Comcast has decided to pitch in a new SportsTech startup accelerator which will help startups working towards making sports, a more tech inclusive domain. The company has collaborated with NASCAR and many others to achieve this goal, most of which have their events telecast on NBC’s platform like U.S. Ski & Snowboard and USA Swimming.
From today, Pre Series A startups can apply for an equity based investment, and gain $50,000 worth of investment in exchange for equity in their ventures. The startups have to offer at least 6% of equity to Comcast and Boomtown accelerators, another partner in the company.
Industry experts like NASCAR, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and USA Swimming will be involved in more of an advisory role and will be exempt from raising capitals.
The startups will be divided into different categories, namely, business of Sports, Team and Coach Success and Athlete and Player Performance.
The startup that plans to apply, should not be purely be involved in sports tech activities for profits. These startups should also aid to build future Olympists as well, and to enhance competitiveness while maintaining fairness between different organisations. SportsTech can help introduce new technologies that will boost prospects of U.S. athletes at 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Comcast’s inclination towards a sports tech accelerator is natural. The company purchased the U.S. broadcast rights for the Olympics in a massive $7.75 billion deal, and this could be its way of engaging viewers. The channel will now reserve the rights to broadcast both summer and winter olympics till 2032.
This will be Comcast’s third startup accelerator, as the market grows more and more lucrative for companies especially in the U.S. McDonald’s McD Tech Labs to Mastercard’s Start Path are just a few other examples of how accelerators and corporate incubators have garnered themselves a huge market space with the advent of small scale startups and we can expect a lot more of them in the coming years.
