About Chip Scarinzi

Chip Scarinzi is a vice president, account director in Ketchum’s San Francisco Technology practice, where he draws from more than 15 years of experience in consumer and enterprise tech. A dyed in the wool sports fan, he is the author of Diehards, a non-fiction book that explores the evolution of sports fandom.

Author Archive | Chip Scarinzi

How Sports Teams Can Better Engage the Next Generation of Fans

By on March 22, 2018

Early last month I watched the Super Bowl the old-fashioned way: on a television screen in my living room. However, that wasn’t the case for all viewers. In fact, TV viewership dipped to a seven-year low as more and more fans chose one of many live streaming options to consume the biggest football game of the year. The same trend continued with the 2018 Winter Olympics, which saw TV ratings slip by seven percent while streaming time tripled. And now, it’s almost baseball season again and it’s a safe bet that Major League Baseball will tinker with its formula for content delivery, too.

Continue Reading

Full-Court Press: VR for Sports Fans Needs a New Narrative

By on March 29, 2017

I stepped into the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium with shaky hands and weak knees. Waving the bat above my shoulder, I tried to look the part while Masahiro Tanaka stared down his catcher for the sign. Would he try to blow me away with a mid-90’s fastball? Buckle my knees with a slider? If that wasn’t enough to think about, there was always that devastating splitter. In an instant, there it was: slider, tailing outside. My bat sparked to life and a little bouncer dribbled up the third base line. I made contact! And I might have beaten the throw to first base too… if I wasn’t wearing a virtual reality headset.

Continue Reading

Can Virtual Reality Make DeAndre Jordan an Elite Free Throw Shooter?

By on December 13, 2016

Along with 50+ million other sports fans in North America, I too obsess about fantasy sports – and this time of year, I’m particularly fixated on fantasy basketball. This past week, my near-constant attention to an imaginary basketball team, Dynamite Diggums, led me to this tasty little nugget: Los Angeles Clippers’ center DeAndre Jordan is experimenting with VR to improve his free throw shooting.

Continue Reading

Four Tech Trends to Watch in Sports

By on August 12, 2016

Sports fandom attached itself to me in my youth, and its power over me today is stronger than ever. As a child, I listened to radio broadcasts of my favorite team on a portable Walkman, and today, I listen to that same broadcast on a mobile app from 3,000 miles away. In the 1980s, I would wait for the local paper to arrive so I could check basic stats and track day-old news nestled within a few pages of newsprint. Today, I have access to unlimited possibilities for analysis and perspectives online.

Continue Reading