The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has confirmed a strategic investment in a new technology venture.
Called Dataworks Technology, the collaboration with its former creative data agency We Are Sweet will centralise and process live performance data. The objective is… ‘to power broadcast visuals and fan-facing screen experiences.’
The Dataworks Technology platform has been built to discover and visualise stories from sports performance data. Featuring AI analyses, incoming feeds in realtime help to identify meaningful moments within the raw data. These moments are combined into narratives and visualised to engage and inform fans.
The platform is ‘ingest-agnostic’ and can take inputs from historical, live and biometric data sources. All data is centralised and processed in the cloud, allowing for consistent, scalable and flexible distribution.
Designed for scale, Dataworks can deploy unified HTML graphics across multiple formats, including broadcast, altcast, dashboards, social media, fan apps and venue screens.
Originally developed for the T100 Triathlon World Tour, the investment by PTO (for an undisclosed sum) will help Dataworks to scale its real-time AI capabilities.
From overtakes to sustained efforts under pressure, live metrics such as heart rate, power, and speed are captured, analysed, and visualised in real-time by the Dataworks platform. These insights give commentators and production teams the tools to turn raw data into compelling stories that enhance fan engagement.
The PTO has taken an equity stake in Dataworks as a co-innovation partner. PTO adds that it recognises that… ‘this technology will ultimately become ubiquitous across all sports, starting with endurance, but equally essential for team sports, combat, motorsport, esports, and even darts or snooker.’
James Haigh, CTO of Dataworks, said “We’ve been piloting live data with the T100 for two seasons and have been making significant progress.
“Backing from the PTO now allows us to focus entirely on building a platform that transforms performance data into real-time stories for fans, not just in triathlon, but across any sport.”
Mark Bettels, COO of the PTO, added “All sports have the potential to tell incredible stories of human performance, overcoming huge adversity and staying cool under unimaginable pressure – but sometimes these key moments are missed, because no-one’s pointed them out and really explained them.
“Dataworks will be able to identify and contextualise these moments for casual and veteran sports fans alike and help them follow the action in much greater depth. This will not only elevate the viewership experience, but also help inspire participation by making the action more relatable and impressive. We are thrilled to partner with the Dataworks Technology team on this journey.”
T100 storytelling example
During the Singapore T100 women’s 2024 race, Dataworks uncovered a head-to-head battle between British stars Lucy Buckingham and Lucy Charles-Barclay. Buckingham led the pack, pushing at 98% of her maximum heart rate, while Charles-Barclay, maintaining a more sustainable 86%, trailing just 6 seconds behind.
The live data not only highlighted the intensity of the chase but also predicted the inevitable overtake by Charles-Barclay, giving fans deeper insight into the unfolding drama.
The technology already powers the T100 Triathlon Live Data Dashboard, which is available at t100triathlon.com/live/ and features extra information on T100 races – including pivotal moments in the races, such as lead changes, fastest discipline times, penalty information and more.
This is alongside the live leaderboard, which shows key data such as splits to leader, groups, speeds, positions gained and heart rate effort.
www.t100triathlon.com
www.protriathletes.org
www.dataworks.live
