Veritone focuses on federations with AI-driven video marketplace SPORT X

Veritone has launched SPORT X, a marketplace for federations and other producers to showcase and monetise their short-form video content by connecting them with media buyers.

ATP Media, Euroleague Basketball and Extreme E are among the early adopters of the platform, along with sports news video outlet SNTV which will include content from this year’s World Cup in Qatar, including press conferences, stadium profiles, fan zones, game reviews and profiles of all 32 teams taking part in the tournament.

SPORT X at Veritone managing director Elizabeth Eastham said: “Our goal is to connect global sports content owners with a network of media buyers in a highly accessible sports content exchange, using AI that will continue to learn buying and selling patterns from both sides of the marketplace.

“This is an opportunity for sports content producers to maximize the monetization of their digital assets and at the same time reach new audiences and grow their sport’s footprint.”

Eastham said Veritone started building the platform a year ago. “Federations are all producing shortform content, but they don’t always have full visibility of it. When they are in the thick of an event, production cycles can be pretty tight; SPORT X enables them to monetise their content and understand how and to what extent that content resonates with buyers.

“What really differentiates SPORT X from other platforms is the marrying of buyers and sellers; Veritone’s AI technology allows for the discoverability of content which gives buyers the ability to find the content they need.”

SPORT X is powered by aiWARE, Veritone’s proprietary enterprise AI platform which serves as the foundation for all of the company’s AI applications.

SPORT X’s analytics dashboard provides information on how content is performing with buyers and where it is being sold so that sellers can optimise their content strategy accordingly.

“Through AI, we are able to deliver personalized and contextualized content recommendations in real-time. Data points from the available media are married with buying history, territory, platform, event and athlete preferences to create a unique feed for buyers. This efficiently speeds up the search for relevant content, saving time for buyers and allowing sellers to scale content opportunities and generate even more revenue.”

There is no upfront fee for federations and video suppliers. Pricing, which is set by the rights holder, will be dependent on the usage type, content and region. Rights clearance by the owner is established at the time of ingesting the content, which can be updated whenever available. Sellers can also geo-block content they do not wish to license in certain territories.

Veritone President Ryan Steelberg added: “SPORT X provides a supplementary revenue stream and new global customer base for producers of sports content and short-form video globally.

“This is another innovative step for the company and comes on the heels of last week’s announcement of our AI-voice partnership with sports data and tech leader Stats Perform as we move deeper into the sports space as a business.”

Last week, Veritone announced a strategic partnership with Stats Perform to provide real-time play-by-play, pre-game, in-game and post-game updates. The partnership combines the company’s synthetic voice AI technology and Stats Perform’s Opta sports data to bring localised, AI voice capabilities to content creators, media organisations, brand agencies, teams, leagues and betting platforms around the globe.