ATLANTA, GA. — Deion Sanders was probably the last celebrity guest expected to show up at Microsoft’s Ignite technology conference, where thousands of IT geeks are in Atlanta this week learning about everything from Azure cloud infrastructure to containerized apps.
But it was “Prime Time” who walked on stage during the keynote presentation on Monday afternoon to help Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella show off an unreleased fantasy football advice bot.
During his hour-long keynote that described Microsoft’s vision for how artificial intelligence can shape the future of computing, Nadella brought Sanders on stage in Atlanta, the city where the two-sport freak athlete not only starred for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, but also competed in a World Series with the Atlanta Braves.
Sanders, now an analyst for CBS Sports and NFL Network — and an active Twitter user — joined Nadella as the Microsoft CEO went through a brief demo of a new fantasy football advice bot designed to help users compile the highest-scoring lineup each week.
“Forget the Super Bowl and the World Series,” Sanders said. “I made it!”
But first, Nadella told Sanders he’d teach him how to play cricket.
“Cricket, you mean the kind that you fish with?” joked Sanders, who was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2011.
The bot, built into Skype, processes a bevy of data like Bing predictions and specific matchup scenarios to recommend optimal lineups for fantasy football players. Nadella said it changes the fantasy football interface to make it “more fun and data-driven.”
For example, the bot compared two different quarterbacks facing off on Monday night: Matt Ryan from the Falcons and Drew Brees from the Saints.
“I like Matt Ryan, but I love Drew Brees,” Sanders noted, going through a thought process that many fantasy football players can relate to. “The Atlanta secondary isn’t good, but when you think about Drew Brees, if they’re losing, he’s going to get more opportunities to throw. He may receive more fantasy points.”
The bot then told Sanders that it predicted a Saints win, and Brees would score more fantasy points because he was playing at home in a covered arena where the weather would not be a factor.
“Well, you know, I played for Atlanta and it’s kind of hard for me to pick Drew Brees over Matt Ryan,” Sanders said. “I played two sports right here. But I like what they’re saying. That’s a pretty good summary.”
There are certainly a number of people who may find this technology useful. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimated that nearly 58 million people in the U.S. and Canada played fantasy sports in 2015 — that number has likely grown for 2016. An American Express study last year found that 74.7 million Americans planned to play fantasy football. FSTA also estimates that the average player spends $556 per year on fantasy sports.
Nadella said he hopes the fantasy football bot will be available in time for the 2017 NFL season. We’ve followed up with Microsoft for more details about how exactly the bot recommends optimal lineups. The company released its first series of Skype Bots in August.
This isn’t the first intersection between sports and bots. In June, theScore, a publicly-traded mobile-focused sports media company based in Toronto, announced that it was the first sports company to use chatbots on Facebook Messenger.
Bots use machine learning and data analytics to help automate processes. There is obvious potential for the technology, but David Marcus, head of Facebook Messenger, said earlier this month expectations for chatbots were a bit overdone.
Microsoft, meanwhile, continues to merge its technology with the sports world. It inked a $400 million deal with the NFL in 2013 and football fans are likely now familiar with the Microsoft Surface, given that the device has become a mainstay on sidelines as a training tool that players and coaches use to review past plays during games. The partners also work on other projects related to Xbox and other platforms.
Microsoft provides its technology to not only the NFL, but also the PGA Tour and NASCAR. It’s part of the company’s recent push into the sports world, a strategy that both helps leagues use technology to improve their processes, and also exposes Microsoft’s products to more consumers.
The fantasy football bot was part of Nadella’s larger keynote theme around Microsoft’s vision for artificial intelligence.