Microsoft announced a new strategic partnership with the Premier League on Tuesday in which the tech giant will use its cloud an AI technology to provide a boost to the soccer league’s digital infrastructure and fan-facing platforms.
At the heart of the five-year deal are new digital features to make the fan experiences more intelligent and intuitive. The tech transformation is considered one of the most significant in the history of Premier League, which is watched in 900 million homes across 189 countries, according to a news release.
The four key areas being addressed include: fan engagement, match insights and analysis, cloud transformation, and organizational productivity.
Fans can learn more about the clubs, players and matches of their choice through a new digital “Premier League Companion” powered by Microsoft Copilot. The experience leverages Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI to pull information from over 30 seasons of stats, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos.
Premier League Companion is available on the new official Premier League mobile app and web platforms and will be enhanced throughout the upcoming season. Additional functionality is set to include open-text questions and answers in fans’ native languages through text and audio translation. Microsoft AI will also be included within the app and website’s enhanced Fantasy Premier League experience, giving fans their own AI assistant manager to help them steer their fantasy squad.
Microsoft Azure cloud services will also be used to enhance the live match experience with real-time data overlays and post-match analysis. The league is migrating its core technology infrastructure to Azure for, which it says will allow for greater scalability and security as well as faster innovation and integration of AI services.
Microsoft has other sports-related partnerships, most notably with the National Football League.
Earlier this year, the company rolled out a new AI assistant within its NFL Combine App used by coaches and scouts. Microsoft Surface tablets are used by teams across the league. Microsoft also works with individual teams to boost internal operations. Teams are using Copilot to build marketing plans and create social media campaigns, for example.
Read the full article here
