fans that are not part of the live event physically is also a trend. In a nutshell, security, safety, staying connected and interacting with people are key areas.

Q. Covid-19 is going to present new and unprecedented challenges for the sports industry once competitions resume. How do you think technology can help overcome these challenges? What new developments do you eye?

A. Social Distancing algorithms for creating new venue layouts. Planning tools for managing fans, adapting existing services such as Food and Beverage, merchandising or premium experiences to the “new normal” will be a challenge. In addition, guarantee revenue for clubs and venue owners is also a challenge understanding they can manage 30% of their venue capacity, best case escenario.

Trio of stellar speakers announced: Ronaldo, Sir Martin Sorrell and Javier Tebas

Trio of stellar speakers announced: Ronaldo, Sir Martin Sorrell and Javier Tebas 620 413 WFS Live

Ronaldo Nazário, Javier Tebas and Sir Martin Sorrell are the first three speakers to be announced for WFS Live powered by Octagon, the pioneering virtual event that will bring the global football industry together from July 6th to 9th. With the coronavirus pandemic having shaken up the industry, WFS is going virtual for what is set to be the largest online business event in the football industry and the first one to gather all the major leaders together in one place.

  • Ronaldo Nazário is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Real Valladolid and has been since September of 2018. Before that, he became one of the beautiful game’s most iconic players ever by winning the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 and 2002, as well as three FIFA World Player of the Year and two Ballon d’Or awards. Given that he has also been an ambassador for the United Nations in the fight against poverty, Ronaldo is expertly placed to talk about so many of the issues facing the world of football and the world in general right now.
  • Sir Martin Sorrell is the Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, a digital advertising and marketing business that has over 2,400 employees in 30 countries, with a market capitalisation of over $1.2 billion. Sir Martin was also CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalisation of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Put simply, he is one of the most respected minds in the advertising industry, a field that faces so much uncertainty at this time of crisis.
  • Javier Tebas is another influential figure in the football industry, having been the President of LaLiga since 2013 and having served on the boards of several national and international associations. As the leader of an organisation that has grown from 35 employees to approximately 600 members of staff and one that has increased its clubs’ audiovisual turnover to the €1.5 billion mark, Tebas knows the ins and outs of the modern football industry like few others. He has also been steering LaLiga through the coronavirus crisis in a commendable manner and is able to offer unique insight at these unprecedented times.

While the speakers at WFS Live will be discussing a wide range of topics, there will of course be particular focus on the challenges and the opportunities that will arise as a result of COVID-19. As the Conference Concept outlines, there will be discussion of how this crisis will affect all in the industry, from right holders to broadcasters to sponsors to scouting and player development departments to those working in the transfer market and beyond.

WFS Live by Octagon will have all the features that make WFS events the largest and most appreciated, with top speakers and premium networking at the crux of the conference. Interaction will be a key aspect of this get-together, with the technology being used allowing for extra-efficient networking between attendees and a truly global reach, while the keynote speeches will also remain at the heart of the summit. Ronaldo Nazário, Javier Tebas and Sir Martin Sorrell are just the first trio of speakers to be announced, but WFS Live has already confirmed other top names from across the industry’s various sectors and these will be revealed over the coming weeks.

Tickets are already on sale at the WFS Live website for a unique price of 40 euros. With WFS determined to help the communities that have been most severely hit by the coronavirus crisis, all net proceeds will be donated to the Common Goal COVID-19 Response Fund and Fundação Fenômenos.

Iván Codina (LaLiga), on how the COVID-19 crisis can help football reach the next level

Iván Codina (LaLiga), on how the COVID-19 crisis can help football reach the next level 1665 1189 WFS Live

Over the last few weeks, LaLiga has made a huge effort to keep its fans engaged and to promote its partners worldwide, with a FIFA20 competition involving real LaLiga players representing their clubs (#LaLigaSantanderChallenge), an online festival that brought football and music stars together to raise more than €600,000 to fight coronavirus (#LaLigaMusicFest) and three new TV programmes that allowed the league’s global audience to peak into how players were dealing with the lockdown.

While clubs in Spain resume training ahead of a potential restart of the competition, we talk to its Managing Director in South East Asia, Iván Codina, about the lessons learned while filling the void left by the COVID-19 lockdown and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for both the sport and the industry.

Q. Firstly Iván, how are you doing right now and how is the coronavirus affecting you personally and professionally?

A. Well, I’m taking this call from home, like pretty much everyone else nowadays. In Singapore, things have evolved in a difficult way in the past few days. Everybody is already in lockdown at home and the number of cases has been increasing drastically in the past few days. The local government is taking the right measures to try to have COVID-19 under control, so that means that for the time being I’m working from home like everyone else and like all my colleagues. I’m trying to overcome the challenges of working at home with kids running around, but so far so good. In terms of how this is affecting our business, as you can imagine it’s had a massive impact. Right now, we are just trying to have open discussions with all our stakeholders and we are assessing the situation to see how we can best accommodate or overcome this situation altogether.

Q. One of the issues the coronavirus might be revealing is that football perhaps relies too much on live events. Would you agree that this is one of the major challenges the industry is facing in the next few months? And, how is LaLiga tackling this in the Asian market?

A. We consider ourselves as an entertainment company, as in sports and entertainment. So, we live in this space and, for us, it’s no longer just about the 90 minutes on the field of play. The consumption behaviour has been changing drastically in the last few years. The millennials and the youngsters that follow LaLiga are sometimes more interested in other sorts of content other than highlights or what’s going on in the 90 minutes on the field of play. That gives us an opportunity to find different ways to engage with these fans. We focus a lot on what happens before and after and during the week. That’s very important because we have identified a huge increase in demand or appetite for this kind of content. We always try to develop new ways to engage with our existing fans and also to attract other fans that may not necessarily be traditional football fans. We’re always trying to be creative and to identify other content and that’s why our slogan is ‘it’s not football, it’s LaLiga’. We have multiple events and projects that we work on at LaLiga. We’ve also been currently working to also see how we can best support the fight against the current situation. It’s a global crisis. Of course, LaLiga has been coming up with events like #LaLigaSantanderFest or #LaLigaSantanderChallenge. We have been raising funds to support the fight against coronavirus and to be able to buy some medical equipment for the hospitals to be able to fight the coronavirus.

Q. I know that hosting on-site activations together with local partners and broadcasters is a crucial part of LaLiga’s famous ‘glocal’ strategy. So, how do you keep the ball rolling for the clubs now that there’s no action going on?

A. Everybody is being hit one way or another from the coronavirus. It is very important for us to have even better communication with all the different stakeholders than we had up until now. It’s very important to work with the likes of the broadcasters, existing commercial partners and the different leagues that we partner. We’re listening to the fans and seeing how we can all support each other. For us, it’s very important to identify ways in which we keep offering value to the associations we have with our stakeholders. Luckily for us, a partnership with LaLiga is not necessarily just about what happened in the 90 minutes of a live match in Spain. It’s much more than that. So, we’re trying to see how exactly we can develop specific content, depending on the market, that we feel is going to be more engaging for both our fans and for our commercial partners or broadcasters. So, we have been working very closely with our partners in defining what is the best way to engage with our fans. Having said that, we also need to try to be sensitive to what’s going on right now. It’s not necessarily the right time to be seen as being very pushy as you try to promote your brand. Right now, of course it’s okay to continue engaging with your fans and trying to be creative and see what is the best way to come up with relevant content for the market. But also, it needs to be a little bit sensitive.

Q. Are you working on strategies for how to relaunch the league when that eventually happens? I suppose that the Asian market will continue to be crucial since it could be one of the first markets in the world to recover from the crisis.

A. The internationalisation of the league is one of the biggest strategies and objectives right now. We still have a long way to go to grow our brand and our presence in a lot of markets. In this region in particular, we have a lot of room for improvement. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a relaunch. But, that being said, what we’re starting to work on is to try to see what is the best way to make sure that everybody is aware that the competition is resumed when it comes to the right time. As you know, we have a project called LaLiga Global Network where we have over 50 delegates sent across the world, with nine of these delegates in nine different markets in this part of the world. We’re trying to see with them what would be best once the competition is resumed. We’ve been trying to develop ideas and activation plans for the remaining 11 matches. But, again, there’s a lot of uncertainty and also we need to take care and make sure we understand what the situation is in each of the different markets. We can try to send across a message of hope and try to keep people positive. I guess that once we see that football is coming back then probably that will be seen as a message of hope for everyone.

Q. We’ve already seen the economic impact the coronavirus crisis has had on clubs in Europe. What do you think the impact will be on Asian football?

A. Everybody is getting hit, right? And the football industry in particular has massively been hit. We need to understand the ecosystem of the different leagues in the region. We have the more developed leagues such as the Chinese Super League or the J League or K League or even the A League in Australia. Then we have the less developed leagues in South East Asia and other parts of the region. In the more developed leagues, perhaps compared to the top European leagues the impact is a little less because in the top European leagues they are heavily dependent on massive TV broadcasting deals. In these leagues they also depend a lot on broadcasting rights, but it’s not the same proportionally if compared to the top European leagues. A lot of the top clubs depend more on private investment of some of the big local companies and that gives you an idea that the impact might be lessened compared to the top European leagues. Whereas for the less developed leagues in this region, they normally don’t have much revenue coming from sponsorship or TV rights, so it’s still going to be challenging for them. Right now, we’re even looking at leagues that might not even be able to go back next season and they might need to stop for a while. So, it’s a complete disaster. Most of the clubs cannot pay their players, so the situation is a little bit worrying. There are going to be challenging times ahead for them.

Q. What do you think will be the main consequences and challenges in the future for football properties such as LaLiga, as we move forward from this and into the future?

A. It’s very hard to guess what it’s going to be like in the next few months once things start settling down. So much has been said about life as we know it never being the same. I’m sure there are going to be some opportunities and some things that are going to change. It’s difficult to say which. I just can say that those who can be more flexible to adjust to the new circumstances are going to be the ones who are going to make it back and can even look to a brighter future. That’s what we are working on right now. We know it’s going to be a very challenging path, first to try to resume the competition and also there are going to be some circumstances we won’t be familiar with. I particularly think there’s going to be an opportunity to be more creative on digital and with the way that we try to bring the game closer to the fans. Let’s not forget that ultimately there are only a few lucky fans who are able to attend the matches in the stadiums, but there are millions of fans out there that have never had a chance to go and experience the competition live. So, the way we engage with fans all over the world I think will improve due to the current situation. I think it’s going to be a big opportunity to improve on digital and content and be more creative when it comes to engaging with the fans. It’s probably going to be more challenging when it comes to securing partnerships. The rights holder will need to be more creative in coming up with additional value to convince some of the brands out there to look for an association with a league. I think that’s going to be a challenge probably. But, I want to remain positive. Perhaps this is going to be an opportunity to bring the football industry to the next level.  I’m sure that we will overcome this situation and hopefully we will come out stronger and with an even higher proposition for our partners.

The 2020 WFS StartCup by GSIC kicks off!

The 2020 WFS StartCup by GSIC kicks off! 1707 1217 WFS Live

World Football Summit (WFS), in partnership with Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft (GSIC)are launching the StartCup 2020an international competition that aims to locate the best sportech projects and/or startups with innovative solutions that can impact the sports industry in general, and football in particular. 

In its four previous editions – three in Madrid and one WFS Asia edition in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) – this competition received more than 800 applications from startups around the world. 30 of them had the opportunity to present their solutions to the world’s industry leaders at World Football Summit, the international reference event of the industry. 

The winners of the first four editions3D Digital VenueThermohumanGameReady and YBVR, respectivelyhave since gained great notoriety in the sportech ecosystem They are currently working with top international sports entities such as LaLiga, NBA, Ligue 1, Australia Open, MLB, MLS, Mutua Madrid Open, Davis Cup, Manchester City, FC Barcelona, Wembley Stadium or Atlético de Madridamong others. 

The jury members of the 2020 WFS StartCup by GSIC.

The call is for projects and/or startups that offer solutions that impact the football particularly and/or sports industry in general in any of the following areas:   

  • Team & player performance
  • Business insights & analytics
  • Smart & immersive facilities 
  • Fan engagement & experience 
  • Media platforms
  • Generation of sponsorship 
  • eSports, emerging sports, virtual currencies & betting
  • Mitigation of pandemics & public health

The call aims to showcase, support, nurture, and train entrepreneurs to transform their projects into successful companies, while improving their projection, growth, and scalability. In addition, this year there is a new feature, as startups are invited to present innovative initiatives aimed at responding to the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will have multiple and important consequences for the sports industry in the upcoming months. . 

Héctor Prieto, CEO of YBVR, receives the award during WFS18.

“From the GSIC we have created a catalogue of solutions, which is constant update, to help sports entities to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis, but we are convinced that the current situation is a learning experience for everyone and we must have identified the solutions that will help us to be better prepared for this kind of emergencies in the future“, says Iris Córdoba, General Manager at GSIC.  

“Technology plays an essential role in football. In recent years, solutions have been implemented to allow improvements in all areas of sport and industry, some of which have come out of this StartCup. But football must still benefit from technology, especially in the light of the coronavirus crisis. In the upcoming months, sport will have to face some challenges that can only be overcome through technological innovation. At WFS we are proud to be able to contribute by acting as a link between entrepreneurs and industry,” agrees Jan AlessieDirector of WFS. 

The call will be open from May 14 to June 21. The 16 top-ranked proposals will have the opportunity to present their solution to the jury during WFS Live powered by Octagon, a new virtual congress with a global reach that will gather the most important international industry leaders from July 6-9. It will be then when the eight finalists will be selected to make the live pitch at WFS20 (September 23 and 24 in Madrid), where the final winner will be chosen.

CALENDAR 

  • Application opens: May 14, 2020 
  • Application closesJune 21, 2020
  • Selection announcementJune 29, 2020
  • Online pitch at WFS Live: July 9, 2020
  • Finalists announcement: July 27, 2020
  • Live pitch at WFS20: September 23 & 24, 2020 

Click HERE to apply