SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Genius Sports has revealed a partnership Snap Inc to offer NFL fans augmented reality experiences via the Snapchat platform.
The sports technology company will provide fans with highly shared content through the Snapchat Lens feature, utilising its exclusive NFL official league data deal.
Matt Ryter, Vice President of Sales, Media & Fan Engagement at Genius Sports, explained: “Snapchat’s Lens technology is leading the AR revolution across US sports, giving fans new and exciting platforms to put themselves at the center of the live experience.
“We’re delighted to partner with Snap, helping to enhance Lenses with NFL official league data.”
The lens, which will debut at SoFi Stadium this weekend for the LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers match, will include real-time match stats, AR merch and a 3D interactive map of the stadium.
Adding a third party into the deal, the lens will be available exclusively for Verizon 5G customers. Verizon is the official 5G network of the NFL.
Kris Soumas, Director of Platforms and Partnerships for Verizon Consumer Group, commented: “The new Snapchat Lens at SoFi is yet another illustration of the amazing experiences offered by the combination of augmented reality and 5G.
“With this cutting-edge technology, we’re able to offer fans experiences they’ve never had before, and we’re grateful for the partnerships that helped bring it all to life.”
Verizon is the first firm to leverage Genius Sports NFL technology for this purpose and will look to share data visualisations and AR commerce content in a bid to engage NFL fans further. Snapchat has over 750 million monthly users and over five billion snap messages are created daily.
“Snapchat is the best place to showcase your fandom and keep up with all the action on game day,” added Anmol Malhotra, Snap’s Head of Sports Partnerships.
“With over 250 million Snapchatters engaging with AR on our platform every day, we’re thrilled for Genius Sports to bring real-time data to our Lenses to make them even more immersive.”
Genius Sports recently renewed its deal with the NFL to last until the end of the 2027/28. The deal means Genius will be able to continue to be the official sports betting data feed holder, equipping it with the Next Gen Stats package.
NGS feed has become embedded into NFL broadcasts nationwide using Genius subsidiary’s Second Spectrum real-time augmentation engine.
The NFL first selected Genius Sports to be its official data and streaming partner back in 2021 and since then, the two organisations claim to have “set a new standard for data-driven fan engagement”.
