LaLiga and Microsoft today announced an expansion of their partnership focused on the digital transformation of the global sports experience. The two organizations will also collaborate on the development of technology solutions for the media and entertainment industry through the partnership's technology offering, LaLiga Tech.
As LaLiga's global Tech and Innovation Partner, Microsoft will help develop new solutions and leverage existing ones, driving innovation across the sports industry in a variety of areas:
- For sports fans: Azure Event Hubs, Azure Data Lake, Azure Databricks and Azure Machine Learning will enrich the broadcasting of matches with data and customized over-the-top (OTT) streaming options, such as the selection of camera angles in matches. LaLiga will also offer new experiences including augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D replays.
- For rights holders, broadcasters and business partners: Azure, Dynamics 365, Power BI, SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Machine Learning will offer an optimized OTT streaming platform, which will make personalized recommendations and reinforce the experience with additional content, games and relevant services.
- For venue managers: Power BI and Azure will optimize stadium operations through innovations in security, as well as the use of 5G for unified stadium experiences.
As part of the collaboration, LaLiga will use the Microsoft Azure cloud, including its AI and machine learning tools to reinvent interactive audiovisual experiences and formats on its LaLigaSportsTV (OTT) platform and Mediacoach (match statistics and visualization).
The collaboration is key to the growth and development of LaLiga Tech, through which LaLiga will bring together its full range of existing technologies into a commercial offering for the sports industry, from match day statistics and analytics to next generation OTT streaming services, state-of-the-art content protection services and stadium access management systems.
This will help LaLiga expand into a new era in sports and beyond, and enhance the fan experience by creating new data-driven technology solutions powered by Microsoft Azure, Power BI, and Dynamics 365 to provide a customized technology platform, services and solutions to third parties.
