Capgemini brings together technology start-ups and George Washington University to drive engagement with rugby in North America

Kadho Sports and Blippar were selected by Capgemini’s Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) following a competition that invited companies to show how technology can enable rugby coaches, athletes and fans to engage more deeply with the game. George Washington University’s rugby program will be working with the companies to test and eventually use the technology in training and game situations.

“The George Washington University is proud to be a part of the Scrum7 competition, hosted by Capgemini,” said Aubre Jones, Recreational Sports Director, George Washington University. “Both start-up companies, Kadho Sports and Blippar, have been a pleasure to work with and have come up with new, innovative technology that will eventually be used to teach and promote the sport of rugby here in the United States and potentially around the world.”

Irvine, Calif.-based Kadho Sports combines science and technology to improve athletes’ gameday performance. The neuroscience-based technology helps athletes make faster, more accurate decisions when it matters most. It is competing in the “Performance” category, which is focused on using new tools and processes to improve the performance of sports teams.

In the “Experience” category, Blippar, based in Mountain View, Calif., provides business tools and solutions using augmented reality, computer vision, artificial intelligence and visual search technologies. In this section, companies are focused on enhancing sporting audiences’ experience at a venue and across broadcasting platforms.

The two companies recently finished a mentoring day at Capgemini’s New York City AIE and spent two days at George Washington University applying their technology in the rugby environment.

“We’re extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with Capgemini to build cutting edge tools to further rugby globally,” said Yasuto Suga, President, Kadho Sports. “The access to mentoring, a dedicated athletics program and the experts at Capgemini is a unique experience unlike any product development process we could have ever created ourselves.”

“Blippar is honored to be a part of an event like Scrum7,” said Daniel Camargo, Vice President, Business Development, Blippar. “We’re looking forward to a great competition with other like-minded startups working on fan engagement where we can learn, develop and perfect our technology platform in a real-world environment.”

Kadho Sports and Blippar will face off against international participants during the final competition May 24-26 in Paris at Vivatech, a conference for start-ups and leaders to celebrate innovation.

The winners will then travel to San Francisco in July to participate in the Applied Innovation Exchanges Week being held in conjunction with the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup and to attend an innovation event, held at Capgemini’s San Francisco AIE, where they will get an opportunity to engage with World Rugby.

“Capgemini’s Scrum7 contest gives us the unique opportunity to explore the real benefits that innovative technology solutions can bring to the game of rugby for the benefit of players, coaches and sports fans,” said Joe Boggio, Vice President, Applied Innovation Exchange, Capgemini. “Kadho and Blippar demonstrate what Capgemini’s AIE is all about – tangible and useful application of technology that can bring immediate benefits, to players, coaches or the fans. We call it Applied Innovation.”  

About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of 200,000 team members in over 40 countries. The Group reported 2017 global revenues of EUR 12.8 billion (about $14.4 billion USD at 2017 average rate).

Visit us at www.capgemini.com. People matter, results count.