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Gauging Professional Sport Biometric Data Privacy Concerns | Foley & Lardner LLP

This article was originally published in Law360 on May 15, 2025, and is republished here with permission. In today’s data-driven sports industry, teams, leagues and sponsors increasingly rely on biometric and performance data to enhance player performance, prevent injuries and optimize contract negotiations. Such data collection often includes highly sensitive physiological and health information that […]

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This article was originally published in Law360 on May 15, 2025, and is republished here with permission.

In today’s data-driven sports industry, teams, leagues and sponsors increasingly rely on biometric and performance data to enhance player performance, prevent injuries and optimize contract negotiations. Such data collection often includes highly sensitive physiological and health information that goes beyond mere statistics, prompting additional ethical and legal considerations.

However, this growing reliance on highly sensitive data raises significant legal and privacy concerns, particularly in light of evolving biometric privacy laws like the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA,[1] as well as other consumer privacy and data protection laws at the state and international level that impose heightened requirements on the collection and processing of biometric data, including several U.S. state consumer privacy laws and the European General Data Protection Regulation.[2]

Professional sports leagues and their respective clubs that utilize biometric and performance data should be aware of these risks, as well as of other related legal and regulatory considerations, and the measures they can take to help minimize their exposure to potential liability.

In addition, these organizations need to be mindful of the various implications that their reliance on biometric and performance data can and will have on contract negotiations with athletes, and the issue of data ownership. These critical aspects surrounding the collection and use of biometric data in professional sports today, and how they are likely to evolve, are examined below.

Player Monitoring and Biometric Data Collection

Hypothetical

A star football player consents to wearable technology usage for injury prevention. Over time, the system collects data indicating a higher-than-normal risk of certain muscle tears. The club’s medical staff and coaching personnel have access to these metrics, which prompts the player’s agent to worry that this information might reduce the player’s contract value. The league, meanwhile, points to the health benefits of preemptive care.

This scenario illustrates how both parties — player and team — can benefit from early detection, but also sets up a possible dispute over how such predictive data could negatively affect negotiations.

Analysis

Professional sports organizations leverage cutting-edge technologies such as wearable devices, motion-tracking systems, and artificial intelligence-driven analytics to collect and analyze player biometrics, including heart rate variability, sleep cycles, hydration levels and muscle recovery patterns.[3] The promise of these tools is clear: improved training, better gameplay strategies and enhanced player health management.

However, while these innovations are designed to optimize performance and provide unparalleled insights into player conditioning, long-term potential and health, they also introduce substantial privacy risks. The data collected can reveal personal and sensitive information about an athlete’s physical and mental state, including fatigue levels, injury risks and overall fitness.

The improper handling or any unauthorized access or misuse of this data could have severe repercussions for players’ careers and reputations, as well as invite legal disputes. For instance, publicizing data that highlights an athlete’s performance decline could damage their marketability, leading to fewer endorsement deals or public scrutiny. In addition, this data could be used against players in situations where their performance drops due to injury, age or fatigue — putting them at a disadvantage both on and off the field.

BIPA and similar state laws impose stringent restrictions on the collection, storage and use of biometric data. Under BIPA, for example, organizations must obtain explicit, informed consent from individuals before collecting their biometric identifiers, provide clear notice regarding data usage and retention, and implement robust security measures to protect the integrity of such data.

Washington[4] and Texas[5] have also enacted biometric privacy laws that, while not as far-reaching as BIPA, impose obligations on entities collecting biometric data.

Washington’s law mandates that entities inform individuals about biometric data collection and obtain consent, while Texas’ statute prohibits the sale or disclosure of biometric data without explicit permission.

In addition, with legislative trends pointing toward heightened data privacy considerations, a number of other states are considering enhanced biometric privacy protections, signaling a steady trend toward stricter regulations nationwide.

League Policies on Biometric Data

As illustrated below, major U.S. professional leagues have taken steps to define the scope of biometric data usage in player monitoring, reflecting growing awareness of data privacy concerns at the league level.

  • The NFL implemented rules in 2020 allowing teams to collect biometric data, but restricted how it can be used in contract negotiations;
  • The NHL is currently updating its collective bargaining agreement to require player consent prior to using their biometric data collected during games or practices; and 
  • The MLB established policies in 2020 granting players the ability to review and control access to their biometric data.[6]

Obtaining consent is an important first step, but it only addresses the immediate issue of unauthorized data collection. It does not account for the ongoing or long-term use of that data, such as how it might be shared, stored or used in negotiations years after it was originally collected.

In addition, consent agreements are often complex and may be signed under duress, with players feeling pressure to comply in order to secure their place on the team.

As biometric tracking becomes more embedded in sports science, leagues will likely continue refining their policies to balance competitive advantages with player privacy rights. Future iterations of the policies may include language addressing the use of anonymization or pseudonymization, as well as restrictions on data sale or licensing to third parties.

Data Ownership and Usage Rights

Hypothetical

A basketball franchise invests in a proprietary performance analytics platform. The player’s data is shared with third-party sports medicine providers for treatment recommendations. Midseason, the player is traded, but the franchise retains full access to the athlete’s historical biometrics — even after the athlete has joined a new team.

Disputes arise over whether the athlete can request deletion of older data, whether that data can be retained by the former team and used as a competitive advantage, or whether the former team can profit from aggregated datasets that the team uses in broader commercial ventures.

Analysis

Determining who owns the data collected from athletes is a complex and sometimes controversial legal issue. This is especially prevalent in the context of biometric and performance data, which have direct implications for salary negotiations, injury risk assessment and market valuation.

Does the data belong to the athlete, the team, the league or the technology provider? Clear contractual agreements are essential to outline data ownership and usage rights, preventing potential disputes and ensuring fair use of athlete information.

CBAs play a pivotal role in defining the extent of biometric data usage in professional leagues. For example, in 2017, the National Basketball Players Association has negotiated provisions regarding the collection and use of wearable technology data, ensuring that players retain specific rights over their personal biometric information.

As biometric tracking becomes more advanced, future CBAs will likely refine these protections further.

Legal and Regulatory Considerations

Beyond BIPA, Washington and Texas laws, other state and international regulations affect how leagues, clubs, and teams collect and use biometric and performance data in professional sports. Below are some notable examples.

U.S. State Consumer Privacy Laws

Currently, there are 20 states that have enacted consumer privacy laws — some of which are already in effect — while others become effective later this year or next.[7]

Biometric data is considered sensitive data under all of these laws, which expand their respective protections to residents of those states — including athletes — by either: (1) requiring covered businesses to provide specific notice and obtain consent before collecting or processing biometric data or identifiers from those individuals, as is the case under most state consumer privacy laws; or (2) granting individuals additional rights, such as the ability to limit the use and disclosure of their biometric data to only those purposes that are expressly permitted by statute.

Interestingly, unlike BIPA, which does not explicitly require that consent be freely given prior to collecting and processing individuals’ biometric data or identifiers, nearly all state consumer privacy laws enacted to date have adopted a similar definition of consent to mean a clear affirmative act signifying an individual’s freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous agreement.

Given the power imbalance between athletes and sports organizations, there are concerns about whether consent can truly be freely given. If an athlete must provide their biometric data to be eligible for competition, can their consent truly be considered voluntary?

In addition, contrary to BIPA, several state consumer privacy laws require entities that collect and process biometric data for their own or commercial purposes to perform a risk assessment that is designed to help organizations identify, analyze and minimize the privacy risks associated with their data collection, use, retention and disclosure practices. This is also known as a data protection impact assessment.

With that said, the requirements associated with data protection impact assessments vary by state.

General Data Protection Regulation

European professional sports leagues, teams and clubs, as well as athletes, particularly those competing in international leagues or events, likely fall under the jurisdiction of the GDPR, which imposes strict data protection and privacy requirements on the processing of biometric data, classified as a sensitive form of data under the law.

For example, entities must have a lawful basis to process such data before they can do so, such as (1) obtaining explicit consent from European athletes, which is similar to how consent is defined under state consumer privacy laws; or (2) if the processing is necessary to fulfill employment obligations or exercise specific rights, as long as it’s authorized by relevant domestic law or collective agreements with appropriate safeguards for the European athlete.

GDPR-regulated organizations processing European athletes’ biometric data must implement robust security measures, provide transparency regarding data use and facilitate data subject rights such as access, rectification and erasure, unless an exception applies.

In addition, since biometric data is considered a sensitive type of data under the GDPR, entities that are subject to it must also carry out a data protection impact assessment prior to processing such data.

Key Takeaways for Professional Sports Organizations

Real-Life Scenario

In an international soccer league, teams adopt real-time biometric monitoring for performance optimization. Players agree to share data with medical staff, coaches and nutritionists. However, the league’s sponsors — which produce the wearable devices — start requesting anonymized and aggregated data for their own research and development.

Some players fear commercial exploitation and question how truly anonymized such data can be. Ultimately, the league’s regulatory body may be required to negotiate stricter anonymization protocols on behalf of the players and league, but the controversy highlights how easily data may cross boundaries once it is collected.

Analysis

As biometric and performance data collection grows more sophisticated, stakeholders in professional sports must navigate an increasingly complex legal landscape to ensure compliance and protect player rights.

In addition to legal obligations, ethical considerations around fairness, consent and athlete welfare are equally pressing. Professional sports leagues and teams implementing comprehensive policies around wearable tech and data privacy is crucial to safeguard athlete rights. Below are some best practices to consider.

Obtain explicit, informed consent.

Ensure athletes understand exactly what data is being collected, how it will be used and who will have access. Consent forms should detail any potential data-sharing with third parties and specify any monitoring beyond training and games, as well as conform with any related requirements under applicable privacy laws. Emphasize that athletes can revoke consent or request data deletion where permitted by law.

Limit monitoring to relevant times.

Restrict data collection to training and competition settings to respect athlete privacy during personal time. Clear policies should outline specific circumstances in which ongoing monitoring is justified and limit unnecessary data collection.

Secure data against misuse.

Implement strong data security measures to help prevent unauthorized access to and/or use of biometric and performance data.

Set clear expectations with third-party providers.

Require third-party vendors that process biometric and performance data on your behalf to comply with applicable data protection laws and establish data security measures that protect against unauthorized access to or use of such data.

These agreements should explicitly outline the vendor’s privacy and security responsibilities, as well as offer broad indemnification rights to the contracting league and/or team if the vendor’s mishandling of the data leads to a security incident.

[1] 740 ILCS 14/1 et seq. (Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act), available at https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3004.

[2] Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng.

[3] Jen Booton, Analyzing Movement and Biometrics in Sports, Sports Business Journal (Jul. 29, 2020), available at https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2020/07/30/Technology/biometrics-sports-athletes-performance-injury-prevention/ (subscription may be required).

[4] Wash. Rev. Code § 19.375.010 et seq. (Washington Biometric Privacy Protection Act), available at https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=19.375.

[5] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. § 503.001 et seq. (Texas Capture Or Use Of Biometric Identifier Act), available at https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/bc/htm/bc.503.htm.

[6] Nick Fustor, MLB Approves Use of Device to Measure Biometrics of Players, Fox Sports (Mar. 2020), available at https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/mlb-approves-use-of-device-to-measure-biometrics-of-players. Tom Friend, Biometrics Language Evolving with Each New CBA, Sports Business Journal (Aug. 1, 2022), available at https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/08/01/In-Depth/Biometrics (subscription may be required).

[7] International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), US State Privacy Legislation Tracker (Last Updated Apr. 7, 2025), available at https://iapp.org/resources/article/us-state-privacy-legislation-tracker/.

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Smarter, safer workouts with a wearable fitness tracker

Do you need a little extra inspiration to be more active throughout the day? Or perhaps you’re wondering if your workouts are challenging enough to optimize your cardiovascular health. And if you have any type of heart disease, you’ll want to be sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard during vigorous physical activity. […]

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Close-up of a person's hands holding a smartphone showing a health tracking app.

Do you need a little extra inspiration to be more active throughout the day? Or perhaps you’re wondering if your workouts are challenging enough to optimize your cardiovascular health. And if you have any type of heart disease, you’ll want to be sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard during vigorous physical activity. For each of these situations, a wearable fitness tracker may be a worthwhile investment, especially when you consider that exercise is widely considered the best medicine — not just for your heart but for your overall health.

You may already own such a device, as most smart watches include a range of fitness tracking features alongside their other functions. Other options include wrist-worn bands and smart rings that focus primarily on health and fitness tracking.

“The information these wearables provide is measurable, meaningful, and motivating,” says Dr. Sawalla Guseh, director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s like having a goal-setting coach with you around the clock,” he says.

Long-term monitoring may also alert you to heart problems, says Dr. Guseh. “I had one patient who didn’t feel chest pain or related symptoms, but he noticed his exercise performance declining over time. It turned out he had coronary artery disease,” he says.

Features to watch

Here are some of the features on wearable fitness devices that are worth checking out.

Stand or move reminders. Many wearables feature customizable notifications — a message on the watch face or a sound or vibration — to remind you to stand up and move around for a short period of time to break up long stretches of sitting. Even dedicated runners need to avoid being sedentary throughout the day to keep their hearts healthy, says Dr. Guseh (see “Stand up for your heart” in the June 2025 Heart Letter).

Daily step counts. Although you’ve likely heard that 10,000 steps per day is a good goal, that number was based on a Japanese marketing scheme and not actual data. Recent evidence finds that a lower number — anywhere from 4,000 to 7,000 daily steps — is linked to improved heart health. A smartphone (provided you carry it with you most of the day) can give a close estimate of your daily step count, but a wearable will be more accurate. Data from your smart watch automatically syncs with your smartphone, and most have apps that display trends in your step counts and other exercise data over weeks, months, and years.

Heart rate zones. Wearables make it easier to assess your exercise effort with heart rate zones, which classify how intensely you’re exercising by measuring your heart rate. The zones are based on your maximum (or peak) heart rate (MHR) — an estimate of the upper limit of what your cardiovascular system can handle during physical activity. A commonly used formula for MHR is 220 beats per minute minus your age, but you should consider this a ballpark figure, since factors other than age are at play.

Different wearables have varied numbers of heart rate zones, although five is typical. Zones 2 and 3 are generally thought to correspond to moderate-intensity exercise, while zones 4 and 5 correspond to vigorous-intensity exercise. But because they’re not individualized, they may not be accurate for everyone, Dr. Guseh notes. Ideally, you should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, or 75 minutes or more of vigorous-intensity exercise, or an equivalent combination every week.

Heart rate recovery (HRR). This value reflects your heart’s ability to return to its normal, resting pace after you stop exercising. It’s the difference between your peak heart rate during exercise and your heart rate at a set time after you stop (typically one to two minutes). A value of 20 beats per minute is considered good, and higher is even better.

Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max). This value is the maximum amount of oxygen a person can use during intense exercise. It can be measured directly when a person runs on a treadmill with an oxygen mask in a lab. Some wearables estimate it based on an algorithm that uses data such as your MHR, HRR, pace, weight, and sex. VO2 max is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular health. “The absolute number may not always be accurate, but the trends can be useful. If your VO2 max rises over time, that’s a strong sign your training is improving your fitness,” says Dr. Guseh.

Heart rate variability (HRV). This value is a measure of the variation in time between heartbeats — differences that are just fractions of a second. More variability (a higher value) suggests better heart health, because it reflects the heart’s ability to respond quickly to rapid changes occurring throughout the body. Most wearables report this value, but there isn’t a recommended target because it varies widely depending on your age, sex, fitness level, and medical history. However, it can be useful to track trends in your HRV over time. HRV often falls after a period or stress or illness but then bounces back — a sign that you’re good to go back to exercising, says Dr. Guseh.




Exercising after a heart disease diagnosis

Anyone who’s had a heart attack, heart surgery, or other heart disease diagnosis should attend cardiac rehabilitation, a personalized program of supervised exercise and heart-healthy lifestyle coaching. It starts with an exercise stress test, which involves closely monitoring your heart during exercise to tailor an effective yet safe exercise program for you.

“Cardiac rehab is a tried-and-true method of helping people get back into shape, with a standardized protocol that works well for most people,” says cardiologist Dr. Sawalla Guseh, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. However, people who were previously exercising at higher intensities and therefore quite fit may get bored at cardiac rehab because it’s too easy for them, he says. If that’s the case for you, consider requesting a referral to a sports cardiologist, who can provide more rigorous and detailed testing and advice, including a specific heart rate threshold you should be careful not to exceed.



Image: © Oscar Wong/Getty Images



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Asset Class: Polymarket Beats Probe

Heat guard Terry Rozier remains under federal investigation for suspicious gambling behavior during his time with the Hornets, his attorney confirmed to Front Office Sports.  The news was first reported by longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes after ESPN’s Shams Charania caused confusion during a June appearance on The Pat McAfee Show by saying Rozier “as […]

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Heat guard Terry Rozier remains under federal investigation for suspicious gambling behavior during his time with the Hornets, his attorney confirmed to Front Office Sports

The news was first reported by longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes after ESPN’s Shams Charania caused confusion during a June appearance on The Pat McAfee Show by saying Rozier “as of right now has been cleared,” and “there’s nothing really active with him right now.” Charania also said during the appearance that an NBA spokesperson had issued a statement the day before saying the league was cooperating with federal prosecutors: “This is a federal matter now,” Charania said.

Following Charania’s comments, it was widely reported that Rozier was off the hook for betting-related allegations. But that’s not the case. Rozier was embroiled in two separate but related investigations, one from the NBA and another from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. A person familiar with the matter tells FOS that Charania was referring to the NBA’s investigation. 

In January, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said the league “did not find a violation of NBA rules” through its investigation into Rozier, although he added “we are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”

Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told FOS in an email that if and when Rozier is cleared in the federal probe, it’s unlikely even Rozier himself will be informed: “Federal investigations can take years to complete, and the government rarely lets the subject of an investigation know whether or not they have been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing.”

Trusty also said “to date, Mr. Rozier has not been charged with any crimes, nor has he been characterized by prosecutors as a target.” He added that the NBA cleared Rozier in 2023, “and we hope and expect that the prosecutors in EDNY will reach the same conclusion this year.”

Rozier’s current status comes weeks after Pistons guard Malik Beasley became the third-known player to be tied to a gambling investigation. Beasley is under investigation by the Eastern District of New York—the same office involved in the Rozier probe—for gambling allegations related to NBA games and prop bets during the 2023–24 season when he played for the Bucks. Former Raptor Jontay Porter was banned for life by the NBA in April 2024 after he “disclosed confidential information about his own health status” to a bettor who then used the information to gamble on Porter’s play. 

Status With the Heat

After The Wall Street Journal first reported Rozier was under federal investigation on Jan. 30 for alleged point shaving related to games when he was with the Hornets, he played the next game for the Heat against the Spurs. 

“His status is still the same,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said the day after news of the investigation broke.

The NBA has not taken any action against Rozier, and the league declined to comment further than what Bass had said in January.

Rozier is set to earn $26.6 million next season with the Heat in the final year of a four-year, $96 million contract he signed with the Hornets in 2021. Rozier has yet to be waived, released, or traded since it was reported he was under investigation. He is eligible to play for the Heat for the time being.

Link to Other Investigations? 

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the investigations into Rozier and Beasley on Tuesday after meeting with the league’s Board of Governors and said the NBA is cooperating with federal authorities. 

“I think we’re combining a few different investigations,” Silver said. “I would say any ongoing law enforcement efforts we are, of course, cooperating with and those investigators have resources at their disposal that a league office doesn’t when we do investigations, so we’re cooperating in every way.”

The investigations of Porter, Beasley, and Rozier have all been undertaken by the Eastern District of New York. Porter was charged, while Beasley and Rozier have not been. Rozier’s and Porter’s cases appear to be linked, according to the WSJ, but it’s yet to be confirmed if Beasley’s is too, or if it’s separate. 

Silver was one of the biggest early advocates to legalize sports gambling and on Tuesday he reiterated that it was the right decision, but expressed frustration that sports betting hasn’t been made legal on the national level (sports betting is legal in 38 states). 

“What we’re seeing now in some of the investigations you’re referencing is operational data, which causes in many cases, betting companies or independent agencies who are overseeing this betting activity to raise flags and say, ‘What’s happening here?’” Silver said. “I think the issue is if you didn’t have that legalized structure, what would otherwise be going on that went undetected?”





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Imagine Communications Sharpens Focus on Sports, Live Events Market

DENVER—Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its product portfolio and in its staff. As part of that effort, it has promoted of Jimbo Haneklau to vice president of sales, sports and live events and the hired of Sophee Mink […]

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DENVER—Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its product portfolio and in its staff.

As part of that effort, it has promoted of Jimbo Haneklau to vice president of sales, sports and live events and the hired of Sophee Mink to the newly established position of business solution associate, sports and live events.



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OPPO Targets Health Tech Sector With X2 Mini Smartwatch

OPPO is introducing the Watch X2 Mini, a compact wearable device that integrates continuous health monitoring and professional-grade fitness tracking. The device will be available in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the European Union, the Middle East and Africa. It will be launched in Mexico at MX$6,199 (US$330.6). “The OPPO Watch X2 Mini brings intelligent wellness tracking […]

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OPPO is introducing the Watch X2 Mini, a compact wearable device that integrates continuous health monitoring and professional-grade fitness tracking. The device will be available in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the European Union, the Middle East and Africa. It will be launched in Mexico at MX$6,199 (US$330.6).

“The OPPO Watch X2 Mini brings intelligent wellness tracking to a smaller form factor without compromising capability,” says the company. OPPO is positioning the device as both a consumer fitness product and a personal health management tool. It supports over 100 exercise modes and offers biometric monitoring features intended to provide early indicators of physical and emotional stress.

Equipped with 24-hour heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, the device applies proprietary algorithms to deliver continuous data collection and risk assessment. A multidimensional sleep monitoring system tracks rest quality, and analyzes respiratory patterns to flag potential disruptions, contributing to early detection efforts in sleep-related conditions. The device includes a new “Mind and Body Evaluation” that aggregates HRV, resting heart rate, activity level, and sleep metrics to present an overview of emotional and physical fatigue.

The Watch X2 Mini also integrates features typically associated with clinical-grade wearables, such as fall detection (configurable manually) and menstrual cycle tracking. These functions support user-led health management in daily environments, with visual feedback provided through customizable animated watch faces designed to encourage behavioral change.

OPPO has expanded its data capabilities with a Pro Running Mode that tracks running form metrics — such as ground contact time, stride length, and lateral balance — used in physiotherapy and sports science. A new Fat Burn Evaluation tool enables users to maintain real-time heart rate within optimal zones for weight loss, a function aligned with evidence-based training practices.

The hardware architecture uses dual chipsets — Snapdragon® W5 and BES2800BP — to toggle between Wear OS and a power-saving RTOS mode, extending battery life up to 60 hours in standard usage. Fast charging via Watch VOOC Flash Charging provides a full day of use after 10 minutes of charging.

Additional integrations include Google Wallet for contactless payments, Google Maps for real-time navigation, and YouTube Music for offline playback. The device is also expected to support Gemini, Google’s generative AI assistant, in future updates—suggesting deeper potential for personalized health insights.





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NFHS announces corporate partnership with Game Day Signals | Sports

LEXINGTON — The NFHS has announced a new three-year corporate partnership with Game Day Signals as the Official and Exclusive Baseball and Softball Coach-to-Catcher Electronic Communication Device Partner of the NFHS. This partnership marks a significant milestone in enhancing communication, reducing sign-stealing, and streamlining game flow for high school baseball and softball programs across the country. Game […]

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LEXINGTON — The NFHS has announced a new three-year corporate partnership with Game Day Signals as the Official and Exclusive Baseball and Softball Coach-to-Catcher Electronic Communication Device Partner of the NFHS.

This partnership marks a significant milestone in enhancing communication, reducing sign-stealing, and streamlining game flow for high school baseball and softball programs across the country. Game Day Signals’ cutting-edge wearable technology allows coaches to send pitch calls and strategy instructions directly to catchers using an encrypted, wireless communication system—replacing traditional hand signals with a faster, more secure method.

“We are excited to partner with Game Day Signals, a recognized leader in the electronic communication system industry, to enhance the communication tools available to our high school baseball and softball programs across the country and further our commitment to equipping coaches and teams with the latest game-enhancing equipment,” said Chief Executive Officer Karissa Niehoff. “This partnership represents an important step forward in empowering teams with innovative solutions that streamline in-game communication.”

“This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our shared commitment to equipping coaches and teams with cutting-edge tools to enhance in-game communication,” said Erica Beers, President & CEO of GameDay Signals. “We have always viewed the NFHS as an ideal partner, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with them. This partnership reinforces our mutual dedication to innovation and the continued evolution of coaching strategies.”

Game Day Signals’ easy-to-use system has already been embraced by teams nationwide for its simplicity, reliability and ability to reduce confusion on the field. The NFHS partnership will help bring this innovation to more high school teams while reinforcing best practices for communication and sportsmanship.



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The Intriguing Reason Why Windsurf’s Remains Were Snapped up so Fast

A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations. I call these transactions “acquihires on steroids,” and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you’re a Big Tech company, you can’t do big acquisitions […]

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A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations.

I call these transactions “acquihires on steroids,” and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you’re a Big Tech company, you can’t do big acquisitions as easily anymore because of antitrust scrutiny. So, instead, you pay handsomely to hire the top talent and license the technology, leaving the remaining business and employees to soldier on alone.

Crucially, Big Tech is not technically acquiring these startups, so the deals are not subject to the same antitrust rules. Depending on who you ask, the attorneys who devised this way to avoid the spirit of US law should either be awarded a Nobel Prize for business or imprisoned.

Remains of the prey

I’m not here to judge that. I’m focusing on what happens to the remains of these startups — and why the latest example, Windsurf, differs from the rest of these big, gnarly acquihires.

OpenAI planned to buy Windsurf for $3 billion. The deal fell apart, and instead, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire Windsurf cofounder Varun Mohan and other senior researchers and purchase a Windsurf license.

For a day or so, it looked like the remaining Windsurf business and staff would be cast to the wind, so to speak. Similar acquihires of Inflection, Character.ai, and Scale AI have left the remains of those startups floundering. For instance, an unprofitable Scale AI cut hundreds of jobs this week after Meta hired away its CEO, Alexandr Wang, in a $14 billion deal.

A different outcome for Windsurf

Windsurf’s story took a different turn. Another AI startup, Cognition, quickly snapped up the Windsurf remnants. Why? The answer relates to one of the main ingredients for success in generative AI: data.

You need AI talent, for sure. This is the main reason Google paid so much for a handful of Windsurf leaders and researchers. You also need infrastructure, including GPUs, data centers, and huge amounts of electricity. Tech giants spend hundreds of billions on that.

The third ingredient, data, is less talked about. That’s because AI companies don’t want to pay for data, so they pretend it’s not that important. Yet data is crucial for AI model development, and it’s a real reason the remains of Windsurf were bought so swiftly.

The IDEs of July

Windsurf’s main product is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDEs are coding tools installed on developers’ computers — a bit like PowerPoint for writing software. They have become the go-to interface between professional programmers and their code.

When Cognition CEO Scott Wu announced the Windsurf deal this week, he described the main assets he’s getting — and put Windsurf’s IDE at the top of the list. He wrote that combining that product with the “rapid adoption” of its AI software engineering assistant, Devin, will be a “massive unlock.”

Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang highlighted the same point, saying the combination of Congition’s autonomous coding agents with Windsurf’s IDE will lead to “breakthrough developer experiences.”

Unique, granular data model fine-tuning

IDEs are valuable in AI because they provide a massive stream of unique, granular data on how human developers write, fix, ship, and update software code, said Armando Solar-Lezama, a distinguished professor of computing at MIT.

“This is why you’re seeing so much dealmaking activity around some of these startups,” he told me in an interview this week.

Big Tech and AI companies aim to make AI models really good at coding. Solar-Lezama said that one way to stand out is to use the data from IDEs in the post-training phase of AI model development.

At a high level, building AI models involves two main stages:

The first is pretraining, where tech companies vacuum up all the data on the internet and use it in huge training runs so the models learn a general understanding of how the world works. Everyone has already stripmined the web for this information, so there’s not much advantage to be gained here in the AI race anymore. It’s table stakes.

Then comes the second stage, known as post-training, that fine-tunes AI models and polishes away bad behavior while giving them their distinctive style. This is where things differ from company to company, and you get custom, proprietary approaches, Solar-Lezama said.

“All these companies, once they have exhausted all the data on the internet, there’s no second internet to mine for data. They are all hunting for alternative data sources,” he said. “One of the big advantages of IDE companies like Cursor and Windsurf — they have access to a rich stream of data that some AI model providers don’t get to see directly.”

An IDE provider like Windsurf can see every keystroke and every time programmers run their code, as well as how they run it and how they debug it, through the IDEs installed on developers’ computers.

“This provides unique access to a lot of information about what people are doing with their code, versus just what they might enter into the prompt box of a more simple coding website — that’s a lot less,” Solar-Lezama said.

The big AI companies often provide the underlying models that power IDE products. For instance, Anthropic models mostly power Windsurf’s IDE. However, these AI labs may have access to less detailed coding data.

“IDEs have a level of granularity that’s impossible to get any other way,” Solar-Lezama said.

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@busienssinsider.com.





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