Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser A rendering of a store using Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. (Climate Pledge Arena Image) Amazon may have skipped putting its name on the outside of the renovated stadium where the Seattle Kraken will begin NHL play next month, but the company is bringing its technology to the inside of Climate Pledge Arena. The arena announced Wednesday that four food and beverage stores inside the arena will be equipped with “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology like that used in Amazon Go convenience stores and some Fresh grocery stores. The arena stores will also feature Amazon One palm-scanning tech, which lets customers enter and pay with the wave of a hand. Just Walk Out

Go to Source Author: Taylor Soper GeekWire Sounders Day attendees gather on the First Mode rooftop deck, before the Sounders FC match on Tuesday in Seattle. (GeekWire Photos / Kevin Lisota) It was so much fun getting the GeekWire community back together on Tuesday with the return of Sounders Day as we enjoyed great networking, tasty BBQ, cold beverages, and another Sounders FC victory. The festivities kicked off Tuesday afternoon on the spectacular deck at First Mode in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood, just a stone’s throw from Lumen Field, where the Sounders would later pull off a 1-0 victory over Santos Laguna with a thrilling last-second goal in a semifinal Leagues Cup match. During the pre-match rooftop party we were joined by Sounders FC majority

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser The helmets that will be worn for home games by the Seattle Kraken feature Amazon’s smile logo. (Climate Pledge Arena Photo) Amazon is adding a little promotional branding on the helmets of the Seattle Kraken, the city’s new NHL team set to take the ice for its inaugural season next month. The tech giant’s smile logo will be affixed to both sides of midnight blue helmets that the Kraken will wear for home games, the team revealed Tuesday. When the team is away from its home at Climate Pledge Arena, white helmets will feature decals that read “The Climate Pledge,” as a way to draw attention to the effort to get businesses to commit to going net zero

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser A rendering of Seattle Kraken hockey action at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. (Seattle Kraken Image) A major new player on the sports television landscape could be an MVP for fans of teams in the Pacific Northwest thanks to a deal announced Thursday. fuboTV, a growing live-TV streaming platform with a heavy emphasis on sports, has reached an agreement to stream ROOT Sports, the home of regional game telecasts for the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Kraken and Portland Trail Blazers. The deal will include ROOT’s coverage of more than 300 live regular season games of those teams and gives cable TV cord cutters a way to keep up with the teams and related coverage, especially as the Kraken open

Go to Source Author: Kurt SchlosserSecond-guessing an NFL coach on whether he should have gone for it or kicked on fourth down is one of the great pastimes of watching the sport. Now the league is turning to Amazon Web Services and Next Gen Stats to better inform the armchair quarterbacking by fans and broadcasters. AWS and the NFL announced a new stat called NGS Decision Guide on Wednesday that will be used during the 2021-22 season. Using a series of machine learning models, the equation focuses on win probability — how much the game will change in the hypothetical event of each outcome — and conversion probability — the likelihood of the offense converting a fourth down or 2-point conversion. Broadcasters can show

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser A rendering of Topgolf’s planned facility in Renton, Wash. (Topgolf Image) Sports and entertainment company Topgolf is officially bringing a full-scale, high-tech golf and gaming complex to the Seattle area, with plans to break ground on Tuesday in Renton, Wash., at the southern end of Lake Washington. Topgolf Renton-Seattle will be located off Logan Avenue near The Landing, a sprawling shopping and dining development that opened in 2007, according to Topgolf and an advisory from the City of Renton. GeekWire first reported in December 2018 that Topgolf was eyeing the site and a 14-acre parcel of land as a potential location. The three-level venue is expected to open in 2022 and employ more than 500 associates. It will feature

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser (Twitter Image via @SeattleKraken) Morgan Geekie might be the right guy for the right town. There are obviously plenty of geeks in Seattle and we’ve even embraced a handful who play professional sports in the city. But this is the first time we’ve connected with one who’s especially, well … Geekie. A 23-year-old hockey player from the tiny town of Strathclair, Manitoba, Geekie was selected last week by the Seattle Kraken during the NHL expansion draft. In 38 career games with the Carolina Hurricanes, Geekie had six goals and three assists. Three of those points came in his first NHL game — and his whole family joined him that night at a post-game press conference.In a phone interview with

Go to Source Author: Kurt SchlosserSue Bird is plenty busy these days, trying to guide the Seattle Storm to their fifth WNBA championship and getting set to chase her fifth Olympic gold medal as a member of Team USA. Along the way, the basketball great is throwing her support behind another tech gadget, making a pitch for smart home fitness trainer Tonal and investing in the startup. A new 30-second ad from the brand (above) is set to air before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Bird is shown working out on Tonal’s digital weight system and in a voiceover says, “I’ve redefined my position, and what a champion looks like. So how do I keep changing the game for

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser The next-generation Formula 1 race car. (Formula 1 Photo) Amazon’s interest in sports has taken the tech giant from NFL stadiums to NHL hockey arenas and now onto the racetracks of Formula 1 as Amazon Web Services has played a key role in the design of new F1 race cars. The racing league revealed the next-generation car in a YouTube presentation on Thursday, and Amazon said in a blog post that the intent is to create more intense racing and excitement on the track through more aerodynamic vehicle design. AWS figured in the process by using Computational Fluid Dynamics and thousands of compute cores to run simulations of over 550 million data points. These data points modeled the impact

Go to Source Author: Kurt Schlosser A match-up poster for the Seattle Sounders FC vs Atlanta United contest on May 22. (MLS Image) Major League Soccer is taking its first shot at the NFT craze this week, launching a collection of street art to celebrate two weekend matches and four teams, including Seattle Sounders FC. The non-fungible tokens will be tied to nationally televised matches on Saturday between the Sounders and Atlanta United (1:30 p.m. PT on FOX) and the Portland Timbers and L.A. Galaxy (3:30 p.m. PT on ABC).  On Friday, soccer fans and street art enthusiasts can go online at 3 p.m. PT to watch artists representing each club “battle” for an hour to create unique, limited edition, soccer-inspired artwork. The artists were