After revolutionizing NBA's (highlight) game, WSC Sports sets sights on college sports

Good luck finding a fan who has heard of WSC Sports, whose own company description – the global leader in AI-powered video content – doesn’t fully capture everything the Israel-based startup does for sports organizations.

But ask veteran executives in the NBA’s central office and they’ll tell you why the company has been a game-changer for the league over the last decade. And no less an authority on innovation than former NBA Commissioner David Stern marveled over the company – which he invested in – before his death in 2020.

WSC’s AI-powered tech analyzes games in real-time and curates and distributes countless variations of highlights – limited only by what type of plays the imagination desires – to digital channels and social media accounts. 

It works with more than 450 sports organizations worldwide and is intent on making a big splash in college sports at a time when schools are increasingly looking for new ways to strengthen bonds with fans who absorb content in different ways.

“The goal for us is to become a name that’s synonymous in college sports, much like a Learfield would be [in the MMR space],” Joe DaCosta, head of college sports at WSC Sports, told On3 this spring. “I think we’re a few steps away from that at the moment, but I don’t think it’s too far off for us.”

What does WSC Sports do?

When the NIL Era began in July 2021, WSC leaders became intent on exploring the college space more. Since then, they’ve invested significant resources and personnel. It now counts 48 college sports clients, including schools such as BYU, Harvard, North Carolina, USC, Pittsburgh, the ACC Digital Network, Big Ten Network and Conference USA.

What exactly does WSC do?

Say you want a highlight clip of every Luka Doncic-made basket and assist in the first quarter of each NBA Finals game, it can do that and share to any number of digital or social platforms in real-time. Or you want to see every Steph Curry 3-pointer in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime – done. 

The NBA has about 1,500 rules in its platform that create about 2,000 pieces of content in a given game night – with WSC’s AI-powered tech saving countless man-hours. For one game, WSC’s process may take one minute versus 30 minutes if it were done manually.

Asked to describe its limitations, DaCosta said, “Limitless is a good way to put it. It’s incredibly nuanced.”

David Stern: ‘I was, like, mesmerized by it’

Stern and investment partner John Kosner, the former ESPN exec with a deep background in digital sports highlights, first met with WSC Sports co-founders Aviv Arnon and Daniel Shichman in May 2018.

Three years later, when I met with Stern in his Midtown Manhattan office, the visionary was still marveling over WSC like a kid in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

“I have a particular sensitivity to it,” Stern told me, “because it renders asunder my life’s work of providing each of the NBA teams in 1982 three-quarter-inch VCRs, hooking those VCRs up to broadcast trucks, having a young person earn 25 bucks to FedEx the resulting two-and-a-half tapes to Secaucus (New Jersey), logging tapes … and then digitizing them.”

Stern paused and smiled.

“And these bozos come in here and just say, ‘OK, that’s easy, we’ll give you virtual real-time with AI, computer vision, machine learning and everything else.’ I was, like, mesmerized by it. I told John, ‘You’ve got to see this!'”

WSC recently introduced three new solutions to its product suite: around the game, in-app stories, and discovery network. 

Around the game, for instance, expands the company’s AI capabilities from in-game content to indexing and automating every aspect of the game, including fan reactions, player arrivals, sponsor logos, interviews, press conferences, and studio shows. The possibilities are virtually boundless.

“There’s a few different companies out there that do a little bit of everything,” DaCosta said. “The reason we’ve had success is that we do a lot of everything. The automation is really why we have the business.”