SBC News Kindred exploring 'mixed reality' to stay ahead of changing viewer dynamics

Kindred exploring ‘mixed reality’ to stay ahead of changing viewer dynamics

Kindred Group Plc’s innovation arm Kindred Futures, is researching the potential dynamics and capabilities of augmented ‘mixed reality’ technologies to drive new sports betting and data engagements, in partnership with London development studio Zappar.

Zappar a specialist developer of MR technologies will work with Kindred Futures exploring how new immersive technologies can help Kindred better adapt to new sports viewer trends and data consumption when watching sports.

This week, Kindred Futures and Zappar presented its first partnership prototype to industry media, showcasing MR led data engagements of the 2017 Champions League Final and a T20 cricket match between South Africa and England.

SBC News Kindred exploring 'mixed reality' to stay ahead of changing viewer dynamics
Will Mace – Kindred

Presenting the tech initiative, Will Mace Head of Kindred Futures detailed that the bookmaker believes that in the near future ‘sports viewers will no longer be at the whim of the broadcaster’.

“Kindred Futures has always been committed to seeking out the most interesting and innovative companies to explore the future of gambling. Our largest brand, Unibet, has the tagline “Luck is no Coincidence” and 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. We’re very passionate about ensuring that audiences are given enough data to make sensible gaming decisions and think that our experiment with Zappar is an exciting step in the right direction.” Mace details

Focusing on MR, Kindred seeks to be ahead of the competition as traditional TV/media sports broadcasting continues to be disrupted. The bookmaker wants to deliver accurate sports and betting data to a displaced viewer, who will have multiple verticals competing for his/her attention.

SBC News Kindred exploring 'mixed reality' to stay ahead of changing viewer dynamics
Jeremy Yates – Zappar

Jeremy Yates from Zappar commented on the partnership “The main barrier to getting mixed reality to the mass market is the cost of new hardware. There’s an exciting future of data visualization, with mixed reality providing an immersive and engaging way to both views and interact with information. This exploration is all part of our goal of democratising this technology. We’re very excited about partnering with Kindred to see how we can drive innovation and bring the future closer to today.”

Officially launched in October 2017, Kindred Futures acts as an innovation and R&D focused division for Kindred Group operations. This October the division announced its first major project to develop and deliver a ‘next generation’ tailored proprietary database solution in partnership with cloud infrastructure and engineering specialist Cockroach Labs.

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