Industry News
OZ Sports uses Augmented Reality to put football fans at the heart of closed-door broadcasts
OZ Sports partners with RVX to launch OZ ARENA, using innovative AR technologies that are set to bring fans from home into live broadcasts when football resumes in the wake of COVID-19.
Virtual fans can personalise their experience with their own avatars, club shirts, genuine cheers from home via an app – and even appear in their preferred seat.
OZ ARENA while standalone, also forms part of the OZ Connected Stadium, the one-stop-solution for leagues and federations to augment their sports by capturing, enhancing and distributing content.
Throughout history, there have been pivotal moments of disruption that have completely redefined the norm. Coronavirus is accelerating change, almost subconsciously, that will completely change the face of business, industry, our entire daily life, including sport.
When football returns post-lockdown, it will be in unprecedented circumstances. For the millions of match-starved fans around the world, there won’t be a quick fix to live match withdrawal symptoms once Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Yet, there are opportunities for federations, leagues and broadcasters to transform and revolutionise the home viewing experience.
Venues might be physically deserted, but through cutting edge augmented reality and visual effects – the likes of which have been embraced in the world of esports and streaming – fans will still be able to be at the heart of the action. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Introducing the new game: welcome to OZ ARENA.
OZ Sports and RVX, whose most recent work has been seen in various Hollywood blockbuster movies and TV series, are rolling out new technology and services for rights-holders of leagues to make the experience more engaging for the fans.
With the new solution, which also integrates into the wider OZ Connected Stadium, spectators can be dynamically added to live broadcasts with the use of advanced augmented reality technology. Fans can pick their avatar, club’s shirt, have their face painted, and even appear in the stadium in their favourite seat. Fans can also get their voice heard, by participating as either audio-only or with immersive visual participation in the live broadcast.
OZ ARENA tech can either completely replace the stadium entirely or augment spectators into existing empty stadiums. The process is added to each camera feed in the workflow opening up support for multi-camera processing.
OZ ARENA has advanced audio support, where fans can use an app to add live audio to the broadcast. The servers aggregate all fan audio, using low-latency time synchronisation and AI algorithms, to manage volume levels, enabling fans to yell as loudly as they like remotely, without overpowering the audio stream. These solutions enable broadcasts to maintain full integrity and sound effects during fan-free games.
“Due to Coronavirus, we will see more games to be played behind closed doors with bans on large-scale public events. It is our job to keep the experience still as exciting as during the non-pandemic world. We do that by learning from esports, bringing new exciting elements into the real-world broadcasts. Our augmentation filters can be customised based on the branding strategy and the creative plan of the league,” said Gudjon Gudjonsson, CEO of OZ Sports.
“The idea is to protect the integrity and experience of the game, by turning the attention away from the empty stadium, and instead replacing it with appealing surroundings to make the game more interesting, and as close to reality as possible. These are times to explore and experiment, to make sports even more appealing and to bring it closer to the latest developments in esports” continued Gudjonsson.
“We have brought together world-class 3D visual artists, developers and technologists, with a range of honours and awards – including numerous Emmys, VES and D&AD Awards,” said Dadi Einarsson, CEO of RVX. He continues: “The team for this solution has previously delivered visual effects for blockbusters films, TV, video games and VR projects including Everest, Gravity, The OA, 2 Guns and Sherlock Holmes. Our experience with AAA quality visuals coupled with cutting edge AI and AR solutions put us in the perfect spot.”
The AI and machine learning team include PhDs and specialists on both player and ball tracking that have developed a low-latency perception framework for a detailed semantic understanding of sports games. This framework is a combination of state-of-the-art object detectors, trackers and classifiers which are trained to perform in sports environments. OZ Sports technology can uncover the true state-space of the sport and infer meaningful sport-specific abstractions from the game from velocity vectors in a 3-dimensional space.
The OZ ARENA solution can be applied to live production as a per-match service. It supports both audio-only and the full immersive audio-visual solution. The OZ ARENA system is an integrated part of the OZ Connected Stadium, and can also be installed at broadcaster’s facility, OB truck, or at the stadium.
Rights-holders and broadcasters can contact OZ Sports for quotes on deployments by visiting www.oz.com.
About OZ Sports:
OZ Sports mission is to give every sports league affordable technologies to create immersive and spectacular video experiences with no sacrifice in quality.
Centred around our global roll-out of the OZ Connected Stadium system at sports venues worldwide. A simple, one-time setup, offering sports leagues an outstanding fan experience with exceptional production, VAR, visual augmentations, player tracking, and global distribution via branded apps.
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Adam Lewis Chief Executive Officer at AxiumAI
AxiumAI taps ex-Entain leader Claire Painting to lead customer experience as CXO
Extensively experienced Painting collaborates to develop experience strategy as AI revolutionizes sportsbook interaction.
AxiumAI, a frontrunner in AI-powered autonomous player engagement, has announced the appointment of Claire Painting as Chief Experience Officer (CXO), enhancing the company’s leadership team as operators transition to AI-enhanced player engagement.
Recognised for uniting marketing, product, UX, and technology teams to create seamless, consumer-focused experiences at scale, Painting will play a key role in aiding AxiumAI’s ongoing growth and future vision as the provider enhances its AI-driven engagement platform for global operators.
Painting brings over 20 years of experience in the international sports betting and gaming sector to AxiumAI. Most recently, she worked as the Director of Player Experience at Entain, where she managed a worldwide cross-functional team of more than 100 experts located in the UK, Gibraltar, Vienna, Hyderabad, and Manila.
While at Entain, she defined and executed the player experience strategy for the operator group’s global range of brands. This encompassed supervision of essential processes like registration, payments, account management, compliance, promotions, and gamification, along with the creation of worldwide UX/UI design systems and frameworks for measuring customer experience.
The appointment strengthens AxiumAI’s leadership as the company enhances its autonomous player engagement abilities and aids operators in providing real-time, personalized 1:1 player experiences.
Claire Painting, Chief Experience Officer at AxiumAI, said: “The future of player experience will be defined by technology that understands context, adapts in real-time and delivers meaningful interaction at scale. AxiumAI is building that capability, and I am excited to help shape autonomous engagement that will inspire players and drive step-change growth for operators.”
Adam Lewis, Chief Executive Officer at AxiumAI, added: “Claire brings exceptional expertise in player engagement across marketing, product and customer experience. Combined with her ability to connect teams and technology around the player, she is uniquely positioned to lead this area at AxiumAI. She will play a key role as we continue to build intelligent, customer-led solutions for operators globally.”
The post AxiumAI taps ex-Entain leader Claire Painting to lead customer experience as CXO appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
BetBlocker
New Turkish-language tool from BetBlocker extends service to 90 million additional people
Gambling harm prevention charity BetBlocker today reveals the extension of their award-winning assistance into Turkish.
In 2025, BetBlocker saw a tremendous increase in support, with more than three hundred thousand individual users initiating a block throughout the year. This significant level of engagement has been made possible by the diverse array of languages into which the charity has translated its assistance.
Yesilay, the main Turkish support service, reports that requests for help with gambling are now surpassing those for alcohol, drugs, or tobacco, alongside significant uptake and harm among youth, making the launch of Turkish language support timely and relevant.
Founder and Trustee for BetBlocker, Duncan Garvie, offered these comments: “BetBlocker is genuinely excited to roll out our second language expansion of 2026.
We’ve experienced phenomenal uptake of the service over the last 12 months and figures hare steadily rising. One of the biggest drivers of that growth has been improving the accessibility of our support by meeting users where they are and offering support in the language that they’re most comfortable accessing in.
Alongside Turkey itself, there are substantial Turkish speaking communities across Europe, the Middle East and North America. It is our hope that this evolution of BetBlocker will ensure that a deeper level of support is available more widely across the Turkish diaspora.
BetBlocker would like to offer our deepest thanks to Fatmatuz Zehra Pehlivan, a Clinical Psychologist and researcher, who volunteers Green Cresent in the field of addiction treatment. Fatmatuz volunteered her time to help translate our app, and every Turkish language user we support owe her their thanks for the donation of her time and expertise.
As with many of the communities BetBlocker now supports, we would not be able to reach so many people without the kindness and generosity of field experts like Fatmatuz.”
The post New Turkish-language tool from BetBlocker extends service to 90 million additional people appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Anastasia Rimskaya Chief Account Officer at Aviatrix
Aviatrix Launches New Loot Boxes to Deepen Progression and Reward Paths
Aviatrix has launched a new Loot Box feature for its premier crash game, presenting collectible rewards, free bets, and progression bonuses aimed at boosting long-term player engagement.
Loot Boxes are granted through a daily rewards mechanism, with players obtaining them according to their in-game actions and advancement. Every box holds a variety of rewards, such as aircraft skins, complimentary bets, and aviation experience points.
The feature enhances Aviatrix’s developing loyalty system, providing players with fresh options to personalize their aircraft and earn rewards through continuous engagement.
Anastasia Rimskaya, Chief Account Officer at Aviatrix, said: “Loot Boxes are part of our wider vision for Aviatrix as a connected multi-game universe. As we expand our iGaming Metaverse, features like Loot Boxes add another meaningful layer to how players build their profile, customise their aircraft and earn rewards across the ecosystem.”
Unveiled in February, the Aviatrix iGaming Metaverse signifies the supplier’s shift from a standalone crash game to an integrated multi-title ecosystem.
Starting with the imminent debut of Aviatrix Second Chance and continuing with upcoming titles like Aviatrix Fruits and Aviatrix Mines, every game will utilize a single integrated player profile, progression system, and rewards and achievements framework.
The post Aviatrix Launches New Loot Boxes to Deepen Progression and Reward Paths appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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