The app can recognize any baseball field from MLB to high school.Courtesy of ARound
Within a second of Josh Beatty opening his smartphone web browser and holding up his camera toward the Yankee Stadium diamond, the basepaths, foul lines and dirt infield were outlined in green on the screen, and an augmented reality home run derby game appeared.
Beatty, the CEO of ARound, was offering a demonstration of his company’s new capabilities: a frictionless user experience that leverages computer vision to recognize any baseball field without the need for an app download.
At that moment, Beatty was sitting in Section 223 of Yankee Stadium, but he could have been at a minor league, college or high school field for the tech to work. He then started to play Batter Up, its derby-style game in which ball flight is overlaid onto the live ballpark image on the phone, with point-multiplier targets appearing in the bleachers. Beatty started mashing dingers that appeared to travel great distances through the Bronx air, not needing the aid of the short porch in right field.
“What we’re trying to do is turn every fan in the stadium from a spectator to an active participant, and we do that through shared augmented reality,” Beatty said. “We have the ability, through Anywhere AR, to actually localize every single baseball field on the planet. It’s really thinking about how we can create a more accessible, more scalable platform to show that the cost to entry [for AR] really comes down and the opportunities really start to percolate up, especially with brands.”
Born in 2021 from a winning entry in an innovation contest from Stagwell, a marketing and communications firm, ARound partnered with the Minnesota Twins on pilot programs in 2022 and ’23, with elements of an existing Target sponsorship added the second year. Fans could play multiplayer games — throwing virtual hot dogs and beach balls onto the field — or see visualizations of real-time data from Sportradar. A relaunch with the Twins for 2024 is in the testing stage.
Now that ARound is web-based, it becomes more accessible to fans who only need to click a link or scan a QR code. This product update also enables future integrations into an existing league or team app.
“Ultimately, the easier tech is to use, the greater its possibilities,” Brandon Johnson, the Twins’ senior director of strategy and insights, wrote in an email, noting that the pilots showed “an extended level of engagement” and a helpful understanding of “what type of alternative in-game, in-ballpark experiences are attractive to our fans,” which can lead to sponsorship opportunities.
Other partnerships include work with teams in various leagues, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Rams. One of its newly onboarded teams is the Tulsa Drillers, the Dodgers’ Class AA affiliate.
“The goal is to get this platform sponsored,” said Justin Gorski, the Drillers’ assistant general manager and vice president of marketing, “and for people to sign in, have some leaderboards and have some leads for the sponsor there and some data that we can gather as well to get to know our fans.”
It can even be played by fans at home, with ARound rendering a view in the phone as if the user is in the venue.
“You can really work across teams, across sports, and provide a rich fabric that allows fans to build their profile to be rewarded for their engagement,” Beatty said, “and start to drive that in new ways, whether it’s through commerce, connections or other types of entertainment.”
