The Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 will finish this week with a true technological flourish as the FC Barcelona vs. Laboral Kutxa Vitoria game on Thursday will become the first ever in European basketball to generate content on Google Glass.
This latest facet of an ongoing collaboration between Euroleague Basketball and University of La Salle in Barcelona will offer fans a view of the game that they never had before, using as a platform the eyewear computer that is Google Glass.
The next step in the collaboration will be to bring Google Glass to the 2014 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four from May 16 to 18 in Milan, Italy.
“New technologies are providing sports organizations with new opportunities and new ways to communicate with the fans,” Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Euroleague Basketball’s Brand & Communication Director, said. “This partnership with the University of La Salle will allow Euroleague Basketball to explore the possibilities with the Google Glass, experimenting with new tools for basketball professionals and new ways of getting the fans closer to the action and to its stars.”
Fans will be able to see the action from Thursday’s game through the eyes of the protagonists: players, coaches and referees.
In marking objectives for their partnership, Euroleague Basketball and University of La Salle are pursing ways in which technology can help develop the sport and new means of interaction with fans.
This game is the first of different test projects that will help both entities understand the possibilities for building new technology applications for both professionals and fans in the future.
Under the Euroleague Basketball and La Salle partnership, started in 2012, the university’s students of engineering and business collaborate in common projects between the two entities as they look for synergistic opportunities to apply technology and also meet social goals in the world of sport.
At the same time, Euroleague Basketball finds La Salle Campus Barcelona to be a perfect partner under the Euroleague Basketball Institute umbrella to continue a strategy of developing professionals in the business of sport.
“We’re grateful to our partner, Euroleague Basketball, for the opportunity to implement this pilot project in such a high-profile competition,” Chris Kennett, director of the Undergraduate Business School at La Salle-Ramon Llull University, said. “Professional sports have always been a testing ground for cutting-edge technologies and the Google Glass is no different. This is a technology that will change the way we live, and sports such as basketball will be at the heart of its development.”
