DALLAS — nVenue, a female-founded and led sports betting platform that uses machine learning and AI to generate game-relevant probabilities and micro-bets for fans to engage with in real-time, was one of seven companies selected for the NBA Launchpad program.
The Dallas-based tech company will build a basketball-specific micro-betting curation engine that leverages NBA assets to create unique, contextual in-game micro-betting markets, props, and parlays. The product will be presented to league executives during NBA Launchpad Demo Day at NBA 2K24 Summer League in Las Vegas.
nVenue was the only sports betting landscape chosen as a participant in the program. Here are all of the NBA Launchpad participants and what the products they offer:
Enhancing The Fan Experience:
- nVenue (Dallas/Houston, Texas): Sports betting platform that uses machine learning and AI to generate game-relevant probabilities and micro-bets for fans to engage with in real-time.
- Action Audio (Victoria, Australia): Technology that transforms spatial data into information-rich 3D sound experiences, helping blind/low vision audiences to follow sport in real time.
- EDGE Sound Research (Riverside, California): Embodied sound technology that leverages standard audio inputs to produce audible, haptic and tactile sensation directly to a fan within an arena or at home for sports, music and gaming.
- Tagboard (Redmond, Washington): Audience experience platform designed to help production teams create the most engaging content in the world with a fraction of the resources required by traditional graphics systems.
Advancing The Game
- SkillCorner (Paris, France): Technology that uses computer vision and machine learning to generate player tracking data from existing video feeds.
- Springbok Analytics (Charlottesville, Virginia): AI-based technology that transforms MRI data into a 3D digital twin, quantifying an athlete’s musculature for precision health and performance optimization.
- Supersapiens (Atlanta, Georgia): Technology that analyzes glucose data to inform athletes how nutrition impacts their well-being, sleep and athletic performance.
“The expansion of NBA Launchpad has opened the door to create and enhance ways for fans to experience our game,” said Jason Bieber, Vice President, Global Strategy & Innovation, NBA. “By partnering with these innovative companies, we hope to bring fans closer to the action and uncover insights about the future of fan engagement.”
This announcement adds to nVenue's growing portfolio of partners interested in utilizing its technology. nVenue powered the on-screen predictive analytics for the 2022 season of Friday night MLB games on Apple TV+.
nVenue also announced in October of 2022 it had launched its own NFL "micro-betting" markets utilizing its NextPlayLive API technology. The markets are available to customers to then offer to bettors in states where betting is legal, nVenue officials told WFAA.
Texas is one of 14 states where sports betting remains illegal, but there are numerous bills proposed in the state legislative session aimed at legalizing it, including one filed by a Fort Worth legislator and another by a senator from the Houston area. Thirty-three states, plus Washington, D.C., have legal betting, and three others have passed legislation but aren't yet operating.
If sports gambling was to pass through the 2023 legislative session, it would then be placed on voters' ballots months later.
nVenue has offices in Dallas and Houston. The 2023 companies are part of the second year of NBA Launchpad.
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