Category Archives: Tech of Sports

From the shoes we wear on our feet to the high definition televisions in our living room, wearable devices, the sports universe is a breeding ground for technology. Writer and Photographer Rick Limpert will examine this each week on The Tech of Sports – With guests which include athletes, inventors and journalists that cover the intersection of sports and technology.

Greg Sabella, Uneekor, Vice President of Marketing



The leader in golf simulation technologies has just unveiled an exclusive limited-time promotion aimed at making golf more accessible and enjoyable for enthusiasts of all levels with their MORE GOLF campaign. Uneekor is offering discounts on their full lineup of launch monitors with savings up to $3000!

“EVN More Golf!” along with the release of the groundbreaking Balance Optix® hitting mat and some incredible promotional offers.

As part of this campaign, from today until November 8, 2023, customers can elevate their golf experience with the EYE XO2 + NEW Performance Optix Bundle. With the purchase of an EYE XO2 or EYE XO2 SimKit, receive the Performance Optix bundle worth $2,700. This package includes two Swing Optix cameras and the revolutionary Balance Optix mat, which measures weight distribution and shift throughout your swing. Also part of this campaign, take advantage of an exclusive $500 promotional code for use at Evnroll Putters with the purchase of select launch monitors.

Greg Sabella started on May 22, 2023 as the new Vice President of Marketing. Greg started his career with Callaway Golf where he spent 17 years in sales and marketing, including roles as Director of Marketing for Metal Woods and Odyssey Putters. Before joining Uneekor, he led Sales & Marketing for Blast Motion (Golf) in Carlsbad, California. Greg will lead Uneekor’s strategic efforts in Marketing, continue to build out the marketing team and work closely with the Sales team and other departments. Greg lives in Carlsbad, CA with his family.


Jonathan Chanti, Viral Nation President



Social media is offering average pro-athletes a financial way to survive when their playing days are over. Right now, roughly 60% of NBA players go bankrupt within the first five years of retirement, and 78% of NFL players financially struggle just two years after hanging up their jerseys.

Viral Nation is a global digital and social innovation group that powers the social ecosystem through integrated solutions that align strategy, talent, media and more!

Viral Nation President Jonathan Chanti is here as the leader of a social media marketing agency working with pro-athletes at all levels, including stars like Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill.

Topics:

The importance of athletes becoming influencers/creators while they’re playing
How this translates to lucrative brand deals even after retirement
The strategy needed to succeed

 


Jeehae Lee, Founder & CEO of Sportsbox.ai



Jeehae Lee joins Rick this week.

Jeehae Lee is a former professional golfer on the LPGA Tour and an executive in the sports media entertainment industry. As the Founder & CEO of Sportsbox.ai, Jeehae is building products using 3D motion analysis technology that will transform the way people learn and improve skills in sports, starting with golf.

Prior to founding Sportsbox, she led strategy and new business development for various divisions at Topgolf, including Toptracer. Jeehae has a BA in Economics from Yale and an MBA from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

She won two Ivy League championships at Yale, earned her LPGA Tour card on her first try, served as Michelle Wie West’s business manager, earned an MBA from Wharton and led business development and growth for Topgolf’s Toptracer brand.

In late 2020, Lee left Topgolf to become CEO and co-founder of Sportsbox AI, a company that uses a single smartphone video to provide golfers with 3D motion capture data. The startup recently raised a $5.5 million seed round and attracted a host of world-renowned coaches as advisers and investors, including David Leadbetter, Sean Foley, Mike Adams and Terry Rowles. “Jeehae is incredibly impressive,” said Foley, an instructor who coaches Justin Rose.

Sports and technology are fields historically dominated by men. Though Lee acknowledged that she has benefited from the credibility of having been a pro athlete, she still recalled attending “so many meetings” at which she was the only woman and the only person under the age of 50. At Sportsbox, however, women make up half of the cap table, including Wie West, fellow LPGA Tour players Marina Alex and Mel Reid, and media entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg.

Great insight on Sportsbox.ai and more!

 

 


Clayton Trutor, Author, Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches



Rick talks to Clayton Trutor this week.

He has a new basketball book.

Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches.

Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams played no small role in the making of modern college basketball. Collectively, they’ve won more than 2,300 games and six national championships and reached thirteen Final Fours. All three have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams each spent more than two decades on the national stage, becoming celebrities in their own right as college basketball and March Madness became a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Boston Ball charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution: Pitino at Boston University, Calhoun at Northeastern University, and Williams at Boston College. Toiling in relative obscurity, they ignited a renaissance of the “city game,” a style of play built on fast-breaking up-tempo offense, pressure defense, and board crashing. Part of a fraternity of great coaches—including Mike Jarvis, Kevin Mackey, and Tom Davis—they unknowingly invented Boston Ball, a simultaneously old and new path to the top of college basketball. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams took advantage of the ample coaching opportunities in “America’s College Town” to craft their respective blueprints for building a winning program and turn their schools into regional powers, and these early coaching years served as their respective springboards to big-time college basketball.

Boston Ball is the story of how three ambitious young coaches learned their trade in the shadow of the dynastic Celtics, as well as the story of how the young players—in their recruitment, relationships, and basketball lives—made these teams into winners.

Clayton Trutor holds a PhD in U.S. history from Boston College and teaches at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. He writes about college football and basketball for SB Nation and is the author of Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta—and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports (Nebraska, 2022). Trutor is a regular contributor to the SABR Biography Project.


Eric Napoli, VP of Legal and Leader of the Tech & Innovation team at AirHelp



The more we fly, the more we might need AirHelp.

AirHelp makes claiming compensation for delayed or canceled flights straightforward for all airline passengers who are unsure of their rights, or who lack the time or expertise to embark on the claims process themselves. AirHelp stands up to airlines in court, and campaigns for national governments to introduce fair air travel rights. AirHelp has helped countless passengers through its fight for compensation and justice from airlines.

Rick is joined by Eric Napoli of AirHelp.

Napoli is VP of Legal and Leader of the Tech & Innovation team at AirHelp, the world’s largest organization specializing in air passenger rights. Eric is also a professor at IE Business School, as well as Headspring, a joint venture between the Financial Times & IE University’s Business School. Prior to joining AirHelp, Eric worked at Amadeus IT group as their Senior Counsel, where he led a  global team of lawyers supporting Amadeus’ worldwide Airport IT, Rail, Innovation and Advertising business units. Eric lives in Madrid, Spain, where he has been based for over 20 years. Eric earned his J.D. from American University and his MBA from IE Business School.

Eric helps us learn our rights when flying.

 


Molly McCage, Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball



Rick is joined by Molly McCage this week.

Molly is a All-American out of University of Texas Austin, three-time AVCA All-America Selection and currently getting ready for the Athletes Unlimited volleyball season. She is is a member of the Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Player Executive Committee and comes from a family of athletes. During her time at Texas, she majored in corporate communications. Beyond sports, she advocates for sustainable fashion and ethical shopping. Her personal interests encompass reading, cooking, and cherishing moments with her dog.

She talks with Rick from an appearance she did at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago as she learns about the sports collecting universe and more.