Genius Sports Brings Second Spectrum to ESPN’s NCAA Coverage

Genius Sports will work with ESPN to ensure that the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship receives proper coverage. A step in this direction is the introduction of optical tracking technology and various augmentation that will elevate the experience and create new opportunities for participants, businesses, and fans.

Second Spectrum to Elevate the Telecasts During NCAA Women’s Basketball Events

Genius Sports is deploying its Second Spectrum division which was previously made available to the NBA’s G League venues. The tool will help create better video feeds and collect data that can be then used for various initiatives.

ESPN will be able to tap into different data feeds and benefit from Second Spectrum’s powerful visualization software to drive engagement and many special effects that elevate the broadcast and viewing experience but also increase inherent value for the teams participating in those events, their coaches, the players, and any business looking to invest.

Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke welcomed the opportunity to be deploying the Second Spectrum solution and help ESPN elevate the March Madness and NCAA Championships. Locke believes that the use of Second Spectrum would benefit all sports that are played by women in the world.

Numerous companies have been coming up with ways to engage sports fans and pull them into the March Madness season.

College Sports Data Is Important Asset

Genius Sports’ own augmentation solutions are a way to elevate ESPN’s traditional telecasts and offer a much more engaging representation of the on-field action. Commenting on this partnership, ESPN VP of sports business development & innovation Kevin Lopes said:

“Expanding our relationship with Second Spectrum to support the Women’s Tournament and their fans is another exciting first for us. The augmented feeds for the NCAA Women’s Final Four and National Championship game will provide fans with an exciting viewing option that leans into innovative stats and visuals.”

ESPN VP of sports business development & innovation Kevin Lopes

Genius Sports has seen a strong fourth-quarter revenue as reported by the company earlier this week. The company went even further and signed a partnership with the NCAA’s Mid-American Conference, opening the sluicegates for college sports data commercialization.

While the NCAA itself objects to such partnerships, the deal with MAC is arguably avoiding any conflict of interests. If so, this means that collegiate sports conferences can make good use of their most important – data, which could be shared with sportsbooks who would pay well to have the data sets directly from the source and offer tailored markets to sports bettors in the United States and beyond.