Supponor Appoints Simon Green as New Chief Executive Officer
Supponor, the market leader in the virtual advertising industry for over a decade, has today announced the appointment of Simon Green as its new CEO, replacing James B. Gambrell, who steps down from the role to serve as a Non-Executive Director.
Green, a highly respected and experienced broadcaster from the global sports pay-TV industry, moves from his role as Supponor COO, while Gambrell, who has been a cornerstone of Supponor’s success for nearly eight years, will transition to an investor-director, non-executive board position within the company.
Chairman of the Board, Sir Martin Broughton, remarked;
“The last eight years have been an incredible journey with Supponor, and we’ve been fortunate to have Jay (James) lead a team of such talented and dedicated people. I am confident that under Simon’s leadership, Supponor will continue to innovate and lead in the virtual advertising space. Fortunately, Jay will not be leaving us completely as he will continue to contribute as a member of the board.”
In an executive career spanning over three decades, Simon Green has successfully delivered the launch of global television services and has also built efficient operational infrastructure and creative production facilities. With strong governance skills, he has also ensured regulatory compliance, managed significant commercial broadcast rights and assets, and promoted greater corporate social responsibility within the broadcast industry.
His previous roles include serving as Managing Director of BT Sport for 10 years before joining Supponor. He also brings extensive international experience, having worked for major broadcasters and sporting bodies in the UK and the US, including Sky Sports, Fox Sports, Setanta and The Football Association.
“During his tenure as Supponor CEO, James demonstrated immense strategic acumen and great leadership, fostering our growth to profitability and solidifying our position as the prominent player in virtual advertising,”
Commented Simon Green, Supponor CEO.
“His contribution has been invaluable, and the company owes its current stature in no small part to his guidance. I am delighted to follow in his footsteps and lead the business at a very exciting time in its history, and I look forward to working closely with my team, our customers and partners.”
SPORTFIVE and Supponor extend their cooperation to deliver virtual advertising solutions
The international sport marketing agency SPORTFIVE and Supponor, the market leader in the virtual advertising industry for over a decade, extend their virtual advertising partnership – an agreement that will see their relationship expanding in the German territory.
Offering the only league-wide virtual advertising solution approved by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) in the Bundesliga, Supponor and SPORTFIVE have enjoyed a successful partnership since 2017. By extending their collaboration, the companies will be able to work with SPORTFIVE’s partner clubs, including Borussia Dortmund, FC Union Berlin, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart, among others as well as will explore opportunities in other sports.
Virtual advertising is of crucial importance for global and regional sponsoring partnerships outside of the German-speaking market. Working closely together, Supponor enables SPORTFIVE to further monetize the marketing rights for clubs and rights holders and generate virtual advertising inventory to serve partners and advertisers with tailor-made messages to reach their target audience.
The fans in the stadiums and domestic TV audiences see no change to the physical messages in the stadium, while messages that are shown to the international TV audience can be targeted individually, depending on the market by virtually overlaying existing animated perimeter LED boards from within the live broadcast signal.
Supponor’s proprietary technology platform, Supponor AIR®, is a fully software-based solution that leverages cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques. It offers a proven and reliable method to modify regular transmission content, enabling virtual multiplication of perimeter advertising space across various international markets. This dynamic platform empowers advertising partners with numerous options, including a tailored approach for target groups in different regions and the flexibility to secure different partners per region for the rights holders.
Massimo Magrì, EMEA Managing Director, and Global Head of Football, at Supponor said:
“We are delighted to renew our partnership with our longest-lasting client on the German market, SPORTFIVE, a company that shares our vision for the potential of virtual advertising. Since 2017, our collaboration has helped to evolve the landscape of sports advertising in the Bundesliga,”
“This extension is a testament to the success we’ve seen thus far and will ensure our solutions continue to deliver unparalleled value to advertisers, rights holders, and fans alike.”
Kai Rippe, Senior Vice President Rightsholder Business at SPORTFIVE said:
“At SPORTFIVE, we value innovation and adaptation, especially when it provides exciting opportunities for our clients, and our collaboration with Supponor is a great example of this philosophy in action”
“Through our partnership, we’ve been able to give brands access to the global Bundesliga audience, allowing them to create powerful connections with fans worldwide. This partnership extension signals our commitment to continue pushing the boundaries of sports advertising.”
Supponor Strengthens Collaboration with Longest Standing Partner GRUP MEDIAPRO
Supponor®, the world’s leading virtual advertising technology solution provider in sports, and GRUP MEDIAPRO, the world’s leading TV production and marketing rights agency in the sports and entertainment industry, today announced the long term renewal of their long-standing partnership.
This agreement further cements the decade-long partnership between Supponor and GRUP MEDIAPRO; underlining Supponor’s most enduring commercial relationship and recognizing GRUP MEDIAPRO as a true innovator and pioneer in the adoption of Virtual Advertising technologies in top-tier football.
Under this partnership, Supponor and GRUP MEDIAPRO have completed the transition to Supponor’s AIR® technology. This platform has been broadly adopted by leading sports rights holders worldwide. The software-only, AI-based solution allows GRUP MEDIAPRO to cost-effectively scale the deployment of Virtual Advertising for both Virtual LED Replacement and Virtual Cam Carpets in 358 La Liga matches, including FC Barcelona home matches, each season with up to twelve virtually enabled feeds distributed globally.
Supponor AIR® is deployed fully remotely from GRUP MEDIAPRO’s new virtual Master Control Room (MCR) at Imagina, in Barcelona, during all LaLiga games, supporting virtual operations in up to ten concurrent games. The virtually modified feeds are distributed to international broadcasters from the same Imagina MCR. Supponor AIR® is fully software-based and driven by cutting-edge technological innovations such as Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Its fully remote nature means it eliminates the need for any on-site operations at the venue – making for more advanced, scalable and commercially valuable production which has a lower carbon footprint than traditional on-site production methods.
Massimo Magrì, EMEA Managing Director, and Global Head of Football, at Supponor said:
“GRUP MEDIAPRO is our longest serving client and strategic partner at the same time, so we are extremely pleased to commit for a second decade of mutually successful partnership together”
“Together with GRUP MEDIAPRO, we will be expanding our collaboration to multiple sports properties in Spain and beyond. We will fully exploit the full potential of the Imagina MCR for other business opportunities operated by GRUP MEDIAPRO, as a hub to deploy Supponor AIR® during other sporting events globally. By transitioning to Supponor AIR®, GRUP MEDIAPRO and Supponor can actively engage with other GRUP MEDIAPRO properties in football, and beyond, in other locations to enhance GRUP MEDIAPRO’s current and future marketing rights and production business.”
Supponor and GRUP MEDIAPRO’s 10-year-long strategic partnership has delivered the successful rollout of commercially valuable virtual advertising technologies, which are crucial in driving innovation for LaLiga and its brand partners.
Julian Fernandez, Chief Commercial Officer, GRUP MEDIAPRO, said:
“Our long history in championing innovation and track record of proven commercial success ensured we were very keen to renew our valuable partnership”
“GRUP MEDIAPRO has the longest track-record in the commercial exploitation of sports marketing rights through Virtual Advertising technologies, and considers Supponor AIR® currently the best turnkey solution considering quality, performance, commercial value, scalability and sustainability. Supponor is the market leader in virtual advertising, while we lead the sports and entertainment TV production and marketing sector; so, this partnership perfectly leverages the synergies between the two companies. We have proved that. We look forward to both parties building on that legacy for many years to come.”
Supponor AIR® was commercially launched in 2021. By the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Supponor had fully transitioned from legacy hardware-based technologies to a fully software-based platform and no longer deploys, markets or utilizes the now-retired hardware-based solution.
Supponor AIR® has been adopted all over the globe by world-leading sports properties such as Italy’s Serie A, the German Bundesliga, and outside of football by the NHL ice hockey league in North America. GRUP MEDIAPRO has undergone the same journey by adopting Supponor AIR® from the 2021/22 LaLiga season.
Supponor surpasses expectations with a season of exceptional growth
Supponor, the market leader in the virtual advertising industry for over a decade, is proud to announce that it exceeded its targets to double the deployment of its award-winning AI-based virtual advertising platform Supponor AIR®, growing beyond the 1,000+ events delivered in the 2021-22 season. The technology was implemented in close to 3,000 live sports events across every continent, encompassing a wide variety of sports from football to hockey to motorsport during the 2022-23 season. The company also continued to grow in line with these achievements, announcing several senior executive appointments and the opening of a major new R&D facility focusing on AI.
A number of new deals with diverse sporting federations and organisations were brought to fruition this season, including the NHL, the premier North American professional hockey league, which partnered with Supponor in a multi-year agreement to develop its ground-breaking Digitally Enhanced Dasherboard (DED) technology solution, enabling the real-time digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within live local, national and international NHL game broadcasts. The award-winning technology was deployed this season across all 32 clubs and arenas, supporting over 2,500 distinct live broadcast integrations across more than 1,400 games, enabling market-specific, targeted advertising and promotional messaging for the first time. This is a major step in Supponor’s growth in the ice hockey world, building up from its ongoing partnerships with 3ICE and IIHF.
The adoption of Supponor AIR in football also continued to gain momentum, with leading federations including the FA (UK), RFEF (Spain), DFB (Germany), FIGC (Italy), ÖFB (Austria) and SvFF (Sweden) all deploying the virtual advertising technology during key international match broadcasts. Supponor’s technology has also been adopted by several elite football leagues and clubs across the Bundesliga (Germany), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Ligue 1 (France) and the A-Leagues (Australia) as well as on pan-European level.
In the past year, Supponor has also expanded its dominance of virtual advertising in several new sports, including basketball, cricket, rugby, motor sports, baseball, and handball. The European Handball Federation (EHF) worked with Supponor to implement virtual advertising at the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 tournament in Slovenia, marking the first ever virtual advertising deployment in handball and the first use of Supponor technology at a women’s sports event.
The Supponor team was strengthened during the year with several key senior appointments, including Simon Green as Chief Operating Officer, Jarod Were as VP Strategic Development, and most recently Rusty Lawrence as Business Development Executive.
Continuing its ambitious drive for technological innovation and market expansion, Supponor opened a new R&D facility in France this year to conduct short-term and long-term research into computer vision AI and natural scene rendering.
James B. Gambrell, CEO, Supponor, says:
“It has been an incredible year for Supponor as we exceeded our goals for live event deployment, cemented existing partnerships and built relationships with new customers, and continued to develop our AI-based technologies as we seek new marketing opportunities for rights holders in sports. Far from resting on our laurels, we are galvanised to move towards the new season with renewed ambition to surpass this year’s outstanding achievements.”
Supponor & Telstra Broadcast Services announce joint offering
Supponor, the world’s leading technology provider in virtual advertising, and Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS), a leading provider of end-to-end broadcast and media related services, today announced a joint initiative to bring virtual advertising as-a-service to sports properties, federations and rights owners worldwide.
As a result of the recent successful launch of their league-wide solution for the National Hockey League (NHL), Supponor and TBS are expanding their collaboration to make virtual advertising services more accessible to other international sports leagues in APAC, EMEA and the Americas.
The collaboration enables rights owners and their partners to effectively target global audiences with new and innovative technologies, such as customized virtual signage powered by the Supponor AIR® technology. These technologies can now seamlessly integrate within the existing broadcast infrastructure required to reliably and resiliently produce and distribute live top tier sports events.
Supponor’s long term partnership with the NHL has seen its Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED) system integrated into the live broadcast feed to enable the real-time replacement of camera-visible arena advertising boards and placement of dynamic on-ice assets. DED graphics can be displayed during games in a market-specific way, wherever and however the game feed is broadcast, resulting in high-impact and targeted branding and promotional messaging, not previously achievable.
Telstra, whic supports the delivery of NHL content through its Broadcast Operations Centers in Pittsburgh, Sydney and London, also provides the connectivity required to control and deliver this powerful advertising technology. The Telstra Global Media Network (GMN), which underpins the distribution of the League’s multiple feeds from every game to different markets.
James Gambrell, CEO, Supponor said:
“The extension of our partnership with Telstra to bring virtual advertising to more rights owners, their partners and fans worldwide is just part of our continuing strategy of working with global partners. Together we hope to change the way properties and broadcasters interact with global brands in any sport where virtual advertising can form an integral part of the fabric of live sports production and distribution. Having already covered over 1,300 games for the NHL this season, and nearly 1,500 events in other sports from soccer to rugby, we have proven the quality, scalability and agility of our innovation. That, combined with the expertise of partners like Telstra, enables rights owners to potentially generate substantial incremental commercial returns and allows advertisers to connect with audiences in a new and meaningful way.”
Andreas Eriksson, CEO, TBS said:
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Supponor to bring virtual advertising to a wider audience. The success we’ve seen with the NHL, its teams, partners and audiences demonstrates the potential of this technology, and we’re excited to explore its possibilities in other sports around the world.”
Supponor has been the market leader in the virtual advertising industry for the past decade, proven in live broadcast environments in thousands of top-tier sports events worldwide. Supponor AIR®, launched in 2021, is a fully software-based technology platform that relies on leading-edge computer vision approaches, underpinned by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), to deliver authentic virtual placement or replacement advertising live, on any surface, in any sport, at any venue, and in any weather condition. Supponor’s virtual advertising solutions have been trusted by rights holders in top-tier sports leagues across football, hockey, basketball, rugby, cricket and a host of other top sports. Supponor is headquartered in London and has its core R&D base in Helsinki, with regional offices in Barcelona, Milan, Cologne, New York, Toronto, and Sydney. Additional information: www.supponor.com.
Telstra
Telstra is a leading telecommunications and technology company. We offer a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets in Australia, operating the largest mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Globally, we provide end-to-end solutions including managed media networks, managed network services, global connectivity, cloud, voice, colocation, conferencing and satellite solutions. We have licenses in Asia, Europe and the United States and offer access to more than 2,000 points of presence across the globe. For more information visit www.telstra.com
Supponor AIR® Victorious at Sports Business Awards 2022
This award recognises technology in action in, or around, sport which has demonstrated positive outcomes on customer experience or commercial profitability. Cost effective and flexible, Supponor AIR® has made access to AI-based virtual advertising easy for sports clubs, leagues and federations. Supponor AIR® provides rights holders with a flexible and powerful marketing tool to enhance their commercial inventory, providing their sponsors and brand partners with value-enhancing targeted, and global, reach into local markets to increase commercial revenues. The Sports Business Awards judges said this was a brilliant disruptive technology that should shake up in-stadia rights delivery offering truly creative imaginative and targeted solutions.
Across Europe, North America, and Australia, Supponor AIR® has doubled its deployments to 2,500 live sports events this season. This tremendous growth underlines the position as a market leader and rapidly increasing demand for virtual advertising in the sports industry. Recent rights holders signed up to leverage Supponor AIR® for AI-based virtual advertising include the National Hockey League (NHL), which recently debuted Digitally Enhanced Dashboards (DED), and the European Handball Federation (EHF), alongside DAZN and Infront, to deliver virtual advertising at the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 tournament in Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro this month.
The annual Sports Business Awards celebrates the very best in sports business. This year, the awards ceremony took place at the Kia Oval on the 18th of November.
James Gambrell, CEO, Supponor said:
“We are extremely proud that Supponor AIR® has been awarded the prestigious title of Sports Technology of the Year at the Sports Business Awards. This accolade really underlines the impact that our disruptive technology is having in creating more flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective sponsorship advertising in live sports broadcasting, while generating greater commercial opportunities for rights holders. It is a great honour to receive this award alongside so many other innovative sports technology companies, and in front of our industry friends and colleagues.”
EHF, Infront, DAZN and Supponor Team Up for World First Virtual Advertising at EHF events
The European Handball Federation (EHF), its exclusive media and marketing partners Infront and DAZN, and Supponor, the world’s market leader of virtual replacement technology (VRT) have joined forces for the delivery of virtual advertising at the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 tournament in Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro this month.
The partnership, which sees virtual advertising used on the LED perimeter boards on the long-side of the court, is a milestone moment for the sports industry. It marks the first virtual advertising deployment in handball and also the first ever Supponor VRT adoption during a women’s event.
The implementation of this technology has allowed Coolbet, an EHF EURO Official Partner, to target key handball audiences during select number of matches in the main round & final round.
“Coolbet has always been driven by technology”
“The virtual advertising solution offered by Infront and EHF maintains the quality we expect as a partner of the event, easily matching the detail of in-venue LED boards. It was vital for us to ensure we could target our key handball audience during various national team matches and we’re proud to be part of this evolution in sports marketing.”
Endre Nesset, CEO of Coolbet
“The EHF is very proud to be a pioneer in this space,”
“Adopting virtual LED replacement technology for the first time during a women’s sports event and in handball is a landmark moment. Our partnership with Infront and their supplier Supponor demonstrates the increasing commercial value of women’s sports. We are looking forward to continuing such collaborations with market leading partners in their respective fields to expand the commercial potential of our prestigious handball events.”
Martin Hausleitner, Secretary General of the European Handball Federation.
“This is not the first time Infront and Supponor have partnered, this latest project follows our successful collaboration during the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in May this year,”
“When the opportunity arose for us to deploy virtual advertising at the 2022 Women’s EHF EURO, not only was it logical to expand our partnership with Supponor but it also provided an opportunity to expand the commercial options available for sponsors and further enhance our approach to innovation within our partnership with EHF. We are excited to be able to accommodate our partner Coolbet whilst also exploring more options to add value for EHF.”
James Chubb, Head of Handball at Infront.
The plan is to continue to deploy virtual advertising technology for future EHF events, opening up more opportunities for a tailored approach for sponsors looking to target specific markets, with customized messaging.
At Supponor we’re incredibly proud to expand our collaboration with Infront as one of the world’s leading sports marketing agencies, and to add the prestigious EHF to our client portfolio”
“Adding handball as a new vertical is an amazing opportunity, alongside the inaugural deployment of VRT at a major women’s sport event. We are committed as a business to continuing providing our services to enhance women’s sports, handball, and indoor sports in general globally. Our innovative VRT platform, Supponor AIR®, has so far enabled us to scale significantly as a business in the past 24 months. Thanks to the strategic partnerships with world leading sports rights holders, and through the transition to purely software based VRT, often operated completely remotely.”
Massimo Magrì, Managing Director, Europe, Supponor.
Supponor Announces Multiyear Partnership with the NHL to deliver Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards
The DED system allows for the real-time digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within live local, national, and international NHL game broadcasts, ushering in the next wave of innovation to create new opportunities for the League, its Clubs and their media and corporate partners.
Supponor has partnered with the NHL, the premier North American professional hockey league, to develop the DED technology solution, powered by its next-generation Supponor AIR® technology platform, using remote, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based keying technology to augment dasherboard advertising during live game broadcasts by placing dynamic graphics over the camera-visible fully branded arena dasherboards. DED graphics can be displayed during games in a market-specific way, wherever and however the game feed is broadcast, resulting in dynamic and targeted branding and promotional messaging that was not previously achievable.
“Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards will revolutionize the way properties and broadcasters interact with brands across the world, not only in the NHL, but in all sports”
“This has been a significant undertaking for the League, which has included years of developing, testing and readying the technology for League-wide implementation. We are thrilled to partner with Supponor to bring this game-changing technology to life this season and provide increased opportunity and value to our business partners.”
Keith Wachtel, NHL Chief Business Officer and Senior Executive Vice President
“Our long-term collaboration with the NHL has achieved a historic league-wide signage solution. With up to 15 concurrent games in one night and 40 game broadcasts per week during the NHL regular season, it is an ambitious large-scale deployment”
“Working closely with the NHL to develop, test and implement Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards has been the most complex implementation of Supponor’s AIR®, our AI enabled fully software-based virtual signage solution. Our multifaceted platform will support the NHL’s requirements and needs, end-to-end, and will set a new gold standard for other sports. We thank the NHL for their vision, commitment to innovation and collaboration, and we look forward to many more groundbreaking initiatives together shaping the future of sport advertising.”
James B. Gambrell, CEO of Supponor
Supponor’s DED solution for the NHL will allow for never-before-seen dynamic dasherboard branding and messaging featuring URLs, flighted marketing campaigns, co-branded official designations, social media integration, QR codes and more. Additionally, the DED display will be programmable into multiple formats from a single-advertiser full-dasherboard takeover to a split zone format with ten advertisers brands. Among other advantages, the DED system allows for the opportunity for Clubs to provide their corporate partners and advertisers with this valuable exposure in both their home and their away game broadcasts for the first time. Supponor will also manage the League’s Slot Virtual advertising beginning this season and has developed an NHL Content Management System for use by the League and its Clubs to create, approve, manage and report on their playlists for every game broadcast in their markets.
The National Hockey League (NHL®), founded in 1917, consists of 32 Member Clubs. Each team roster reflects the League’s international makeup with players from more than 20 countries represented, all vying for the most cherished and historic trophy in professional sports – the Stanley Cup®. Every year, the NHL entertains more than 670 million fans in-arena and through its partners on national television and radio; more than 191 million followers – league, team and player accounts combined – across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube; and more than 100 million fans online at NHL.com. The League broadcasts games in more than 160 countries and territories through its rightsholders including ESPN, Turner Sports and NHL NetworkMC in the U.S.; Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada; Viaplay in the Nordic Region; and CCTV and Tencent in China; and reaches fans worldwide with games available to stream in every country. Fans are engaged across the League’s digital assets on mobile devices via the free NHL® App; across nine social media platforms; on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio™; and on NHL.com, available in eight languages and featuring unprecedented access to player and team statistics as well as every regular-season and playoff game box score dating back to the League’s inception, powered by SAP. NHL Original Productions and NHL Studios produce compelling original programming featuring unprecedented access to players, coaches and League and team personnel for distribution across the NHL’s social and digital platforms.
The NHL is committed to building healthy and vibrant communities using the sport of hockey to celebrate fans of every race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status. The NHL’s Hockey Is For Everyone™ initiative reinforces that the official policy of the sport is one of inclusion on the ice, in locker rooms, boardrooms and stands. The NHL is expanding access and opportunity for people of all backgrounds and abilities to play hockey, fostering more inclusive environments and growing the game through a greater diversity of participants. To date, the NHL has invested more than $100 million in youth hockey and grassroots programs, with a commitment to invest an additional $5 million for diversity and inclusion programs over the next year.
Supponor to support VfL Wolfsburg in the field of Virtual Advertising
VfL Wolfsburg and Supponor, the world’s leading technology provider in virtual advertising, headquartered in London, have entered into a long-term strategic partnership focusing on the introduction and implementation of virtual advertising.
The objective of the new cooperation is to strengthen and expand the Green-and-Whites’ international sponsorship activities. Aided by the fully software-based Supponor AIR® technology, VfL will be able to virtually multiply the advertising capacity of both rows of LED boards at their Volkswagen Arena home, display specific advertisings for target markets and replace domestic displays with ones tailored to an international market.
By simultaneously dispensing the double TV production, CO2 emissions related to production, transport and logistics can be reduced. Thus, another important contribution can be made towards the ‘Race to Zero’ goal, which VfL has set itself.
“The partnership with Supponor is of particular importance to us, as it not only provides considerable support towards our international activities but underlines our innovation aspirations,”
Michael Meeske, VfL Wolfsburg Managing Director
“We are proud to have won VfL Wolfsburg, one of the pioneers in international marketing, as a strategic partner.”
“Together, we are taking the next step by deploying our fully software-based technology. Supponor AIR® creates new opportunities for the club and its partners to reach national and international fans in a more targeted way with considerably less effort. The result is more flexible, efficient marketing opportunities with a significantly reduced carbon footprint as our contribution with the Race to Zero.”
James B. Gambrell, CEO of Supponor.
Supponor AIR® to be deployed in over 2,500 live sports events in season 2022-23
In the upcoming season 2022-23, Supponor – the market leader in the virtual advertising industry for the past decade – will double the deployment of its fully software-based technology Supponor AIR® compared to last season. Across Europe, North America, and Australia, Supponor AIR® will be deployed in over 2,500 live sports events. This tremendous growth underlines the position as a market leader and rapidly increasing demand for virtual advertising in the sports industry.
Having started with the German Supercup and the English Community Shield on July 30, Supponor already kicked off the Football season with two high-class events in Germany and the UK, followed by several UEFA Champions League qualifier games. Throughout the season, the innovative AI-based technology will be represented in a wide scale of markets globally, including Spain, Germany, Italy, France, US, Canada, and Australia. Across these markets, Supponor AIR® will be deployed at league matches for several elite leagues across the globe including Spain’s La Liga, the Bundesliga in Germany, Italy’s Serie A, Ligue 1 in France, and the A-League in Australia; as well as the UEFA club competitions in Europe.
In the German Bundesliga, Supponor kicked-off the 2022-23 season during the season opening match between reigning UEFA Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt and German national record-holding champions FC Bayern München on August 5th. This was followed by the top match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen a day later. These two games marked the two first matches where Supponor AIR® was commercially deployed in a year which is expected to see the total live produced events by Supponor in Germany at least double compared to Bundesliga season 2021-22.
“We’re looking forward to the start of the 2022-23 season with great excitement. We are proud to support our partner clubs, leagues, and sports federations by providing flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective virtual advertising solutions through our innovative Supponor AIR® technology. With Supponor AIR® we are enhancing the value of marketing rights significantly and offering new commercial opportunities to rights holders in live sports”
James B. Gambrell, CEO Supponor
Supponor AIR® makes virtual advertising easily accessible to sports clubs, leagues, or federations, due to remote production capabilities, significantly lower deployment costs, increased flexibility, multiple supported applications, and more sustainable practices.
Thus, Supponor is able to serve as a host of a wide variety of sports, including football, ice hockey, rugby, basketball, and many more.
