Major League Baseball plans to open an office in New Delhi that will focus on growing the game in cricket-obsessed India through fan engagement and baseball development.

Well aware of the technical similarity of throwing, hitting and catching that link cricket and baseball, MLB is ready to showcase America’s pastime with a game broadcast on Facebook each week in India through the end of the regular season.

Reuters reports:

“The country has huge potential for us, and we want to make sure that India is an important part of the ever-growing brand that is MLB,” Jim Small, MLB Senior Vice President of International, said in a statement on Tuesday.

As part of the initiative MLB said Million Dollar Arm, a contest that began as a reality TV show and was the basis of the 2014 movie of the same name, will run this year with thousands of participants competing to earn a tryout with an MLB team.

The MLB First Pitch grassroots program will also be introduced and give primary school children across New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai an opportunity to learn the sport through workshops led by MLB International coaches.

Indian Premier League team Delhi Capital’s assistant coach Mohammad Kaif was present at the announcement and said he looked forward to introducing a new generation to baseball.

“Cricket and baseball have quite a few things in common. Growing up playing cricket, we always knew there was a similar sport played in the United States, but never imagined it would come to India one day,” said former India cricketer Kaif.

“The Delhi Capitals are delighted to help support the MLB brand and introduce India to a new sport.”

 

It’s a big moment for global basketball. The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, starting in two months, will be held for the first time in China, where the sport is already hugely popular. Andreas Zagklis, Secretary General of FIBA (the International Basketball Federation), speaks to iSportconnect TV about the flagship event, the Olympics next year and more in this wide-ranging interview.

With a record 32 participating teams, the 18^th edition of the Basketball World Cup will be played from 31 August-15 September in eight cities: Beijing, Foshan, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Shanghai (which will host the final) and Guangzhou.

For the first time, the FIBA Basketball World Cup will qualify seven teams directly for the following year’s Olympic Games.

FIBA is an anomaly among the IFs in that the Secretary General (rather than the President) is effectively the top person in the organisation.

Extreme E has revealed an adventurous and impactful brand identity as the ground-breaking eco-conscious motor racing championship continues to take shape.

Featuring electric SUVs racing head-to-head in some of the world’s most remote and extreme environments, Extreme E will showcase E-SUV innovation and performance, while raising awareness of the global threat of climate change and inspiring action.

Extreme E’s competitors will battle across five formidable locations – the Himalayas, Arctic, Amazon Rainforest, Sahara Desert and an Indian Ocean island – when the first season gets underway in early 2021. The series is committed to sustainability and will play its part in the restoration of the areas in which it races.

Alejandro Agag, Founder & CEO of Formula E – operating partner of Extreme E – said: “Sport creates a passionate following like nothing else, and Extreme E will use its motorsport platform as an opportunity to raise awareness of critical environmental issues.

“Extreme E is our race to save the planet. From melting ice caps and glaciers, to deforestation and desertification, Extreme E will provide a crucial storytelling platform about the threat and impact of climate change in each location in which we race, and as we lay out the foundations of this brand new sport, it was crucial to design a brand presence which supports this bold mission.”

‘X’ is a symbol of hazard and caution recognised worldwide, signifying issues that lie ahead – this warning sign acts as the heart of the Extreme E logo and offers a window into the areas of the planet that are under threat. It is positioned between two ‘Es’, representing ‘Extreme’ and ‘Electric’.

‘Extreme E’s new logo. The brand’s feature colours include green and black, symbolising a contrast of climate threat against hope and a feeling of collective responsibility for the planet’s future.

The brand’s feature colours include green and black, symbolising a contrast of climate threat against hope and a feeling of collective responsibility for the planet’s future.

The brand identity also provides an expression for each of Extreme E’s five locations, which visually represent each of these unique environments. Whilst ensuring the brand lives and breathes within a digital world, with a strong focus on the execution within a broadcast storytelling.

The brand agency behind the design, Interstate Creative Partners, has worked with Extreme E since the series was first launched in early January.

Nick Downes, Managing Partner, Interstate Creative Partners, explains: “The Extreme E brand is the product of young people caring, actually getting angry about the environment they live in and the long-term damage they see affecting the human race and everything around it.

“This unique motorsport platform comes packed with the entertainment, adventure and strong purpose. ‘The Race For The Planet’ is not just an aspirational sporting position, but also outlines society’s race against time to slow down climate effect and bring about solutions for sustainable change.”

The sport of surfing will ride into its first Olympics in Tokyo next year with its place on the Games programme in 2024 also now secure following approval for inclusion in the Paris Games during the IOC Session last week. Robert Fasulo, Executive Director of the International Surfing Association, updates iSportconnect TV on the sport, and ISA Vice President Barbara Kendall, winner of Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals in board sailing, adds perspective on the progress of women in sports leadership.

The ISA World Surfing Games will take place in September this year as one of the main qualifying events for the Tokyo Games. Top pros will also qualify via the World Surf League Championship Tour.

The Startup Competition 2019 from The Original Inspiration Centre by LaLiga supported by GSIC has chosen the 10 winners of the first stage of the competition.

This initial phase saw a total of 279 companies from 55 different countries and five continents take part.

The competition, organised by LaLiga and the Global Sports Innovation Centre powered by Microsoft, is part of the global agreement signed by LaLiga and Microsoft in 2016. The initiative seeks to boost digital talent and ideas by promoting disruptive solutions that can help LaLiga and its clubs continue to grow in the field of innovation and technology, acting as a gateway into the sports and entertainment world for new companies around the world.

All solutions submitted for consideration had to be based on the following fundamental aspects: Media (OTT, Broadcasting, Digital Content, and so on); Fan Engagement (Fan Profiling, Social Media, eSports, etc.); Smart Venue (Security, Ticketing, Cashless Payment, etc.); Performance (Analytics, Injury Prevention, Health, etc.); and others such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Below are the projects chosen for each area by a panel drawn from LaLiga, GSIC and Microsoft representatives:

• Smart Venue:

1. A project presented by an Australian company offering solutions in the fields of access control, cashless payments and user experience. Can also in the future develop solutions which will facilitate the purchase of official merchandise and prevent piracy.
2. An app developed in the United Kingdom which helps capture fans’ most exciting moments inside a stadium. Can help generate high-quality and viral content for clubs across LaLiga.

• Performance:

3. A solution developed in Spain which helps to analyse the cause of injuries and, above all, how to avoid them. Facilitates the work of backroom staff across LaLiga and helps reduce the number of injuries suffered by LaLiga players.
4. Another Spanish initiative which can recreate a 3D body model with a scanner to direct medical supervisions and track the progress of each player.

• Media:

5. A Spanish-developed product that allows for instant movement between different cameras to improve the fan experience, with the added ability to connect with different events simultaneously.
6. An application developed in the United States which offers different commenting options for live games. Can facilitate the adaptation of LaLiga-developed content for broadcast in different countries.

• Fan engagement:

7. A solution developed by a UK-based company which connects users and allows them to interact during match broadcasts. Can help to improve LaLiga’s television broadcasts, connecting fans from across the world.
8. A Spanish application which gives fans the chance to have digital autograph collections certified by blockchain technology, in addition to offering a marketplace where users can buy, sell and exchange memorabilia. Can strengthen the club-fan relationship for every club at both a national and international level.
9. A U.S.-developed application which helps fans travelling in another country to find fellow fans of their club and watch the game at a venue in the city they’re in. No matter the place, fans will always be able to share and exchange their football experiences.
10. A Spanish solution which analyses user behaviour and habits through the use of artificial intelligence and data analysis to make content recommendations. Can help generate more user-specific content, improving fan experience as a result.

Iris Cordoba, Managing Director at GSIC powered by Microsoft, said: “Thanks to The Startup Competition 2019, ten innovative companies will have the opportunity to explore synergies on an individual level with LaLiga and in group with other winners, and, as a result, initiate pilot schemes within one of the most important sports organisations in the world. At GSIC powered by Microsoft we will help them at this stage through our growth acceleration program and by incorporating them into our ecosystem, boosting the integration of these solutions into LaLiga’s strategy.”

Minerva Santana, LaLiga’s Innovation Director, said: “We are convinced that we have picked the perfect startups to improve the LaLiga fan experience and boost our clubs’ technological growth. From this point on we’ll be working hand-in-hand with them in order to maximise the potential of these pioneering projects.”

The ten chosen teams will prepare through July and August for the immersion week, which will take place in September. In this final phase of the competition the ten selected startups will arrive in Madrid to prepare their final presentations at the World Football Summit (24-25 September). This preparation stage, which will extend until December, will help them to better understand the organisation and familiarise themselves with the areas in which their pilot projects will be developed.

During the period the ten startups will start the growth acceleration program with GSIC powered by Microsoft featuring mentoring sessions, contact with investors and high-level directors at both LaLiga and GSIC powered by Microsoft, digital transformation certification and the chance to access the Microsoft for Startups program. In addition, pilot projects approved by LaLiga will begin development during this time.

The ten finalist start-ups will also be able to enjoy free GSIC membership for six months with all the services and benefits the centre provides its ecosystem: networking, participation in activities aimed at innovation and applied research, B2B contacts, media coverage and international events, among others.