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The sports world has always been at the leading edge of technological progress. Athletes dominate the list of most-followed celebrities across social platforms. Teams and players have used everything from video games to fitness trackers to AI in order to get an edge over their competition. Nothing has shaped the future of TV more than the bidding wars over live events like the Super Bowl or the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. You’ve seen Microsoft’s Surface tablets thrown all over NFL sidelines, VR cameras promising a courtside view of the NBA Finals, and shoes that make marathon runners even faster somehow. From VAR and robotic umpires to hyperrealistic Formula One simulators and league-affiliated esports, the future of sports is as much a story about technology as it is about wins and losses. It’s taking place across sports, across the globe, and at record-breaking speed.

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Richard Lawler
AI responses may include mistakes.

Today’s example is a Men’s Health article on Luka Doncic and his offseason workout routine. Pretty standard stuff, until the claim about a 42-inch vertical leap at the NBA Combine -- big if true, but it’s not, and he didn’t participate.

Nick Angstadt pointed out the error and its likely source, Google’s AI Overview. It carries the above warning, but as we know, many people never click through to the source anyway. The article has since been corrected, but now the AI summary incorrectly cites the original text.

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Jay Peters
Apple is racing toward Formula 1 streaming rights.

At the moment, ESPN has the rights. But Apple has made a made a bid “worth at least $150 million a year to stream the races starting in 2026” and ESPN “isn’t going to try to match or beat that,” Business Insider reports.

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Jess Weatherbed
Apple has a taste for Formula 1.

The Cupertino company is in discussions with ESPN to acquire the Formula 1 broadcasting rights in the US next year, according to The Financial Times, following the success of Apple’s F1 Movie.

Apple TV Plus isn’t the only streaming platform rumored to be throwing its hat in the ring, however — reports from earlier this year also suggest that Netflix has its eyes on the prize, having helped to build US interest in the racing sport with its own Formula 1: Drive to Survive series.

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Dominic Preston
“Human error.”

That’s where Wimbledon organizers placed the blame after the Hawk-Eye electronic line-calling system failed to call a ball out yesterday. It turns out it had somehow gotten switched off.

New to Wimbledon this year, but in place across almost every other tennis tournament, the system’s accuracy has also been questioned by players. A spokesperson says the tournament still has “full confidence” in the tech, the data from which now underpins the sport.

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Richard Lawler
EA Sports is bringing back its college basketball game next.

At the same time that football fans tuned in for a gameplay showcase of CFB 26, EA Sports teased the return of its college basketball series that has been shelved since 2009. There are no other details on the game previously released as NCAA Basketball and NCAA March Madness, just “Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back.”

A report earlier Monday from Extra Points said EA submitted a proposal to the college conferences about plans to release EA Sports College Basketball starting in 2028.

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Elizabeth Lopatto
LeBron James, combat drones and Slate Auto?

Mark Walter is buying majority ownership of the Lakers at a $10 billion valuation, reports ESPN. Walter runs TWG Global, which owns chunks of other sports teams, and also owns a fun grab-bag of other companies, including Shield AI and Slate Auto. LeBron-themed pickup truck when?

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Elizabeth Lopatto
How is Peter Thiel’s all-drug Olympics going?

You may remember, he funded a literal version of a Saturday Night Live sketch. Well, first of all, it turns out shattering world records in sports like swimming is a little more complicated than just adding steroids. But second: The Enhanced Games are a fancy way to sell supplements.

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Thomas Ricker
Garmin Edge MTB.

It’s essentially an Edge 540 in a smaller tougher body that’s tuned for mountain bikers. That means super fast (5Hz) and accurate GPS for navigating your downhill bombs, timing gates to measure splits in real-time, new mounts, and plenty more. DesFit has a preview of Garmin’s new ruggedized $399 bike computer.

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Thomas Ricker
Meta teases Oakley AR glasses.

“The next evolution is coming on June 20,” reads the caption to a teaser video republished by Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. The Oakley x Meta tie-up was first reported back in January as the sporty alternative to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, meant to appeal to cyclists and other outdoor athletes.

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Richard Lawler
EA Sports reveals the CFB 26 cover, but not much else.

After EA’s college football game made a successful return last year, the company is preparing to update it for a new year with another full release due July 10th on PlayStation and Xbox. It’s already trawling for pre-orders for both CFB 26 and Madden 26, despite not revealing details about the new games, saying to check back on May 29th ”...for the full reveal including gameplay details and more.”

Cover art for College Football 26 featuring football players and mascots.
Image: EA Sports
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Richard Lawler
The Buffalo Bills used AI correctly.

When you’re looking for The Answer, there’s only one AI option you can trust.

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Andrew Liszewski
Watch highlights of the very first Formula 1 race, now in color.

It’s been 75 years since the first Formula 1 world championship race was held at the British Silverstone Circuit in 1950. To mark the anniversary, F1 has shared a rare highlight reel of the race (originally called the European Grand Prix) that has been colorized using a mix of AI and manual processes. There’s also an HD version available on YouTube.

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Emma Roth
WWE: Unreal.

Fresh off the heels of Wrestlemania 41, Netflix has revealed a teaser for its WWE docuseries coming this summer. Details about WWE: Unreal are still slim, but Netflix says it will let you “step into the WWE writer’s room and outside the ring with your favorite WWE Superstars, where the drama is just as intense offstage as it is under the spotlight.”

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Richard Lawler
“Still works.”

Says Luka Doncic, talking to ESPN’s Malika Andrews about the iPhone he threw after finding out he’d been traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this year. The back glass is cracked, but Luka is still using it.

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Jess Weatherbed
Meta buddies up with the UFC.

After adding UFC president and CEO Dana White to its board of directors in January, Meta will now serve as the UFC’s first “Official Fan Technology Partner,” and the “Official AI Glasses Partner.” Those totally not made-up titles just mean that more UFC content — maybe even including fights that place Zuck in the ring — will be coming to Meta’s platforms.

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David Pierce
Meet the very latest in baseball bat technology.

The baseball season is only a few days old, and a new “bowling pin” bat has set the game on fire. It’s the result of some fascinating science, and a whole bunch of supply chain optimization:

Bowling pin bats take precision to produce. Every fraction of an ounce in bat manufacturing matters. Bats are measured not only on a standard scale but via pendulum-swing tests. The more balanced a bat, the more it oscillates.

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Richard Lawler
The NBA podcast season is just beginning.

The NBA regular season only has a few games left, but the well-known content creator LeBron James is about to kick off a new season of the Mind the Game podcast.

We’ll see if new co-host Steve Nash can follow in his predecessor JJ Redick’s footsteps to an NBA head coaching job, but I’m also keeping an eye out for the podcast return of NBA analyst Zach Lowe, as he launches his new show with The Ringer / Spotify this week.

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Ash Parrish
Ken Griffey Jr. would be so proud.

Nintendo and the Seattle Mariners go way back. The publisher owned the team from 1992 to 2016 and was responsible for publishing the best baseball game ever played by a shiba inu.

The connection got a little bit closer with the announcement that for the first time ever the Mariners will sport Nintendo logos on their jerseys. Nintendo’s iconic “racetrack” logo will appear on home jerseys while the Switch 2 logo will appear on away kits.

Photo of the Seattle Mariners jersey with the Nintendo ‘racetrack’ logo
Photo of a Seattle Mariners player wearing a jersey with the Nintendo ‘racetrack’ logo
Photo of a Seattle Mariners player holding a bat and wearing a jersey with the Nintendo logo.
1/3Photo: MLB
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Wes Davis
Robinhood debuts a sports gambling hub.

Weeks after the SEC dropped its investigation into Robinhood over possible securities violations, the company announced the launch of a “prediction markets hub” in the app. Robinhood writes:

At launch, the hub will allow customers to trade contracts for what the upper bound of the target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men’s and women’s College Basketball Tournaments.

The company has also offered such trading for the Presidential election and the Super Bowl.

Teeing off at the wildly high-tech future of golf

TGL is a brand-new spin on golf, trying to meld the best of sports with the best of the digital world — including the biggest screen you’ve ever seen.

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Jay Peters
The Sho is on.

Baseball star Shohei Ohtani is joining Fortnite on March 17th.

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Richard Lawler
F1 TV has 4K / HDR streams and a new multiview feature for 2025.

The new F1 season is about to get started in Australia this weekend (you’ve caught up on Drive to Survive right?), and its subscription video package has some changes. For $129.99 per year, the new F1 TV Premium tier adds the above features and a customizable multi-feed view -- Pro subscribers should check out the fan-built MultiViewer app.

Other than the extra cost, the bad news is that availability of the new features is limited. They’re not on Android, or browsers other than Chrome, and 4K / HDR viewing will require Apple TV or Roku for now.