As streaming becomes the norm and artificial intelligence gets integrated into more products, tech giants have an open playing field to recreate the sports watching experience.

Last week, Facebook filed a patent to create digital game recaps that tap into a contest’s most dramatic and pivotal moments. The recaps would be generated by everything from social media posts to the speed and quality of a commentators’ speech.

Facebook is scaling back on live sports broadcasts, instead betting on recaps to engage fans. The social network signed deals with the NFL and International Cricket Council to distribute post-game content.

Amazon has invested in augmenting the viewing experience through its X-Ray system in Amazon Prime Video. The company even pulls data from sensors on NFL players’ shoulder pads and the game ball. 

“Every year we have continued to make the experience more customized and more personal for fans,” Amazon’s VP of global sports video Marie Donoghue told Forbes.

Amazon is reportedly paying the NFL $1 billion per year to broadcast Thursday Night Football despite weak viewership on its one exclusive broadcast to date. Amazon Web Services, the company’s server and data provider, has partnership deals with the NFL, NHL, Formula One, NASCAR, Bundesliga, and PGA Tour.

Apple, meanwhile, acquired NextVR, a startup that provides sports and entertainment content for virtual reality headsets. NextVR has deals with the NBA, Fox Sports, and Wimbledon.

During its product rollout event in October, Apple featured the ability to watch NFL games from up to seven camera angles simultaneously — including streams from players’ helmets.

In preparation for an iconic series of boat races, Auckland invested nearly $150 million to improve a handful of wharfs. There’s a clear motive: windfall gains from wealthy spectators.

This week, the Prada-sponsored 36th finals of the America’s Cup sailing competition are taking place in New Zealand, but the local economy will miss most of the money-generating superyachts, which typically house spectators and sponsors for months.

Denied by the government’s strict international borders and COVID-19 protocols, the world’s wealthiest vessel owners either turned around, or were prevented from joining the essential crew for an up-close view of cup races.

When you factor in the desired or necessary complements to a luxury lifestyle — fine dining, private helicopters, yacht maintenance — the local economy is missing out on rare millions of dollars per boat.

“It’s like a magnet,” NZ Marine Industry Association executive director Peter Busfield told the New York Times. “Wherever the America’s Cup goes, you get the corporate backers that want their corporate box.”

The country’s organizers lobbied their government throughout 2020 to allow superyachts in their waters, fearing a lack of economic stimulus from their absence. Though they were successful in bringing in a few dozen, the opportunity cost is glaring.

A 2017 assessment by New Zealand’s government predicted direct spending in the local economy could surpass $200 million if just 159 superyachts came to watch the races.

Shareholders finally signed off on a partnership that will be tough to beat in the $80 billion golf industry.

The merger between Callaway and Topgolf, first announced in October, was approved earlier this week. Callaway already owned a 14% stake in Topgolf after an early investment in 2006 and will pay $2.66 billion in stock to acquire the rest of the company.

Chip Brewer, Callaway’s president and CEO, highlighted the union between his company’s “leadership in the global golf equipment market” and Topgolf’s “revolutionary technology platform.”

Topgolf reported revenue of $1.1 billion in 2019, with growth at a 30% compound annual rate since 2017. The company had considered going public and saw its valuation reach as high as $4 billion. 

Callaway has also been performing well — net sales hit $375 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, a company record. Q4 also included:

• 48.5% increase in golf club sales
• 14.3% increase in golf ball sales
• 8.7% increase in apparel sales

Topgolf will open its seventh location in Florida in Fort Myers later this year. Southern California will get its first two Topgolf locations in early 2022.

The Football Index, a market in which people could buy and sell shares of soccer players, suspended operations on Thursday following a market crash that cost some users tens of thousands of dollars.

The collapse of the index precipitated rapidly after the company cut the dividends it pays out on shares of players on March 5, a move it said was needed for its long-term solvency.

With the value of player shares undercut in an instant, people rapidly sold off holdings, causing share prices to plummet when the market opened the next day.

The company, which had shirt sponsorship deals with Nottingham Forest and Queens Park Rangers, issued a statement on Thursday announcing the shutdown.

“We are pursuing a restructuring arrangement to be agreed with our stakeholders including, most importantly, our community,” wrote the board of parent company BetIndex Limited.

The company will be taken under administration by insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor “to seek the best outcome for customers with the goal of continuing the platform in a restructured form….This decision is deeply regrettable, and is the outcome we were seeking to avoid by restructuring dividends.”

As recently as Jan. 21, the company said that it was in a financially strong position and was looking to hire software engineers.

As of Thursday evening, users could not make any transactions on the index or withdraw their cash holdings. Presuming they will be able to at some point, the remaining question is how much they will have left.