KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Edge Up
Sports and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the company has
become an IBM Watson Ecosystem Partner and is developing an app
powered by Watson to help fantasy football team owners manage their
team's performance in an optimal way for their league. The
announcement was made as part of Edge Up Sports launching a
Kickstarter campaign to raise $35
thousand for continued product development, giving
contributors early access to the app and a role in shaping the
product.
Successful fantasy owners dedicate several hours per week
strategizing for fantasy football. Still, with so much information
available, it's difficult to stay current on the latest news and
information surrounding players. More than 33 million people
play--obsessing over rosters, stats and injury reports for nearly
six months of the year. Yet, as popular as Fantasy is, it could be
even bigger if more of football's 100+ million fans got involved.
Now, Edge Up Sports is bringing the same Watson cognitive
capabilities being put to work in business, patient care, and
citizen services to fantasy users – giving them the ability to
unearth critical insights faster to help minimize the time
commitment needed to maintain a competitive edge.
Edge Up is a one-stop shop of analysis and insights that allows
users to supplement their current fantasy platforms on websites
like Yahoo and CBS, with additional timely information, such as
insights on a NFL player's Twitter behavior, stats on coaches, and
articles from a wide variety of football analysts. By embedding IBM
Watson APIs from the Watson Developer Cloud, the app will access
and analyze ever-growing volumes and sources of football and player
related data to generate evidence-based recommendations. This
analysis will help fantasy participants reduce the time they spend
on research to help them make more informed team roster decisions
quickly.
"Edge Up grabs vast amounts of available NFL data, and with the
help of Watson, team general managers are able to make informed
decisions and adjustments to their fantasy football roster picks,"
said Edge Up Sports CEO Illya
Tabakh. "By leveraging Watson technologies, we're excited to
be able to transform the way fantasy football is played, and
provide a platform that is assisting team owners with the necessary
analysis and insights that could increase their chances in winning
their league.
Edge Up's mobile-first app powered by Watson will provide core
mental, physical and situational insights on NFL players, which
pulls from social media interactions, weather reports, injury
history, analyst write ups, news stories and more. The app provides
fantasy players with answers to questions on their team
including:
- How well does the team perform on grass vs. turf?
- Is the team emotionally prepared for a big rivalry game?
- Given a player's injury history, how will a recent sustained
hit most likely impact a players performance?
No novice when it comes to sport and data, IBM has been
advancing Sports Analytics for over 20 years, applying
analytics in a variety of ways to improve the coach, fan and player
experience across a variety of professional sports from Tennis, to
American Football, to Rugby. This includes better understanding fan
sentiment through analyzing the Twitterverse for improved
fan engagement decisions; helping to mitigate possible player
injury based on detecting player performance patterns against
game intensity; NS bringing real-time scores, statistics and
analysis to life for the fans, event organizers, players, and media
broadcasters. IBM's work in advanced analytics and cognitive
computing combined with the work of its Ecosystem Partners can
continue to bring new innovations to the sports industry.
"The purpose of opening up IBM Watson capabilities to our
Ecosystem Partners via an open developer platform is to accelerate
creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, and Edge Up Sports is a
perfect example," said Lauri Saft,
Vice President, IBM Watson. "IBM and its Partners are driving
innovation across industries with Watson and while it has been
applied to help with very serious societal challenges such as
cancer care, Watson can also be applied in fun ways to improve fan
experience in the sports and entertainment world."
Edge Up Sports powered by Watson takes fantasy data to the next
level. NFL players are some of the most watched humans on the
planet, with thousands of data points captured every game and even
more from channels such as social media. That data is captured,
sifted, and crunched into digestible and useful insights to help
inform decisions. Edge Up shows you how your roster changes on
multiple dimensions throughout the week, so you can make the
decisions that matter. By parsing analyst opinions, mental
insights, physical resilience, and situational factors like matches
and weather, you can see overall scores that let you know your
roster's health anytime and anywhere:
http://ibm.co/1L25hkg
Through Edge Up Sports' Kickstarter campaign, Edge Up's goal is
to provide the most passionate fantasy football team managers with
real-time updates on their fantasy, an opportunity to connect to a
community, build a premium user interface and experience for a
rewarding experience that evolves with users. Possible rewards
given by Edge Up Sports for Kickstarter contributors include a
season pass for a supporter's entire league, regular
teleconferences, a unique fantasy football experience with the Edge
Up Sports team in Kansas City, and
a ticket to an NFL game during the regular 2015-2016 season.
Edge Up Sports will launch with the upcoming NFL season and
start as a service available early for its Kickstarter backers.
Become a backer here.
About Edge Up Sports
For more information on Edge Up Sports, visit:
http://edgeupsports.com/#/home
About IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing
Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing
technology. With the help of Watson, organizations are harnessing the power
of cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals
do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.
IBM has established a growing ecosystem of developers, students,
entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts worldwide by placing the power
of cognitive computing in their hands. More than 25 Watson services
are available on the IBM Watson Developer Cloud on Bluemix,
allowing these innovators to discover, explore and create an
entirely new class of apps and businesses fueled by Watson. This
community of tens of thousands of tech enthusiasts and Ecosystem
Partners are already generating up to 3 billion monthly API
requests, demonstrating the adoption of the open platform.
For more information on IBM Watson, visit:
ibm.com/watsonecosystem.
Check out the IBM Watson press kit
at: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss
Join the conversation at #ibmwatson. Follow Watson
on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube
and Flickr.
Media Contacts:
Charisse Higgins
IBM External Relations
cthiggin@us.ibm.com
347-266-7540
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SOURCE IBM and Edge Up Sports