NBA: Sacramento Kings embrace tech with Glass, Bitcoin

MANILA, Philippines – The Sacramento Kings are going Glass.

Western Conference NBA team Sacramento team up with technology company CrowdOptic to equip the Kings with Google Glass for their game against the Indiana Pacers on Friday, January 24 (Saturday in the Philippines).

The move aims to give fans an ‘enhanced’ experience of the game.

Some team members tried the Glass during warmups.

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USA Today reported players, cheerleaders and announcers will be sporting Google’s computing eyewear. Players will be wearing them during warmups, but not during the game.

The Kings are not the first NBA players to use the Google Glass. Back in October, All Star center Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers had one on in an interview after practice for the NBA Global games in the Philippines.

CrowdOptic is a company that uses wearable and mobile devices to gather data which they use on various products including Sports broadcasting and analytics, content curation, focus aware marketing, and others.

Sacramento’s move is a clear indication of majority team owner Vivek Ranadive’s “NBA 3.0” philosophy – using technology to create new experiences for his team and the fans.

Bitcoin payment

Last week, The Kings became the first professional sports team to accept virtual currency after announcing that fans may now pay to watch games live using Bitcoin.

Fans will be able to use Bitcoin for tickets and team merchandise starting March 1, using the so-called cryptocurrency’s payment processor BitPay.

“With BitPay, we are able to implement a technology that allows our fans to make Kings-related purchases without physically reaching into their wallets,” Ranadive said in a statement.

The Kings are currently outside of the playoff picture with a 14-25 win-loss card. They were dropping games early in the season but started to make some headway after making a trade for athletic forward Rudy Gay. – with reports from Agence-France Presse/Rappler.com