Attendance at a sports event these days means the smell of popcorn, the roar of a crowd and robust Wi-Fi connectivity in a stadium filled with tens of thousands of smartphone-carrying fans. The first two experiences are a given; the last one takes some work.

Ericsson’s Peter Linder and SAS Institute’s Jenn Chase talk with theCUBE how their companies have collaborated on tech solutions in the sports world.

The 5G connected venue is one of many solutions provided by Ericsson AB, in concert with data management software and services provider SAS Institute Inc. It’s a challenge that requires sophisticated technology and creative solutions in a continually evolving environment where fan interest and business operations place huge demands on the network.

“What has happened very much over the last five years since we first connected a stadium with 5G is to evolve the fan experience,” said Peter Linder (pictured, left), head of thought leadership-North America at Ericsson. “More recently, we have had a private network component of it, where you can also support payment terminals and all the different business operations that take place at the venue. It’s sophisticated networks growing pretty much year over year for new things.”

Linder spoke with theCUBE’s Paul Gillin and Scott Hebner at SAS Innovate, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Jenn Chase (right), chief marketing officer and executive vice president at SAS Institute Inc., and they discussed how Ericsson and SAS have collaborated on tech solutions in the sports world. (* Disclosure below.)

Maximizing data for sports

In April, SAS announced an expanded partnership with the Orlando Magic, a men’s professional team in the National Basketball Association. Employing the SAS Viya data and AI platform, the Magic intends to use data for optimizing ticket sales forecasting and identifying key factors behind successful fan engagement, according to Chase.

“They have one of the most sophisticated data warehousing strategies that we see and, as a result, they’re able to just bring on new use cases because they can leverage that data,” she said. “They do an almost Spotify-like year-end wrap-up campaign to their season ticket holders, so they get to see the Magic’s experience and performance for games they [attended]. That’s really sophisticated.”

In-stadium networks must also be able to accommodate the needs of television partners broadcasting to millions of fans around the world. Broadcast cameras are now 5G connected, which requires providers such as Ericsson to balance capacity at the venue for virtual private networks.

“We connect professional TV cameras so you don’t have two guys running around with a cable behind the cameraman,” Linder explained. “You can connect the cameras over 5G today, but that means you have to have a consistent bandwidth. When we talk about network slicing or the ability to provide a virtual private network, it’s that we take part of the capacity and use it so it doesn’t interfere with the fan traffic. There are … a lot of new capabilities that are introduced in the network.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of SAS Innovate:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for SAS Innovate. Neither SAS Institute Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

At Athletech’s first-ever industry-wide event, hundreds of executives, founders and innovators gathered in NYC to chart a new course for the future of fitness of wellness

The ATN Innovation Summit 2025 was held this week in New York City, bringing together the brightest minds and best brands across fitness, wellness, health, technology and more for a two-day celebration of the industry’s growth – and a critical look ahead at its future potential. 

Nearly 1,000 people attended the groundbreaking event, including founders and C-suite executives, PHDs and doctors, and partners at top consulting and financial firms. 

The content on offer included over 80 speakers spread out across 31 sessions, featuring multiple keynote addresses, one-on-one fireside chats with top CEOs and plenty of lively panel discussions. More than 25 brands activated on site, with products spanning the latest in fitness tech and equipment, cutting-edge wellness and longevity tools, and new-age nutrition and supplements.  

Energy and excitement were palpable throughout the event, whether you were taking in content on the main stage and breakout stage, trying out new products in the Wellness and Innovation Lounges, or networking with colleagues over food and drinks. 

In case you missed the event – or just want to relive it – Athletech News breaks down five key takeaways from the Innovation Summit 2025, with an eye toward what each means for the future of fitness and wellness. 

Fitness Isn’t Just ‘Fitness’ Anymore

The fitness and wellness industry is growing fast, and its convergence with sectors including healthcare, consumer technology and hospitality was on full display at the Innovation Summit.

“When I look out right now, I don’t just see fitness brands,” ATN founder and CEO Edward Hertzman said during the Summit’s opening remarks. “I see doctors, I see wellness operators, I see tech founders, real estate executives, med spas, apparel execs, data scientists, hotel groups and consulting firms.”

Hertzman closed his speech with a thought-provoking question that set the tone for the rest of the event.

“What do we even call ourselves anymore?” he said. 

Whatever your answer to that question, one thing is clear: fitness and wellness are hot right now. This presents incredible opportunities for the industry’s established players and startup brands alike, but it also means competition is high as blue-chip companies including Amazon, Walmart and Apple look to profit off the rising global demand for well-being.

AI Is Going ‘To Change Everything’

The rise of artificial intelligence was a key theme throughout the Summit, with tech executives, data scientists and gym operators all pointing to the need for brands to thoughtfully and strategically integrate AI into their offerings – or risk getting left behind forever.

“If you get any heebie-jeebies about AI and what’s coming next, you should, because AI is going to change everything,” Sports Innovation Lab co-founder and CEO Josh Walker proclaimed during Day One’s keynote address. 

Walker, whose firm analyzes data for sports and media companies including the NFL and ESPN, said that in order to thrive in the era of AI, fitness and wellness brands must invest in data and consumer insights. 

“If you don’t know your customer you can’t talk to them. … And AI is all about having a conversation,” Walker said. 

Fitness and tech executives also sought to dispel rumors that AI will make humans obsolete.

“AI won’t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace humans who don’t,” said Rose Minar, the chief marketing and experience officer for Snap Fitness/Lift Brands. 

Fritz Lanman, the CEO of Playlist (parent brand of Mindbody, ClassPass and Booker) believes AI will supercharge the businesses and executives that properly harness the power of this new technology. 

“It’s really amazing, but it’s not going to fully replace humans,” Lanman said of AI. “What it is going to do is empower and democratize the ability to do really deep and incredible analytics, really great personalized marketing and things like that to help businesses … grow and be more effective.”

“I see us heading toward an age of human augmentation, not substitution,” he added. 

Women’s Health Is Now a Priority, But More Progress Is Needed

Executives, doctors and scientists took the stage during the Innovation Summit to discuss the rise of women’s health. Their central message: women’s health is becoming a bigger priority, but entrepreneurs and medical professionals need to take further strides to ensure they’re meeting the unique health needs of women while overcoming institutional biases that tend to prioritize males over females in science. 

“Hormonal health is finally having the moment it deserves,” said Melissa Knowles, vice president of global key accounts for software provider ABC Fitness. “Not (every woman) will be a mother, but everyone will go through menopause.”

Women are all-in on strength training, a phenomenon that many speakers noted – and praised – during the Summit. 

“95% of our women want strength training,” noted CorePower Yoga chief marketing and commercial officer Sarah Choi. “When we launched Strength X, it was one of our most successful new launches. … Women no longer just want low-impact workouts.”

Dr. Frank Lipman, a functional medicine pioneer and founder of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center, said he’s encouraged that women’s health is becoming a bigger focus in mainstream medicine. However, he added that a lot of work still must be done to overcome gender biases. 

“As physicians, we don’t take women as seriously as men,” Dr. Lipman said. “If men can’t get erections, there’s a drug, but if women have pain during sex, they’re just getting older.”

Gyms & Connected Fitness Brands Embrace Technology

Another hopeful message from the Summit is that the world’s top gym operators and connected fitness brands are investing in technology to make working out more fun, effective and social. 

Peloton’s chief product officer Nick Caldwell identified software innovation as a key priority for the brand moving forward.

“We have to go beyond offering just what we see on the leaderboard, high fives and hashtags,” Caldwell said. “That’s a great starting point, but our members crave more and we see that through communities being created on external platforms, like Facebook (and) Twitter, where hundreds of thousands of our members are trying to find ways to come together, share fitness tips and support each other.”

See Also

Brick-and-mortar fitness brands are also going all in on tech. 

Richard Idgar, chief operating officer for fast-growing gym chain EoS Fitness, shared that EoS has been using EGYM’s new gamification tech inside of its clubs to great effect. 

“That is very appealing to a lot of demographics in our gyms, where there is a leaderboard, and they’re competing … against themselves, other members, even other gyms,” Idgar said.

Nicholas Barshick, the co-founder and chief operating officer for Chuze Fitness, envisions a Chuze app that creates personalized workout and nutrition plans based on an individual member’s goals:

“It would be amazing if we could get a GPT integrated into our app that is trained on our club layout and knows exactly what equipment we offer,” Barshick said. “You’ve got a new member that’s like, ‘Yeah I love 5Ks and I want to put on five pounds of muscle’ – and it delivers a custom plan.”

Fitness & Wellness Is a Hospitality Industry 

Hospitality is becoming increasingly intertwined with fitness and wellness in the post-COVID world. 

During a panel titled, “The 5-Star Effect: Elevating Wellness Through Hospitality,” executives and operators made the case that we’re entering a new age in fitness and wellness that’s centered around human connection, person-to-person relationships, and, perhaps most importantly, “feeling good.”

“We’re back into the human connection chapter,” declared Mark Rivers, the CEO of wellness resort Canyon Ranch.

Meanwhile, luxury hotel brands are adapting to the rise of wellness tourism by offering guests more options focused on fitness, recovery and general well-being. 

“It’s probably the newest trend we’re seeing. … There’s a huge demand now for hotels focused on wellness and longevity,” said Barak Hirschowitz, president of the International Luxury Hotel Association.

Sleep is a key driver of the wellness revolution that’s happening inside luxury hotels across the world. Shafi Syed, global head of hotel development and acquisitions for Equinox Hotels, noted that Equinox has partnered with sleep scientists to improve the way its guests rest and recover.

Other hotels are making similar investments, per Hirschowitz. 

“Travelers found that when they were leaving hotels, they were worse off,” the ILHA president said. “Now, we want you to leave better.”

This story includes additional reporting from Courtney Rehfeldt, Collin Helwig and Elizabeth Ostertag.

Be sure to stay tuned to Athletech News’ website, newsletter and social media accounts for more coverage of the Innovation Summit 2025, including in-depth breakdowns on panel discussions and one-on-one fireside chats. And be on the lookout for more information about next year’s event. 

“Dr. Zuckerberg embodies the kind of forward-thinking, cross-disciplinary expertise we value deeply,” said Andy Katz, Managing Partner of Katz & KO. “He’s not just an innovator in clinical practice—he understands how technology can transform outcomes, markets, and lives. As we expand our engagements and investments into health tech, sports medicine, and performance-driven care, Ed’s insights will be invaluable.”

For many, fitness trackers have become indispensable tools for monitoring how many calories they’ve burned in a day. But for those living with obesity, who are known to exhibit differences in walking gait, speed, energy burned and more, these devices often inaccurately measure activity – until now.

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new algorithm that enables smartwatches to more accurately monitor the calories burned by people with obesity during various physical activities.

The technology bridges a critical gap in fitness technology, said Nabil Alshurafa, whose Northwestern lab, HABits Lab, created and tested the open-source, dominant-wrist algorithm specifically tuned for people with obesity. It is transparent, rigorously testable and ready for other researchers to build upon. Their next step is to deploy an activity-monitoring app later this year that will be available for both iOS and Android use.

People with obesity could gain major health insights from activity trackers, but most current devices miss the mark.”

Nabil Alshurafa, associate professor of behavioral medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Current activity-monitoring algorithms that fitness trackers use were built for people without obesity. Hip-worn trackers often misread energy burn because of gait changes and device tilt in people with higher body weight, Alshurafa said. And lastly, wrist-worn models promise better comfort, adherence and accuracy across body types, but no one has rigorously tested or calibrated them for this group, he said. 

“Without a validated algorithm for wrist devices, we’re still in the dark about exactly how much activity and energy people with obesity really get each day – slowing our ability to tailor interventions and improve health outcomes,” said Alshurafa, whose team tested his lab’s algorithm against 11 state-of-the-art algorithms designed by researchers using research-grade devices and used wearable cameras to catch every moment when wrist sensors missed the mark on calorie burn.

The findings will be published June 19 in Nature Scientific Reports. 

The exercise class that motivated the research

Alshurafa was motivated to create the algorithm after attending an exercise class with his mother-in-law who has obesity. 

“She worked harder than anyone else, yet when we glanced at the leaderboard, her numbers barely registered,” Alshurafa said. “That moment hit me: fitness shouldn’t feel like a trap for the people who need it most.”

Algorithm rivals gold-standard methods

By using data from commercial fitness trackers, the new model rivals gold-standard methods of measuring energy burn and can estimate how much energy someone with obesity is using every minute, achieving over 95% accuracy in real-world situations. This advancement makes it easier for more people with obesity to track their daily activities and energy use, Alshurafa said.

How the study measured energy burn

In one group, 27 study participants wore a fitness tracker and metabolic cart – a mask that measures the volume of oxygen the wearer inhales and the volume of carbon dioxide the wearer exhales to calculate their energy burn (in kilocalories/kCals) and resting metabolic rate. The study participants went through a set of physical activities to measure their energy burn during each task. The scientists then looked at the fitness tracker results to see how they compared to the metabolic cart results.

In another group, 25 study participants wore a fitness tracker and body camera while just living their lives. The body camera allowed the scientists to visually confirm when the algorithm over- or under-estimated kCals.

At times, Alshurafa said he would challenge study participants to do as many pushups as they could in five minutes. 

“Many couldn’t drop to the floor, but each one crushed wall-pushups, their arms shaking with effort,” he said, “We celebrate ‘standard’ workouts as the ultimate test, but those standards leave out so many people. These experiences showed me we must rethink how gyms, trackers and exercise programs measure success – so no one’s hard work goes unseen.”

The study is titled, “Developing and comparing a new BMI inclusive energy burn algorithm on wrist-worn wearables.”

Other Northwestern authors include lead author Boyang Wei, and Christopher Romano and Bonnie Nolan. This work also was done in collaboration with Mahdi Pedram and Whitney A. Morelli, formerly of Northwestern. 

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Even when you’re right there in the stadium, it can be challenging to keep up to speed with everything going on in a football match as a spectator.

Was that yellow card justified? How close was that shot on goal? Should that have been a penalty? These are all questions football fans will most likely have shouted out at one time or another.

But what if there was a way to get right into the action, as if you were standing on the football pitch itself, from the comfort of your own living room? 

That’s where FootAR comes in. This free app, available on iOS and Google Play, overlays real-time data such as player statistics and game analytics onto a digital recreation of the football pitch using augmented reality.

Fans can analyse the most significant moments in a live game from multiple angles and enjoy an accompanying audio commentary. It’s a social experience too, with users able to vote in polls and share their favourite match moments.

Since its launch last year, the app has seen considerable success and a healthy number of downloads. Two notable Portuguese media organisations, GMG (Jornal de Notícias) and SportsMultimedia (VSports), have even gone so far as to integrate it into their broadcast coverage.

The app, which has been developed with co-funding from Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), was also recently recognised with the “Best Application of the Year” award at the VRAR Expo in China, highlighting FootAR’s appeal to audiences worldwide.

David Olim, CEO of FootAR – which is part of the eGames Lab consortium, a unique cluster of over 22 Portuguese companies and organisations focused on games development and the creative industries – recently chatted to PocketGamer.biz about where the inspirations for FootAR came from, what the award win meant to them, and plans for the future. 

Pocketgamer.biz: What did winning “Best Application of the Year” at VRAR Expo China mean to you?

David Olim: Being recognised in the XR space is a strong endorsement of what we’ve built with FootAR. It reminded us that we’ve not just created something amazing, we’ve added value for fans and brought something fresh to the table. Quite literally, I’d argue, because we use the camera to place virtual objects.

Getting this recognition from a competitive and tech-savvy market like China has also been a tremendous validation. It opens doors and shows that our product has global potential, helping us build key partnerships, attract local interest and better understand user behaviour in one of the world’s most advanced mobile ecosystems.

What helped FootAR stand out is how it naturally blends into the live sports viewing experience. We set out not to distract from the game but to enhance it.

Mixing real-time stats, interactive elements and personalised views over a live match created a unique synergy between viewer and content that has caught audiences’ attention commercially and professionally.

How has your membership as part of the eGames Lab consortium contributed to the success of FootAR?

Our affiliation with eGames Lab granted us access to some of the most brilliant minds in gaming and technology. Their expertise has helped us fine-tune our platform’s engagement mechanics, enabling us to create familiar yet innovative experiences for mobile users.

 It has also opened up collaboration opportunities that would otherwise have been unavailable. As leaders in the immersive reality vertical at eGames Lab, we must remain at the forefront of this technology, as this demonstrates that we are on the right path as a consortium.

What inspired you and your team to create FootAR?

We were inspired by how people consume sports today, especially younger audiences who expect more control, interaction and personalisation. We saw a gap between traditional broadcasting and modern fan behaviour, and designed FootAR to make watching sports more dynamic and participatory. 

For example, imagine you’re at the bar with your friends or have responsibilities that mean you can’t watch the match on TV for whatever reason.

When a team scores, FootAR sends a notification straight to your phone. When clicked, you get a visual representation of the player movements, ball trajectory, and more. With our AR feature, you can even reproject that moment from the match right in front of you.

What were some of your team’s biggest technical or design challenges while building FootAR?

One of the main challenges was designing a user interface that delivers rich, real-time data without cluttering or overwhelming the user’s environment.

We had to devise ways to make live sports more exciting without taking people’s eyes off the action, while also considering that every user has different tastes. For example, we decided to include some humorous options to appeal to younger users, like the ability to substitute player avatars for panda-like characters. 

Casual fans use FootAR for quick and easy insights that make watching better without needing to do anything complicated.

But hardcore fans go way deeper. They often look at detailed stats, personalised views and interactive elements to analyse the game as it’s happening. Historical data is also vital for them as they use it for multiple purposes, including generating informed live bets. 

Ensuring consistent performance across different devices and network conditions was also important. But above all, we wanted to ensure that we created an exciting and intuitive experience with which fans of all ages want to engage.

Did you take any pointers from mobile games while designing FootAR? 

Implementing gamification features so the user feels part of the action instead of being passive is central to the FootAR experience.

Examples of this gamified environment can be found on the XR version of our platform, where minigames pop up at specific times, with the purpose of fans finding specific objects in the 3D environment that award points for a leaderboard. Those kinds of activations are crucial to engagement.

What are the wider opportunities for FootAR’s technology, like licensing it to sports organisations, media companies, or game developers?

FootAR’s technology has much potential, and not just for live sports broadcasts. In the media, for example, the fact that FootAR generates the environment based on data rather than relying directly on a broadcast means they can offer views from any live event without the need to acquire multi-million-dollar licences.

Also, integrating these interactions into the iGaming environment can help create an emotional connection with people who might not otherwise engage with certain events.

Considering the rapid evolution of AR/VR, what are the biggest commercial challenges and opportunities you anticipate in the next few years?

AR and VR are moving fast, which is great, but also a challenge because we need to ensure the tech is easy to use and appeals to everyone.

There are also fantastic opportunities to team up with different industries and develop fresh and thrilling ways for users to have new experiences.

 We’re passionate about creating solutions that can evolve and adapt as this fast-changing market keeps shifting and being improved by the ever-evolving hardware. It’s an exciting time to be in this space.

Finally, what’s next for FootAR ?

For one, we’re launching a special edition of FootAR tailored for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

We’ll collaborate with the biggest media in Portugal to enhance this tournament by generating a live 3D replica of the events available on the clients’ ecosystem, including online media and TV. We’re pretty excited to grow this interaction from specific tournaments to make this a new sports standard. 

We’re also exploring how FootAR can cover multiple sports alongside football. This is being made possible thanks to not only the environment we create as a business but also to the partnerships we have in place.

These include collaborating with the number one sports data platform provider, which guarantees we can deliver data safely and reliably to our user base.

• Yes, Samsung is considering a premium subscription tier for Samsung Health
• This is no rumor – it was confirmed in an interview with Samsung’s Head of Digital Health
• Advanced coaching features would be included free in new watches, while being locked behind a paywall for older models

In these cash-strapped times, none of us enjoy paying more than we have to. When our best streaming service prices go up, we grumble, even though more films and TV are added all the time.

Likewise, if we buy a device such as one of the best smartwatches, and previously we’ve been able to use all its features for free, we don’t like being charged a monthly subscription for future ones.