XR Sports Alliance announces first members

Launched in June 2024, the XR Sports Alliance was founded by Accedo, a provider of software and services for video streaming companies, together with Qualcomm Technologies and HBS, a specialist sports host broadcast organisation. Technology service providers Ateme and Skyrim.ai have also joined the alliance.

The new members will all be contributing to the XRSA, which aims to accelerate knowledge gathering, technological advancement and time-to-market for XR sports services, as well as gather and share industry knowledge across the globe.

Michael Lantz, CEO at Accedo, said: “The XRSA was born from a shared vision. Our ambition is to build a powerful collective of passionate leaders and experts from both the sports and XR industries, all committed to advancing the commercialisation of XR sports services. Every member is important for how we shape our end-to-end experimentation framework and how we lay the foundation for scalable technology and sustainable XR business models.”

Patrick Costello, senior director, business development at Qualcomm Technologies, added: “Through the XRSA user testing framework, the XRSA will gather valuable data from global deployments and share these lessons learned reports with our members, ensuring insights are drawn from diverse audiences to inform future developments.”

Sylvain Lebreton, head of digital at HBS, also commented that the planned experimentation deployments in early 2025 “will involve extensive experimentation with both non-live and live spatial video formats and evaluating user interaction with various immersive fan features and spatial advertising. We will continue to grow the membership over the coming months and welcome interest from companies across the ecosystem, both those wishing to serve as contributing members, as well as observing members.”