Category: vr sports

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LiveLike Sports Social VR Raises $9.6m in Funding

While many sports fans will be keen to tell you that nothing is quite as good as seeing a game live, for a variety of reasons, its no always possible to make it to the stadium. To get sports fans closer to the action was where LiveLike began, using virtual reality (VR) to bring sports to life. The company has now announced a successful Series B funding round.

LiveLike offers a merger between watching sports in VR and interacting with fellow fans using social media. The new injection of $9.6 million (USD) was led by Greycroft Partners and Lepe Partners, who join existing investors such as former NBA commissioner David Stern, Evolution Media, Courtside Ventures and Elysian Park in supporting the start-up.

Users of LiveLike can enter a ‘virtual suite’ that looks out over a given sporting event which resembles the executive boxes available at some stadiums and arenas. The VR environment allows users to connect with other fans using Facebook. Users are able to select a preferred camera angle, or access stats, highlights or replays as though they were controlling their own broadcast.

Previously, LiveLike has worked with broadcasters and rights holders such as Fox Sports and the French Tennis Federation, hosting a total of 76 events on its platform in 2017 including the UEFA Champion’s League Final, the French Open tennis tournament and the NCAA Basketball Big East Tournament.

The company says that it plans to use its new funding to expand partnerships and further improve the product and platform to not only make it simpler to use, but also add new features such as Fantasy Sports leagues.

“Thanks to our investors, we are now in a position to hire for key positions and continue delivering a premier next-generation sports [over-the-top] platform,” Andre Lorenceau, founder and CEO of LiveLike, said in announcing the funding.

For further news on new and innovative uses of VR in sports and other sectors, keep checking VRFocus.

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Social VR Sports Viewing Platform livelike Raises $9.6 Million

Social VR sports viewing startup livelike has announced a Series B investment of $9.6 million.

Livelike is building a social sports viewing platform for VR and AR devices. The company’s product focuses on connecting remote users into ‘virtual suite’ where they can watch a live sports game projected outside the window (as if watching it from a stadium skybox), along with virtual screens showing stats, different angles, replays, and more. The company hopes to create a “new, interactive, communal way of watching live sports”

I was impressed when I got a chance to see an early version of their tech back in 2015. The company went on to raise a $5 million Series A round in 2016, and this week announced a $9.6 million Series B investment, bringing in investors Greycroft Partners and Lepe Partners, among others.

“LiveLike will utilize its new investment to expands its partnerships, and further build out its product and platform to make it even simpler and frictionless for users,” the company explained in its investment announcement. “This will include creating increased cross-platform compatibility, an evolved user interface to make content discovery even more intuitive, and new in-product experiences—such as fantasy sports integrations—designed to spark additional social interactions. Moreover, it will look to build new compelling advertising opportunities that enable marketers to connect with sports fans in groundbreaking ways.”

Image courtesy livelike

Livelike is developing its offering as a white label platform, allowing various sports and event producers to link their broadcasts into the virtual suite, and provide unique branding to fit the broadcaster, sport, and teams on the field. The company says that both FOX Sports and the French Tennis Federation are among the companies they’ve worked with thus far, and have created VR experiences using their tech for Super Bowl LI, UEFA Champions League Final, NCAA Basketball Big East Tournament, and the French Open.

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NBA All-Star and Weekly Regular Season Coverage Comes Live to VR via TNT and Intel

TNT and Intel have teamed up to bring NBA All-Star coverage to VR on Gear VR and Daydream.

Based on Intel’s True VR technology, TNT is bringing live and on-demand VR coverage of NBA All-Star events to Gear VR and Daydream headsets via the NBA on TNT VR app. The app is available today on the Oculus store and the Google Play store.

Turner Sports says that fans will be able to see highlights, recaps, and live and on-demand full games in VR (provided they are logged in with an applicable TV provider), including in-game broadcast stats and commentary.

Starting on February 16th, viewers will be able to watch the following All-Star coverage live through the app:

Friday, Feb. 16 2018 Mtn Dew Kickstart Rising Stars, 9:00 p.m. ET
Saturday, Feb. 17 State Farm All-Star Saturday Night (Taco Bell Skills Challenge, JBL Three-Point Contest and Verizon Slam Dunk), 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 18 67th NBA All-Star Game, 8:20 p.m.

 

Image courtesy TNT, Intel

Following the All-Star coverage, one regular season game per week will be streamed:

Thursday, Feb. 22 LA Clippers @ Golden State, 10:30 p.m.
Thursday, Mar. 1 Philadelphia @ Cleveland, 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, Mar. 8 Boston @ Minnesota, 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Mar. 20 Houston @ Portland, 10:30 p.m.
Thursday, Mar. 29 Oklahoma City @ San Antonio, 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, Apr. 5 Washington @ Cleveland, 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Apr. 10 Boston @ Washington, 8:00 p.m.

The company also says it will provide NBA playoff coverage in VR through the 2018 Western Conference Finals.

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Intel’s True VR platform came from the company’s 2016 acquisition of VR broadcasting company Voke. Intel has also struck prominent deals with the MLB and NBC for VR broadcasting of Major League Baseball games and the 2018 Winter Olympics, respectively. Turner and Intel say the NBA coverage comes as part of a “multiyear” partnership between the companies.

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How to Watch the 2018 Winter Olympics in VR

The 2018 Winter Olympics is about to kick off in PyeongChang, South Korea today, and this year you’ll be able to watch a total of 30 events in VR, shared across live and on-demand 360/180 recordings.

NBC has partnered with Intel to provide more than 50 hours of live virtual reality coverage through the NBC Sports VR app. On-demand video will be open to the public, while live streaming video will require you to authenticate your subscription with your pay TV provider, i.e. cable, satellite or digital operator.

Remarkably, neither Oculus Rift nor HTC Vive are on the list below, as only Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, and Windows ‘MR’ VR headsets have access.

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image courtesy NBC
image courtesy NBC
image courtesy NBC

VR Headsets Required

It appears that the apps listed above are also locked to the United States region – likely due to licensing issues. We’ll be investigating work-arounds for non-US viewers, and update should we find any (outside VPN).

Check out the full schedule below (all times in EST):

image courtesy Intel

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Play ‘Eleven: Table Tennis VR’ on Rift for Free This Weekend

For Fun Labs, the developers behind Eleven: Table Tennis VR (2016), are hosting a free weekend for Rift players this week on Oculus Home.

Eleven: Table Tennis VR offers online multiplayer or practice with AI, and features cross-play between both the Steam (Vive & Rift) and Oculus Home versions of the game.

The tennis table simulator will be free from February 8th at 10:00 AM PT (local time) until February 12th at 12:00 AM PT (local time).

Normally priced at $20, the table tennis sim is currently ranked as “overwhelmingly positive” on Steam with a 95% positive score.

Oculus has advertised several free weekends recently, allowing users to try out games such as Onward (2017), SPARC (2017), and From Other Suns (2017). To see the latest free weekend, keep an eye on the ‘Coming Soon’ section on Oculus’ website.

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‘Sparc’ Comes to Vive & Rift with Cross-play Support for PSVR

Despite the news that CCP Games is shelving VR for the time being, the company promises that their last title Sparc will not only go on, but CCP is carrying through with plans to launch the game on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Update (11/17/17): ‘Sparc’ is now available on Steam for Vive and Rift, and Oculus Home for Rift. Both stores are selling for $20, and promise cross-play support. Besides support for more headsets, no additional content has been added. Considering CCP has closed its Atlanta studio, it’s likely ‘Sparc’ will receive minimal support moving forward.

Original article (11/02/17): Launched initially back at the end of August for PSVR, Sparc is a 1v1 VR sport from CCP Games, the company behind EVE: Valkyrie and others. The company today announced that the game will launch on November 16th for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift (via Steam and the Oculus store), priced at $20. Cross-play will be supported across all three platforms, allowing Rift, Vive, and PSVR players to compete head to head.

CCP designed Sparc as a VR sport where players face off in 1v1 arenas, attempting to strike their opponent (or score a goal) with their orb, while simultaneously defending their own goal and dodging or deflecting the opposing orb. Visually it’s a good looking game with some cool avatar customization, but in my hands-on with the PSVR version, the system’s controller tracking sometimes made me feel like I wasn’t able to be as precise as I would have liked:

As you can imagine, with PSVR’s less-than-stellar tracking, having your tracking camera set up just right is important to success in Sparc; you’ll want to make sure your arms don’t exit the tracking volume when at their maximum extension in all directions. It wasn’t until I tweaked my own setup (and a fair amount of practice) that I felt like I was able to achieve reasonably accurate throws. CCP has lathered on a fair amount of aim assist to help with this (though it is reduced in the ‘Advanced’ game mode which is designed for greater levels of competition).

It remains to be seen if the more precise tracking of the Vive and Rift controllers will translate to improved throwing accuracy, and whether or not the studio is tweaking the aim assist to compensate for differences in tracking performance. For a competitive game especially, it would be unfortunate for the platforms not to be well balanced. With the game launching in two weeks, it won’t be long before we know the answers to those questions.

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NextVR to Broadcast NFL Game Highlights in VR Following 5 Games this Season

Are you ready for some VR football highlights? NextVR, a familiar name in VR sports broadcasting—with earlier VR livestreaming initiatives with the NBA, NHL, and more—and the NFL return for a second season of post-game immersive highlight content in VR.

Highlights will be available on-demand following five games in the 2017 regular season, and will showcase the best moments from each, captured and viewed in VR. Hosting the post-game VR experiences are Reggie Bush, Super Bowl XLIV Champion, and Elika Sadeghi, sport commentator. Reggie Bush expressed enthusiasm for the project. “I truly feel that VR is the future. It’s innovative, and I couldn’t wait to be part of it. I’m excited for the fans to watch football in NextVR because they’re going to get a real in-game experience of what we go through as athletes on the field.”

See below for the schedule of games that will have highlights available from the NFL VR Experience:

Image courtesy NextVR

NextVR will work alongside the NFL Films team to position multiple VR cameras throughout the stadium and along the field to capture footage.

“We are thrilled to be back for a second NFL season with more games in addition to the VR studio shows with Reggie Bush,” said NextVR CEO David Cole. “NFL fans expect the best and want to be as close to the action as possible. At NextVR we continue to evolve and improve the fan experience through our technology in collaboration with NFL Films to deliver a premium virtual reality production.”

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A NFL VR Experience Preview Show debuted on October 5th with Reggie Bush and Elika Sadeghi in the NextVR studio discussing the upcoming five game matchups, and expectations for the VR content to follow. Following the final scheduled regular season game available on NextVR, Reggie and Elika will recap the best plays from this season of VR matchups from the NextVR studio. This content is available for free on the NFL channel in the NextVR app available on Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream.

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NFL Refs Using STRIVR’s VR Training Platform to Prepare for New Season

The NFL continues to maintain its strong relationship with VR technology, now employing the STRIVIR platform to train some officials. According to a report by SportTechie, the virtual reality training company has been working with the NFL’s Officiating Development Programs for the past nine months, presenting game scenarios in a VR headset from a referee’s perspective to supplement the limited opportunities for real-world practice.

According to the report, Strivr began working in earnest on a VR training program for the NFL offseason after the Super Bowl in February, providing officials with “life-like situations that put them into a game scenario so that they can react to plays much as they would on the field.”

The Strivr platform provides 360-degree capture of a game scenario, offering a convincing first-person perspective from an appropriate position on the field—an immersive upgrade over the standard video footage previously used by the Officiating Development Programs for training.

Perhaps the best way for an official to gain experience in a real-world NFL scenario is during the preseason (which recently began), a series of exhibition games which take place before the regular season kicks off in September, but such opportunities are very limited, and don’t offer the endless repeatability of VR training.

Improvements to replay technology in sports is a double-edged sword for referees; while the regularly-used ‘replay review’ system helps officials to make certain tough calls, the multiple-angle, slow-motion footage often works against the referee in many other situations, highlighting any mistakes during high-pressure moments. Having unlimited access to equivalent scenarios any time of year in VR could surely have a positive impact on officiating consistency.

“Refs are under a huge microscope and with replay, if they get something wrong, it’s seen,” Strivr CEO Derek Belch said in an interview with SportTechie. “This is how we take officiating to the next level and addressing some of the same issues players have.”

Strivr’s training platform was already well-established in the NFL from a player’s perspective, thanks to existing partnerships with seven NFL teams, providing off-field training in VR. The company claims that their technology speeds up reaction times, and helps to improve performance and decision-making. The company has enjoyed success in VR training in several sports, and scored a $5 million Series A investment last year that allowed them to expand their performance training into many corporate sectors.

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This Week in VR Sport: Soccer, Major League Baseball and Lacrosse

It’s the weekend, and that means its time to take a look into what been happening in the intersection between the sporting world and the world of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). This week, Canadian soccer (Football to everyone outside North America), Major League Baseball and Lacrosse all have entries.

Toronto FC Introduce AR App

Canadian football (soccer) team Toronto FC have partnered with YinzCam to give fans access to a special selfie filter, presented by Coca-Cola Zero, that allows users to paint their faces in their teams colours, or logo and don a team jersey. Once a preferred combination of filters is selected, users can then share it over social media or save it to their smartphone.

“Our fans are passionate about the sport of soccer and this TFC Face Paint feature allows them to express that passion in a creative, new way,” said Neem Ba Ha, MLSE’s Director of Product Development. “But this is just the first step in our investment in augmented reality through our partnership with YinzCam. To us, AR is not just an entertainment or gamification piece. We believe AR can also be used to deliver content in new ways and even as a utility to improve the game-day experience for our fans.”

Toronto FC are planning additional AR and mobile initiatives over the coming weeks, including an opportunity to win prizes for the best Toronto FC Face Paint picture.

We are very proud of our partnership with Toronto FC and Coca-Cola to introduce this new AR experience for soccer fans in Toronto,” said Priya Narasimhan, the CEO and Founder of YinzCam. “But we are even more excited about all that is to come for MLSE and its teams, who are always looking to push the boundaries of technology and incorporate new functionality for their mobile fan base.”

MLB and Google Produce New Video Series

Major League Baseball has teamed up with Google to produce a series of VR videos featuring rising young stars in the MLB. There are currently four episodes of the series titled ‘On The Verge’ available through the MLB At Bat VR app, which is available for Google Daydream.

The various videos in the series will follow various young athletes on the field, in the clubhouse and in the batting cage to show the growing careers of Josh Bell (Pittsburgh Pirates), Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox), Manuel Margot (San Diego Padres), and Jose Berrios (Minnesota Twins).

More On The Verge videos will be added to the At Bat app as the season progresses.

Lacrosse In 360-Degrees

Lacrosse is not a well-known sport, but it does have a reputation among those who know if it of being somewhat dangerous. Not surprising, considering is consists of throwing a solid ball around a pitch using little except a stick and a small net. It’s fast-paced, risky, rough and often very exciting while being surprisingly strategic.

Major League Lacrosse have released a series of 360-degree videos showing a full playlist of significant moments during the training sessions for various teams to show what the sport is all about.

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‘Racket Fury’ Bringing Amped-up VR Ping Pong to Early Access This Week

Table tennis is becoming an increasingly crowded area in the world of VR sport, and Racket Fury aims to differentiate itself with a blend of futuristic visuals, unique robot AI personalities, and detailed physics. The game has been in closed beta since July 6th, and is due to launch on Steam Early Access on July 21st.

The likes of Virtual Sports, VR Ping Pong, and Eleven: Table Tennis VR have capitalised on the close correlation between the light rackets and balls used in real table tennis and the feel and feedback of modern VR motion controllers, but a new entrant is hoping there’s room for improvement, particularly in terms of style and content. Racket Fury: Table Tennis VR from independent developer 10Ants Hill is one to watch, as it appears to be heading towards a fully-featured, well-polished addition to the world of ping pong VR.

Thanks to the hint of sci-fi backstory on the game’s Steam page, we know that the action takes place in the ‘Crown Galaxy’, a place inhabited by the ‘Zen’ robot, who introduced the ‘Racket Fury Tournament’ to maintain the peace. In the single player campaign, you assume the role of a Zen, challenged to face the ‘Division of Steel’, a prestigious team of robots that have dominated the competition. The four main robot types, which increase in difficulty, have been detailed on the Racket Fury twitter account. The developers claim that the advanced opponent AI means that each robot “has their own temper and an utterly unique style of play.”

Image courtesy 10Ants Hill

Currently, the game features 16 opponents, quick-match online multiplayer, 3 arenas, and a ‘workshop’ for character upgrades; the final game promises to double the opponent count, increase the number of environments and upgrade items, and add a ranked multiplayer and event system. Originally due to hit Early Access in April, the team say that the additional three months of development has resulted in “a huge leap” in quality, listing some of the recent changes to the beta on the Steam News page.

image courtesy 10Ants Hill

The recent alpha footage shows a slick interface and impressive visuals, along with some convincing physics and motion-captured opponent animations. The rather awkward and repetitive commentary is jarring, but it can be disabled and the developer says this will be improved for the full release. 10Ants Hill have answered several other concerns in the YouTube comments, saying that the special effects on the ball can also be disabled, and that there are “no assists” affecting the flight of the ball and the physics are “100% pure simulation”. They also confirmed that they are aiming for a PSVR release in the future.

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