A new partnership aims to put in-game data into sports fans’ hands using mixed reality.
Zappar, a company which specializes in creating augmented reality (AR) products, has teamed up with Kindred Futures, an innovation-focused arm of the larger Kindred Group, which is is one of Europe’s largest online gambling operators.
The deal sees both companies combining to use Zappar’s smartphone-enabled ZapBox product to enable fans to interact with sports data in mixed reality. This product, retailing at $30, gives users a cardboard headset, two wand-like controllers and four paper disks, which are used as point codes, so the app can work out a user’s position.
The two firms have begun the partnership, using ZapBox, to building prototypes based on high profile sporting events, including last year’s Champions League final in soccer and the T20 cricket game between South Africa and England. The in-game data is powered by Opta, the sports analytics company based in the U.K.
“This exploration with Zappar allows punters to discover and interact with data like never before, leveraging Opta data to provide insights that can help them make more informed decisions,” Will Mace, Head at Kindred Futures, said in a statement.
“The main barrier of getting mixed reality to the mass market is the cost of new hardware,” Jeremy Yates, Zappar’s senior business development manager, said in a statement. “There’s an exciting future of data visualisation, with mixed reality providing an immersive and engaging way to both view and interact with information. This exploration is all part of our goal of democratising this technology.”
