Arlington, TX – March 12, 2025 – The United Football League today announced that it is launching a new technology-focused innovation division this season – FAST – Football Advancement through Sports Technology. Designed with the intent to advance the game of football, FAST will work with both established and emerging sports media and technology companies to test and launch innovations and services that will improve the sport.
“Innovation is a cornerstone of the United Football League,” said UFL Senior Vice President of Technology Scott Harniman. “FAST will create a blueprint for companies with products and services designed to have a positive impact on the way professional football is played, coached, and consumed by fans.”
Based at UFL HQ in Arlington, Texas, where training camps and regular season practices are held for all eight UFL teams, FAST will provide its technology partners with access to over 600 players and coaches for testing and development. In addition, the division will provide to those partners executive guidance, football specific expertise, operational support and experimentation. FAST will utilize Choctaw Stadium in Arlington as its primary sports testing venue where the league will support private 5G networking as its foundational infrastructure.
“The ultimate goal of FAST will be to shrink product development cycles and test, gate and launch innovations and services that have the ability to take the game to a new level,” said UFL Vice President of Football Technology Brad Campbell.
The FAST program will focus on three key emerging areas for the 2025 season by teaming up with the following partners:
- Immersive Player POV Camera: Mindfly
- Computer Vision and Contextual Tracking: SkillCorner
- Sensor Based Ball Tracking: Sportable
IMMERSIVE PLAYER POV CAMERA: MINDFLY
FAST and Mindfly have worked together to engineer Mindfly’s first-ever player body camera for professional football. During the 2024 UFL season, the Mindfly body camera was tested on UFL officials during the playoff game between the Birmingham Stallions and the Michigan Panthers. Extending this innovative body armor camera to players will provide a never-before-seen view of American football. FAST and Mindfly worked in conjunction with the NFL at the East West Shrine game in Arlington, Texas, where the Mindfly player body armor was worn for the first time in live game action.
During the 2025 season, the UFL will use up to four lightweight Mindfly player body armor vests in two games each weekend throughout the full season. Each vest will include a body camera giving fans a player’s view of the game action. The body camera video will be integrated into game broadcasts on both FOX and ESPN platforms to showcase the players’ point-of-view action throughout games.
COMPUTER VISION AND CONTEXTUAL TRACKING: SKILLCORNER
The UFL will partner with SkillCorner in 2025 to provide comprehensive contextual tracking data for all UFL games. Utilizing all-22 camera feeds, SkillCorner will employ computer vision technology to provide player tracking and aggregated data at scale for all players on all plays in all games, including speed, distance, and separation while also providing deeper analytical data points from each UFL game.
SENSOR BASED BALL TRACKING TECHNOLOGY: SPORTABLE
The UFL will utilize Sportable’s wireless, portable local positioning system (LPS) in Choctaw Stadium to deliver premium, low-latency data from UFL smart footballs equipped with Sportable’s proprietary sensor technology (“Smart Balls”). In 2025, the UFL will integrate Smart Balls into its team practices and UFL Showcases to assist its football operations staff through the use of novel quarterback and position specific technical and tactical performance evaluation tools during next generation combine drills. In addition, Sportable and the UFL will collaborate in further research into how Smart Ball data might further enhance officiating in key aspects of the game. Finally, FAST and FOX Sports will work together to develop real-time augmented graphics for broadcast and digital content powered by Sportable’s recent purchase of Intaneous.
The UFL will continue to unveil innovations under the FAST umbrella throughout the upcoming season.