The NFL and immersive technology company Cosm have announced an extension of their partnership that will see Cosm continue to produce and distribute live games in shared reality at their venues throughout the 2025 season and beyond.

This season, Cosm will again feature Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, as well as an offering of games on CBS and FOX, at its venues in Los Angeles and Dallas. For the second consecutive year, Cosm will also showcase NFL postseason games, including Super Bowl LX.

“This multi-year partnership with the NFL and its broadcast partners underscores our shared commitment to fans,” said Jeb Terry, Cosm president and chief executive officer. “With multiple high-resolution immersive camera angles from the sideline to the end zone, integrated broadcaster commentary and live TV feeds, NFL gamedays at Cosm offer a unique shared reality experience where fans can celebrate watching NFL football together.”

NFL games debuted at Cosm during the 2024 NFL season on Cosm’s 87-foot-diameter, 12K+ LED domes. Cosm opened its first venue in Los Angeles at Hollywood Park, adjacent to SoFi Stadium, in July 2024, and second venue in Dallas at The Colony’s Grandscape in August 2024. The company will open its third venue in Atlanta’s Centennial Yards in early 2026, as well as its fourth venue in  Detroit later in the year. Cosm recently announced its fifth venue will anchor Cleveland’s Rock Block development, expected to open in 2027.

Cosm will kick off its slate of NFL games on September 4 with the 2025 NFL Kickoff Game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, along with Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football. The Week 2 matchup between the Washington Commanders and Green Bay Packers on September 11 will be the first Thursday Night Football game this season available in the Dome at Cosm.

A new global research study commissioned by IBM shows that fans are changing the way they consume sports, turning to new, more dynamic experiences, including the use of AI, personalization and real-time features.

The survey queried more than 20,000 global sports fans across 12 countries, asking them about their habits in consuming sports of all kinds. The results showed that those fans increasingly view technology — particularly AI — as a positive force and that they are using it more often. Total AI usage among fans has grown since 2024 across nearly all markets, with 85% of respondents noting that they saw value in integrating the emerging technology into their sports experience. In addition, 63 percent expressed some level of trust in AI-generated sports content, noting that real-time game/match updates (35%) and personalized content (30%) were their top priorities for AI-enhanced engagement.

The survey also asked fans how often they attend in-person events, with 73% around the world saying that they attend at least one event per year.

When it comes to the digital experience of consuming sports, over half (51%) of the fans surveyed turn to video highlights, with 37% enjoying post-event recaps and 32 percent staying connected to their sport by consuming player interviews. Dedicated mobile sports apps are also important to sports fans: Nearly 75% use them to stay updated.

Social media also remains the leading platform for accessing additional content, with influencers play a prominent role: 59% of fans surveyed engage with influencers for analysis and predictions.

Habits May Shift Again

The survey also shows that fans’ consumption of sports is not only changing now, but will likely continue to change in the future. Only 27% of surveyed fans expect those habits to stay the same over the next two years, with 80% saying technology – specifically AI— will have the greatest influence on how they follow sports by 2027.

More than half (56%) of surveyed fans want AI-powered insights and commentary for past, current and future sporting events. And advances in tech may open up new avenues for future fans in countries where they don’t speak the language. One-third of responders said real-time translation technology will have the most significant impact on their international sports experience in the next 2-3 years — particularly in markets where English is not the dominant language.

“The sports media landscape is more complex than ever, and fans are comfortable consuming digital content around the clock,” said Kameryn Stanhouse, IBM’s vice president, sports and entertainment partnerships. “With fans signaling their readiness to embrace AI, we will continue working with our tournament, league and media partners to meet fans where they are, whether they’re watching the action in person or enhancing their second-screen experience.”
To access the full report, click here.

Paul Pettas has started a new role as corporate communications lead, for the Sports and Entertainment Partnerships division of IBM.

Pettas previously worked for eight years as various communications roles at Centerplate and Sodexo Live!, including the last three years as vice president of brand and communications.

IBM has worked with various professional sports leagues and brands in recent years including Wimbledon, The Masters, U.S. Open tennis, Scuderia Ferrari in F1, UFC and ESPN Fantasy Football. This is the first full-time position IBM has dedicated to its sports and entertainment partnership portfolio.

Among other examples of the company’s work, at the U.S. Open, which the company has been involved with for more than 30 years, IBM partnered with the USTA to create digital experiences for millions of tennis fans around the world, tapping into generative AI to add spoken commentary to match highlights, produce match previews and write hundreds of match summaries.

Fastbreak AI, an AI-powered sports operations software company, has announced the launch of the AI Schedule Engine for amateur sports tournament operators in the Fastbreak Compete product.

The AI Schedule Engine is designed for high-volume sports events, enabling tournament directors to generate schedules in minutes. Fastbreak’s engine powers schedules for professional sports leagues around the world including the NBA, NHL, NWSL and MLS.

“This is a watershed moment for us and marks a significant milestone in Fastbreak’s mission to bring professional-grade tools to every level of sport,” said John Stewart, Fastbreak AI chief executive officer. “With thousands of amateur tournaments taking place every weekend across the country, the need for a scalable, intelligent solution has never been greater. This engine has been validated at the highest levels of sport and it will now be the backbone of youth and amateur athletics.”

Fastbreak’s engine handles every major scheduling format including bracket play, multi-venue and multi-day tournaments, automatically accounting for team preferences, time requests, coaching requests, blackout windows, rest periods, venue constraints and more. Once the schedule is generated, organizers can make edits using a drag-and-drop interface, with the platform providing feedback showing the impact of changes to help prevent conflicts.

“Until now, scheduling has been a bottleneck for tournament organizers across every sport,” said Ray Glassmann, general manager of Fastbreak Compete. “Organizers had two options: spend days manually moving teams around spreadsheets while trying to appease individual preferences, or outsource the task to someone else. The AI Schedule Engine removes that pain and gives you access to the same technology used by the biggest leagues in the world to build the most complex schedules.”

Playeasy has announced the launch of Playeasy Experiences, a digital platform to help destination marketing organizations deliver event-focused visitor experiences directly through their own websites.

The new service uses AI-powered technology to help destinations customize their offerings to potential event organizers and participants, including the ability for visitor to chat with an AI tour guide, showcase community attractions and track hotel referral bookings, among other functions.

“Events are the lifeblood of a destination’s economic and community vitality, yet too many cities are losing event visitor engagement to global platforms like Google,” said Sean Flaherty, co-founder and chief executive officer at Playeasy. “Playeasy Experiences empowers destinations to reclaim their event visitors by delivering exceptional, AI-powered digital experiences specifically built around their unique events, venues and local businesses. Our platform helps destinations rapidly compete, using their greatest strength—the authenticity of their local event experiences—as their competitive advantage.”

The company says more than 30 destinations have started using the service. Among the features available with the platform are:

• Event-centric “one-stop-shop” digital experiences
• Hotel solutions for any event — live rates, room blocks, third party housing, etc.
• Curated recommendations, local offers, and “Show Your Badge” discounts
• An AI-powered Tour Guide that personalizes the event visitor journey
• Comprehensive, actionable analytics and engagement data tied specifically to events
• The ability to integrate any or all components and keep the entire experience on a DMO’s website

The service aims to streamline a process that would have taken DMOs days and weeks to perform, including the coordination of multiple vendors and technical integrations.

Soccer tech company TOCA Football has announced the launch of its second annual TOCA Skills Showcase, a competition that will take place at 22 of the company’s soccer centers across the United States.

Champions of this year’s showcase will receive airfare, hotel accommodations and tickets to the 2025 Major League Soccer All-Star Skills Challenge on July 22 and the 2025 MLS All-Star Game on July 23 in Austin, Texas.

TOCA has been the official soccer training and entertainment facility partner of MLS since 2023. The company hosted its inaugural Skills Showcase last year with four finalists receiving a prize trip to Columbus, Ohio, for the 2024 MLS All-Star Week. This year’s event will last three weeks longer than the first Skills Showcase in 2024, giving athletes more opportunities to compete.

“This talent showcase offers an opportunity for young players across the U.S. to compete against friends and teammates in an environment driven by technology,” said Eddie Lewis, founder of TOCA Football. “Each participant has the chance to immerse themselves in game simulations and receive an overall evaluation of their strengths and challenges. We’re delighted to get the best of the best to sample our proprietary technology, while providing these athletes with the chance to win a trip to the 2025 MLS All-Star Week.”

TOCA Skills Showcase participants will be scored on metrics including goals scored, best streak, average speed of play and level of difficulty during a portion of a TOCA Training baseline session. Participants can view their position on the live leaderboards in MyTOCA, the web portal where athletes can create customized player cards and review historical training data.

“Our ongoing collaboration and partnership with TOCA has allowed us to grow the game of soccer with novel experiences,” said Jen Cramer, MLS executive vice president, partnership marketing. “With the TOCA Skills Showcase, Major League Soccer highlights its commitment to delivering entertaining soccer activities across local communities, inspiring kids to stay active with the game of soccer at the center.”

Playbook365, a tournament management software company, has unveiled a new software program to help operators keep sports facilities running at full capacity.

Playbook Facility Management Software combines tools for sports facility management on one platform. It streamlines operations from field and court scheduling to booking, club management, invoicing and member communications.

“Most sports facilities rely on multiple solutions to manage their day-to-day operations,” said Billy Becher, founder of Playbook365. “These solutions often don’t talk to each other. As a result, some courts and fields get double-booked, while others stay empty, and customers become frustrated. Our new software empowers facility managers with one tool that simplifies operations across the board for members, staff, and guests.”

Using the new platform, managers can oversee their entire operation from one dashboard and deliver seamless experiences for members and guests. The software includes features for managing multiple facilities, scheduling, club and membership management, customer engagement and administrative and financial control.

Elevate Sports Ventures has launched a performance and insights platform that will allow organizations to analyze audience data and understand fan insights in a variety of different ways.

The platform will be called Epic, standing for Elevate Performances and Insights Cloud. The AI approach will combine emotional, psychological and behavioral insights as well as property data and consumer behavior of their fans to deliver personalized experiences

The platform will have three applications focusing on consumer insights, ticketing management and property insights. The platform has been leveraged by more than 25 clients with plans to expand in the future.

“The impetus was Elevate as historically as a services company, as a consultancy, was sitting on a massive amount of data,” said Jim Caruso, the company’s chief innovation officer. “We know a lot about properties and what happens inside those properties. We wanted to expand that to have a knowledge set that said, Hey, we can tell you what’s happening in the stadium, but we also want to know what’s happening outside the stadium.”

Along with its own data and through research with the Harris Poll and surveying 6,000 fans, the data tells Elevate that there is a significant overlap in fandom with travelers following more than three leagues. But at the same time, a higher percentage of travel doesn’t necessarily correlate with a higher spending level.

It also show the highest spending per traveler was NFL fans but with a lower travel percentage. NHL fans have the highest propensity to travel but a moderate spending level while soccer fans are the second highest to travel and spend money. College sports fans are moderate in both categories.

With the understanding gathered from surveying fans, the Epic platform through AI is designed to address queries such as ticket prices and successful fan engagement campaigns for mobile users. The data can also work to correlate fan engagement data to refine marketing strategies and enhance loyalty.

Caruso said the data that Elevate has is the foundation for the program and then it built a suite of applications to make answers easier to find for clients.

“I could be a ticketing manager who needs to go in and use this information to make decisions around pricing tickets,” he said in New Orleans on Thursday. “Or I could be a marketing manager who wants to use that data to build customer personas and figure out how to market to them or figure out what brands I should sponsor. Those are very different use cases, so we wanted to make it easy and create those different applications.”

With the AI part of the program, Caruso said instead of having to sift through all the research the system will be able to generate answers for clients.

“It’s not the old school way of pulling charts and data tables,” he said. “It’s how do I let AI do this work for me, sift through all this data that as a human, I couldn’t possibly comprehend and then have an interaction with it, engage with it, ask it questions. … I could go in and say, hey, what are the top five things that people are doing when they’re thinking about traveling for sports and it would tell me what those things are. Then I could dig in and drill in and get more insight to it.”

Super Bowl week also means getting business done within the industry. Elevate for the first time had its “Elly” hospitality house inside an event space/gallery in the Warehouse District open from Wednesday through pregame on Sunday. Elevate Experiences also was putting together Super Bowl experience packages that included three hotel nights plus tickets, pregame tailgating, access to the Elevate House and other items.

The San Francisco 49ers have announced a multi-year partnership with NetApp, a data infrastructure company, to become a founding level partner for the NFL franchise.

The brands will partner on silo-free data infrastructure to support 49ers business operations throughout the organization, starting with the reimagination of the fan experience at Levi’s Stadium.

“When Levi’s Stadium opened in 2014, it was one of the most technologically advanced stadiums in the country,” said Costa Kladianos, 49ers executive vice presdient and head of technology. “While we have remained diligent in making improvements to the fan experience year over year, NetApp will empower us to make major changes that will bring the building into the forefront of technology-focused sports and entertainment venues.”

As the 49ers enter the second decade of Levi’s Stadium, the stadium will in the next year-plus be hosting events including Super Bowl LX, followed a few months later by the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The organization plans to make major tech enhancements to the venue with the goal of creating a new seamless and connected fan experience, including the NetApp Keystone storage-as-a-service offering to expedite improvements to ingress and egress, bathroom and concession wait times, mobile app functionality and more.

“By becoming an integral part of the 49ers’ operations, NetApp is demonstrating our deep commitment to innovation, leadership, and excellence in Silicon Valley,” said George Kurian, chief executive officer of NetApp. “Our support of the 49ers ambitious goals for making its home stadium the benchmark for excellence in fan experience and team performance demonstrates our strong ties to our San Francisco Bay Area home and our unique capabilities to make data an asset in leading organizations achieving their transformation goals.”

NetApp will become the presenting sponsor of the 49ers 2025 NFL Draft and the Levi’s Stadium Owners Club. NetApp will also be the presenting sponsor for the 49ers’ strategy, data, and analytics conference, Horizon Summit, at to Levi’s Stadium in June.

“We are excited to welcome NetApp, a Bay Area brand and global leader in data infrastructure, as a founding level corporate partner,” said Brent Schoeb, 49ers chief revenue and marketing officer. “We look forward to integrating NetApp’s best-in-class, innovative technology across the 49ers and Levi’s Stadium organization to enhance the fan experience.”