Microsoft signs deal to power Premier League's AI tools
Microsoft Corp has signed a cloud computing deal with the Premier League, a pact that will let the software company tout its AI technology to a captive audience of sports fans.
A five-year "strategic partnership' will see the UK football league, the world's most watched, migrate its "core technology infrastructure' to Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing service, the company and league said in a statement on July 1. The Premier League's mobile apps and website will feature an artificially intelligent chatbot powered by Microsoft's AI services, as will the league's fantasy games.
"This is the future of football,' Microsoft UK chief Darren Hardman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "It's data-driven drama, it's smarter stats, it's deeper stories, it's a better connection of the fan to what's going on.'
He and Will Brass, the Premier League's chief commercial officer, declined to discuss the financial terms of the deal.
Oracle Corp previously provided cloud-computing services to the league, but the arrangement expired at the end of the season earlier this year.
Technology and sports marketing tie-ins are a crowded field, particularly in global football. Microsoft's Copilot brand is the sponsor for Beyond Stats, a service that provides game and team analysis for fans of Spain's top football division, La Liga. The stats that pop up during Germany's Bundesliga are festooned with the Amazon Web Services logo.
Such deals are prized by technology companies because sports is the rare entertainment that people still watch live. In the 12 years since Microsoft struck a deal with the National Football League to place its tablets in the hands of team coaches, the tech industry has looked for creative ways to go beyond plastering their brand names on league signage. – Bloomberg
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