The first soccer ball with an integrated tracking sensor. The partnership between SELECT and KINEXON has resulted in a smart ball that enhances the sporting experience.
Danish SELECT and German KINEXON has developed the SELECT Brillant Super iBall (intelligent ball) – a football with an integrated tracking sensor, which will improve the football experience. The SELECT iBall combines the extensive ball experience of SELECT, with the expertise of KINEXON in electronics, tracking and analytics. The SELECT iBall is the first one with an integrated tracking sensor, to be FIFA Quality Pro approved, which means it is now ready to be used by professional football leagues.
The new SELECT Brillant Super iBall will be used for the first time in the Play-offs of the Portuguese football league Liga Portugal. They will be playing with the brand new SELECT iBall, and they will be the first to discover all the possibilities and benefits the new SELECT iBall brings.
Liga Portugal is a 40-year-old professional football league. The Portuguese football league is a talent hub that creates and exports some of the best players and coaches in the world. One of the fundamental pillars of Liga Portugal in the organization of professional competitions has also been innovation and working in the present with the vision placed on future challenges and needs. Therefore, Liga Portugal is the perfect place to introduce the SELECT Brillant Super iBall for the first time. At Liga Portugal they are excited to be the first ones playing with the first FIFA Quality Pro approved intelligent football, and they are looking forward to discovering the new groundbreaking possibilities the SELECT iBall brings.
CEO at SELECT Sport Peter Knap says “At SELECT Sport we are happy to announce that our new SELECT iBall, that we created together with KINEXON, is ready to be played with in the top leagues. We are looking forward to seeing the ball in action in the Play-offs of the best Portuguese football league, and for clubs, trainers, and fans to realize the new possibilities the SELECT iBall brings. This new football with a build-in tracking sensor, will improve the football experience, for both clubs and fans”.
About the technology
SELECT has, in corporation with our ball manufacturer Anwar Khawaja Industries in Pakistan, developed a football with an integrated KINEXON tracking sensor. KINEXON has made a sensor with ultra-small form and weight, and SELECT has integrated that sensor seamlessly into the bladder. Using radio technology, the sensor transmits its position and movement data around 50 times per second. The sensor provides position data with an exceptional fast rate, and the ball data can be synchronized within 1 millisecond with player tracking data. The possibility of linking (the already known) player tracking data, with this new ball tracking data, makes it possible to display a complete match in all its complexity.
Benefits of the SELECT iBall
The ball-tracking metrics can be used for match analysis and fan engagement. It can provide live information about shot speed, passes per player, successful passes, shots per player and team, ball handling quality, shot quality and a lot of other data. The ball-tracking technology can be used by clubs to analyze the player and team performance at games and practice. Combining game and practice data, as well as physical and tactical performance metrics, equals a new level of context-driven performance insights.The technology can also be used to engage fans by presenting live graphics for fans at home and on stadiums. Furthermore, it can be used to offer journalists and commentators with live data, while they are covering a football match. This new SELECT iBall will be a gamechanger in providing live data for trainers, clubs, fans, referees, and the media.
Development
A total of five years of development work has gone into the Brilliant Super iBall. SELECT and KINEXON have developed and tested hundreds of prototypes for this. The first test took place in 2018 in corporation with the Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. Today, both companies can guarantee that the 14-gram ball sensor works reliably, even demanding conditions does not affect the flight and rotation behavior of the ball. Professional football players feel no difference to the conventional ball.
SELECT Brillant Super iBall is ready for the top leagues
The SELECT Brillant Super iBall is FIFA Quality Pro approved, which is the highest ranking for a football in the FIFA system. Only footballs that carry the FIFA Quality Pro label can be used in international matches organized by FIFA or the confederations. The new SELECT iBall has passed all the tests and is ready to be played with in professional leagues and cups around the world.
