Hello and welcome to this month’s edition of the READY Read!
First up, we’d like you to **Save the date!**
Monday 8 January is the launch date for the READY intro level course on AI in Sport. We’re excited to bring this course to you - and we decided to drop it in the new year, because we know our brains will be fresh and focused for an exciting AI-powered 2024! 🎉
To give you a taste of what you can expect in this course, we’re dedicating this month’s newsletter to AI in Women’s Sport.
It has been QUITE a time in the AI world recently… Buuut… Let’s get straight to it, shall we?!
Women’s sport is growing on professionalization and participation fronts. Yet, obstacles remain. The rising number of injuries in professional women’s sport is concerning. Justifying investments in women's sports remains a challenge. And women's sport still doesn't get the same level of recognition or priority as men's.
So, a question that has been on our minds recently has been: Can AI play a role in bridging the gender disparities in sport?
In this edition of the READY Read we spotlight ways that AI is optimizing athlete performance and forging new revenue, community engagement, and commercial opportunities in women’s sport.
AI AND WOMEN’S SPORT SPOTLIGHT
Athlete performance
Wild AI
Wild AI is a mobile app for female athletes. It records data points like menstrual cycles, daily activities, digestion, and sleep. A performance graph then pinpoints how these vitals affect performance levels. By referencing a database with outcomes of running, cycling, and swimming races, the app evaluates each user's performance and curates personalized training schedules that are adapted continuously through machine learning based on user performance.
Zone7
Zone7 is widely adopted across the FA Women’s Super League football clubs in England and enables clubs to make data-driven decisions about players on both individual and team levels. The AI-fuelled system provides routine monitoring and feedback on player readiness, trends related to injuries, and potential risks. Additionally, it creates simulations beneficial for coaches, sports directors, and medical staff.
Sport business
Arsenal Women FC and ABBYY
Arsenal Women FC teamed up with ABBYY as their first official intelligent automation partner. ABBYY's AI-driven solutions are being harnessed to enhance efficiency across club operations. There is also a social responsibility initiative, "Game Changers”, that aims to advance technology education and pave the way for career development among the youth.
Vatic AI and Women’s Football Alliance
In the US, Vatic AI, an innovator in generative AI search advertising, has pledged its support to the Women’s Football Alliance Pro Division (American football) that boasts 60 teams and 2,100 players. The partnership's financial backing is complemented by digital ad campaigns spotlighting the league and its athletes, underscoring values like diversity, equality, and inclusivity.
A challenge to FIFA governance and leadership?
Why not have a go at AI yourself?
You can interact with AI by talking to “Hope Sogni”, an artificially created future candidate for the FIFA presidency who was built by creative agency, Dark Horses, and CEO of Lewes FC, Maggie Murphy, using the voices and experiences of influential women in the game, including football legend and activist Moya Dodd. Sogni launched her hypothetical election campaign with a manifesto in this video:
“Football is broken… FIFA must hold up its own mirror and decide whether what they see looking back is in fact a beautiful game, because all I see is a century of misogyny that has overshadowed its ability to truly be a game for all.”
We had a go and asked Hope Sogmi a few questions… And then we went down a rabbit hole of whether Hope Sogmi could become the new decentralized head of a Game B version of football… 👀
READY TRAILBLAZERS
This month we give a shout-out to the experts who feature in the READY intro course on AI in Sport. There is SO much to learn from these trailblazing women:
Kahlia Hogg, READY young talent and expert writer and contributor for the AI in Sport course. Kahlia is deep into her Master’s in AI and Computer Science at Duke University and completed an exciting Women in Sports Tech fellowship at IBM, which you’ll hear all about in one of the course Q&As!
Sadaf Tayebi, READY young talent and fellow expert writer and contributor for the AI in Sport course. Sadaf works at Chelsea FC and is immersed in Web3 - you’ll also hear about her own AI learning journey in one of the course Q&As!
Nancy Hensley, Founding Member of Mercury13, a multi-club women’s football ownership group. Nancy has an impressive and unparalleled 20+ year career in tech at global brands IBM and Stats Perform where she pioneered AI “before it was cool”.
Jacqueline Comer, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Areto Labs, a software product for sports clubs that protects their social media channels from spam, hate speech, harassment and other brand-damaging content. They have proven that less online hate and harassment leads to improved online communities and fan engagement.
READY ROUND-UP
We were in Madrid last week at the 2023 #MOVECongress organized by the brilliant International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) to explore the implications and opportunities of AI for grassroots sport in a session entitled “Fit for the digital age”.
Are you curious to learn more about Web 3.0 and sport? If you haven’t already done so, sign up for the READY intro course on Web 3.0 and Sport (3-hours total).
That’s a wrap!
If you have any suggestions for the next edition of READY Read, or projects / trailblazers you’d like us to feature, please do get in touch with us at team@readysportglobal.com.
Until next month!
READY team :)