Hardest punch? Most head punches in Round 4? These are all potential in-play bets you could be placing shortly if the new STRIKR technology succeeds in changing boxing forever.
At the moment boxing is rife with controversial decisions and opinions, but these could all become a thing of the past, while at the same time, opening up a huge new range of betting options that have never before been available to boxing fans.
The problem with boxing is it is scored by humans, and in a fast, flurry of punches, objectively viewed by humans, at the very least you are going to get differences in scores, at worst, huge mistakes. STRIKR aims to eradicate all of that, according to Sky News, by embedding sensors into fighters’ mouthguards and using HAWK-EYE type tech to keep a, well hawk-eye on what punches are being thrown when, and more importantly, what lands cleanly.
Scores of prospective investors in the tech are due to attend the alpha test of STRKR at an event in Central London this week in an attempt to raise at least $50 million in an initial funding round.
From what we know of STRIKR it will work by using AI (no surprise there) combined with technology from Hawk-Eye Innovations and Protecht to generate more than 3,000 points of data about each punch thrown by a fighter.
According to Sky, people close to STRIKR say the technology could track the exact trajectory, speed and force of punches, leading to an opening of a vast array of in-fight betting opportunities we simply do not have right now.
With a leadership team including Michael Sutherland, former chief transformation officer at Real Madrid, Greg Nugent who was involved in marketing the London 2012 Olympic Games and Stephen Duval, founder of sports and entertainment corporate finance group 23Capital and creator of Superset Tennis and Superfighter, the launch comes at a time when boxing is changing.
Dana White’s UFC and TKO Group recently announced a new Saudi-backed international boxing league as big-time boxing looks to move continents to the desert and away from the Las Vegas strip.
Duval told Sky News, “STRIKR is a new format of boxing that uses world-class technology to generate real-time objective scoring.
“It will create a different approach to fighting, using a new format, enabled by new technology, to engage the existing audience and attract a new one, to the benefit of the market overall.”
With an official launch rumored for May, we could see the first competitive STRIKR events in the US and UK next year. We expect to see some exhibition fights before the year is out. STRIKR fights are expected to be free to air, on platforms such as YouTube, with the betting possibilities greatly expanding the revenue and surpassing struggling PPV viewing figures. We have already see the kinds of audiences Misfits fights attract socially. Traditional boxing is started to struggle to compete with influencers who aren’t even boxers.
In much the same way the T20 format changed cricket, introducing the IPL, Big Bash, and The Hundred, boxing as we know it is under pressure like never before.
Change is coming to The Sweet Science.
