Making Sporting History: EuroLeague Selects Israeli Startup Mindfly To Power First-Person Point of View (FPV) Content From Players

MindFly will fit AI-powered bodycams on EuroLeague players to enable fans to watch, hear, and experience everything their favorite player does while on the court

Groundbreaking technology is now also adopted by Bayern Munich Basketball Club

EuroLeague, Europe’s top tier league for Professional basketball, and Israeli startup MindFly are embarking on an agreement to make sports broadcasting history, as players in the upcoming season will all be fitted with a MindFly AI-powered bodycam during games. For the first time, fans will be able to watch, hear, and experience everything their favorite player does while on the court.

Kicking the season off, two to three players will be wearing the bodycams during matches. Using this footage, MindFly’s cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) system will create First-Person Point of View (FPV) highlights for Euroleague social channels. Euroleague is planning to convert this content into non-fungible tokens (NFT), which it will be sold to Euroleague fans.

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MindFly recently signed a similar agreement with Bayern Munich Basketball club, where the club’s players will wear the bodycams during training sessions. The behind-the-scenes content will be used on its social platforms and later possibly sold as NFT.

“MindFly’s FPV solution will transport fans right into the court during matches and training sessions and deepen the relationships between fans, players, clubs and leagues”, says Alex Ferrer, Euroleague’s Senior Director, Marketing and Communication. “We’re proud to to offer such a stupendous innovation to our fans”, he added.

“Finally, we’ve found an AI First Person Point of View solution that’s 100% safe, 100% wearable and 100% invisible,” says Marc Bertomeu, EuroLeague Innovation Manager, quoting feedback from professional players across several teams in the Euroleague, that have trialled MindFly’s solution since October 2021.

MindFly was founded in early 2021 by two serial entrepreneurs, Eran Tal, MindFly CEO, and Yehuda Elmaliach, MindFly CTO. No stranger to the video industry, Eran previously founded and ran startups Evrideo, Goopi.tv, and Individual.tv. Yehuda was co-founder and CTO at Optibase, which floated on Nasdaq and reached a market cap of half a billion dollars. He also co-founded Mobixell and served as its CTO, an Israeli startup which was sold to Flash Networks.

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To date, MindFly, which employs 8 employees in Tel Aviv and Barcelona, has secured $1.7 million in seed funding. Its private group of investors is spearheaded by Lior Alkan, who manages the M-Fund Club, a boutique private investor club and has made early investments in some of Israel’s highest growth startups, including Zesty and GrowthSpace.

MindFly uses AI powered bodycams and an AI cloud platform to provide a seamless, automated, end to end solution, from recording, through processing and delivering HD, Pro quality, fully stabilized ready-made video highlights, to every digital and traditional media end point. The solution is offered for every sport and from any court, without any need for additional crew or infrastructure.

“Our message to the clubs and players is ‘you wear the vest, we do the rest’, and today MindFly creates new and exciting content for all sports fans, which did not previously exist,” says Eran Tal, MindFly co-founder and CEO. “We are currently in advanced negotiations to sign agreements with several clubs and top football leagues in Europe and with several major broadcasters. We will extend our partnerships globally in the coming year, focusing on clubs, leagues, and top broadcasters in Europe and the US.”

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“Led by Eran and Yehuda, two experienced entrepreneurs who exude passion and creativity, MindFly doesn’t only set itself apart through innovation, but also through the incredible market potential its groundbreaking ideas offer,” says Lior Elkan, Managing Partner of M-Fund Club. “Both Eran and Yehuda previously founded successful companies, and both have the prerequisite technology and business experience for MindFly. These facts are setting MindFly on a path to success. Their ability to quickly move a complex idea into development and adapt the product to a target market is phenomenal.”

The system currently broadcasts selected video clips from key moments of games and training, and soon it will broadcast full games in real-time. The solution is adapted to all media channels, including social media, NFT, OTT, websites, D2C apps, and television on all devices, including televisions, mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.