A bird's eye view of Jerusalem's Old City from the top of the Tower of David Museum was the setting for a unique meeting on Thursday that merged history, Israeli sport hi-tech innovation and the NFL.
Houston Texans star quarterback Deshaun Watson received an overview of the Israeli sport tech industry from Jon Medved, CEO of equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd.
“Athletes that have access to the best technology will be at an unfair advantage,” Medved told Watson. “The computer is going to tell you, here are the weaknesses [of the other team on the field]. There’s no stopping this from taking over.”
Medved told the NFL star that he was not as interested in Watson’s investment, but rather his input. “The input from sports players such as yourself will give us an advantage as to how we continue to develop products,” he said.
The market for global sports technology is expected to triple in size over the next six years and Israeli tech is a key driver of such growth, according to . Israel’s rapidly growing sports tech community uses developments in elite army units (using AI, computer vision and machine learning) all of which directly apply to sports.
OurCrowd is building a sports fund to further develop the advancing tech.
“What people used to perceive as low-tech, like sports tech, that’s what it’s all about these days,” he said.
Watson traveled throughout the country last week with his trainer, Quincy Avery, and a documentary film crew. His trip was co-sponsored by America’s Voices in Israel.“It’s definitely a life-changing experience for you to really feel the energy of Israel and especially Jerusalem... It’s made my spiritual side a lot stronger,” Watson concluded.