The Old for the Traditional, the New for the Bettors

 The PGA just announced a hosting and data partnership with Amazon Web Services. The deal has two main planks:

• AWS will help the TOUR store real-time and historic content that will give fans and media access to content dating back to the 1928 Los Angeles Open. This “data lake” will contain video, audio and images that AWS technology will tag for easy cataloging. This will help the TOUR and its content partners search, review, annotate and package new content and give them instant access to key moments in the TOUR’s history.
• “We are excited to utilize AWS media services to further enhance new and existing innovative services for our fans,” said Scott Gutterman, the PGA TOUR’s Senior Vice President, Digital Operations. “Features like Every Shot Live and TOURCast will now be powered by AWS, which will allow for a more streamlined process and overall better product for our fans.”

So, the Tour will have an historical digital data dump, all the way back to 1928. It will, in effect, catalogue the entire sport in one spot. If any partner wants to use footage - to promote an event, or the sport itself - it will be there for use. 

Second, and perhaps most interesting, the "innovative services for fans" is corporate speak (as Geoff Shackleford explains) for real time shot tracking (via video or over the web) that enhances their vision for in-running betting. PGA shot by shot betting has been bandied about for some time as a big growth opportunity for golf.

It's rather interesting that this tight group has created a vehicle for both the old and the new. They're preserving the sport and enhancing its future. 

It's hackneyed at this point to talk about, but horse racing's history, digitally at least, is an absolute mess. And its future in terms of wagering with data, video streams or what have you is an equal mess. 

It's tough to build a house without a proper foundation. Golf with its control structure can, seemingly on a dime, do what they did with AWS. Racing, built much differently with no apparent leader to change the business, is not. Which one gets left behind?

Have a nice Wednesday everyone.