The Only Sports App That Turns Your Favorite Superstar Into Your Personal Sports Commentator

New App for iOS and Amazon Alexa Features the Voices of Sports Superstars and Personalities, including Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice, Devonta Freeman, Le’Veon Bell, Terrell Owens and Scott Van Pelt

StatMuse Announces Strategic Investment and Partnership with NFL Players Association

First Ever Sports Licensing Agreement in Natural Language Generation Designates StatMuse as the ‘Officially Licensed Voice App of the NFLPA’

SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON—September 21, 2017 — StatMuse, the leader in natural language processing for sports, launched its first app for iOS and Alexa, enabling fans to interact with sports stars in a whole new way. With the voice app, fans can ask about scores, stats and more, and hear the answers straight from their favorite players. Additionally, the company announced a strategic investment and partnership with the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), secured through the OneTeam Collective, which is designed to give innovative companies the opportunity to leverage the NFLPA’s exclusive group player rights.

The StatMuse app changes the game as it relates to the fan experience. Basic questions, like “When do the Falcons play next?” will delight: “This is Devonta Freeman. Yes, it’s really me. The Atlanta Falcons play the Chicago Bears next Sunday at 1 PM Eastern”. Want to know how many yards Jay Ajayi had in that Bills game last season? Jay can tell you: “I had 216 yards against the Buffalo Bills on October 23rd”.

With StatMuse’s landmark technology entertainment deal with the NFLPA, the company adds the NFLPA to its roster of top-tier investors, which also includes The Walt Disney Company, Techstars, Allen & Company, Greycroft and David Stern, NBA Commissioner Emeritus.

“We scrapped the existing playbook on sports media,” said Adam Elmore, co-founder of StatMuse, “We started with the question, ‘What’s the craziest, most entertaining sports app we want to use every day?’ And then we spent the last three years working toward that goal. It’s early, and we’re pushing the boundaries of current technologies, but we’re really excited about the experience we’re delivering today.”

Beyond the breakthrough artificial intelligence technology that powers StatMuse, the company has the most comprehensive sports knowledge base dating back to 1876. With over 700 unique illustrations, the company also boasts the largest library of digital player art. When combined with StatMuse’s original content, the product reflects the brand’s lively personality.

“As a sports fan myself, I couldn’t be more excited to work with StatMuse on the launch of this new experience,” said Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman, “bringing the voice of everyone’s favorite players straight to the fan. I’m excited for everyone to tune in and hear me answer questions they ask.”

As the officially licensed voice app of the NFLPA, the app primarily features the authentic voices of today’s NFL players. StatMuse will be rolling out new voices early this NFL season, along with some of the top rookies of the 2017 class, and looks forward to adding more in the future. Scott Van Pelt, host of ESPN’s SportsCenter, is the first voice covering all three sports in the StatMuse app.

Voices Available Today

  • Peyton Manning
  • Jerry Rice
  • Le’Veon Bell
  • Devonta Freeman
  • Jay Ajayi
  • Drew Brees
  • Deion Sanders
  • Terrell Owens
  • David Johnson
  • Clay Matthews
  • Michael Irvin
  • Scott Van Pelt

Voices Coming Soon

  • Marshall Faulk
  • DeMarcus Ware
  • Kirk Cousins
  • LeSean McCoy
  • Justin Houston
  • Todd Gurley
  • Reggie Wayne
“The future of sports hinges on connected experiences. Partnering with visionary companies like StatMuse, with its revolutionary artificial intelligence technology, puts us at the front of the pack,” said Ahmad Nassar, President of NFL Players Inc. “Stats drive a lot of interest in football, so it’ll be exciting to see StatMuse help reshape the fan experience. It literally brings sports data and information to life through players’ voices. We’re excited to add StatMuse to the OneTeam Collective portfolio, and together push boundaries while bringing players closer to their most passionate fans.”

StatMuse’s proprietary technology is highlighted by best-in-class language understanding, language generation, and conversational dialog support. To take the product beyond the typical voice platform experience, the company’s engineering and creative teams work together to write scripts and direct talent in the studio to capture the vocabulary necessary to bring these sports personalities to life. ACE Media, the NFLPA’s content and production subsidiary, will be leveraging its player access and extensive production expertise to coordinate and produce all of StatMuse’s audio and visual content.

“Alexa, open StatMuse.”

How to enable StatMuse

1. You will need an Alexa-enabled device to get started.
2. Say, “Alexa, open StatMuse.”
3. Try asking: “How did the Falcons do?”

About StatMuse

StatMuse Inc. is an artificial intelligence company specializing in natural language processing. Talk with your favorite players and personalities for your daily sports conversations. Keep up with the latest scores, stats and original content about the teams you love through personalized musings. Get instant NBA, NFL & MLB answers back to 1876 and become more than just a fan. StatMuse is the officially licensed voice app of the NFLPA, featuring the voices of Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice, Devonta Freeman, Le’Veon Bell, Deion Sanders, Terrell Owens, Jay Ajayi, Drew Brees and many more. The company was founded in 2014 by two lifelong friends and is backed by top-tier investors, including The Walt Disney Company, Techstars Ventures, Allen & Company, the NFL Players Association, Bee Partners, Greycroft and David Stern. The company has raised $11.75 million to date.

About the NFL Players Association

The National Football League Players Association is the union for professional football players in the National Football League. Established in 1956, the NFLPA has a long history of assuring proper recognition and representation of players’ interests. The NFLPA has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to assure that the rights of players are protected — including ceasing to be a union, if necessary, as it did in 1989. In 1993, the NFLPA again was officially recognized as the union representing the players, and negotiated a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL. The current CBA will govern the sport through 2020. For additional details, please visit nflpa.com.

About NFL Players Inc.

NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing arm of the NFLPA, connects businesses to the power of NFL players. NFL Players Inc. creates customized business solutions for partners, through licensing, marketing strategy and player activations. For more information, please visit nflpa.com/players.

About the OneTeam Collective

The OneTeam Collective is the first athlete-driven business accelerator for innovative companies seeking to incorporate sports strategies to drive growth. OneTeam Collective is comprised of founding partners, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), BlackRock, Harvard Innovation Lab, Intel, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, LeadDog Marketing Group, Madrona Venture Group and Sports Innovation Lab. The Collective offers access to the NFLPA’s brightest stars via licensing, marketing and content rights, research and development, funding and mentorship for product development and marketing support. OneTeam Collective, which features an Athlete Advisory Board, will be the first program providing rights to sports-related intellectual property, highlighted by the NFLPA’s exclusive group licensing rights and unparalleled access to more than 2,000 current NFL players. Prospective companies can apply to participate and submit their application at oneteamcollective.com.

About ACE Media

Athlete Content & Entertainment Media (ACE Media) delivers unrivaled capabilities and access to develop and package athlete-driven sports-lifestyle content projects for all media platforms, and offers full-service production services. ACE Media leverages the NFLPA’s exclusive group player rights, its 2,000 active player members and its year-round portfolio of events to produce content that showcases athletes, their passions and personalities in ways that go well beyond their statistics and game highlights. ACE has produced, created or facilitated over 1,300 unique content features and projects in collaboration with more than 900 unique athletes from a variety of professional sports. ACE Media has partnered with more than 30 different companies to create content for distribution across all media platforms including television, digital, social and mobile. For more information, please visit acemediaco.com.

Originally announced on September 7— Updated with Alexa App launch on September 21, 2017.