It is no surprise that Hawk-Eye, a subsidiary of Sony, is a big player in automated sports officiating considering the fact that it works with twenty-three of the top twenty-five sports leagues and federations globally including ATP, UEFA, and Nassar. On March 8, 2011, Sony acquired Hawk-Eye and since then Sony has filed a steady stream of patent applications on improvements of Hawk-Eye’s technology to remain as a top player in automated sports officiating. The most recent news for Sony/Hawk-Eye is the announcement that it will be working with the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) to provide a Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) system to cover all the matches in the regular season of the SPFL. Hawk-Eye has already implemented its VAR technology with major soccer leagues and federations but there is still a lot of opportunity for acquiring new clients for that technology.

Sony/Hawk-Eye currently has thirty-nine (39) patent assets in the Sports Analytics Patent Forecast® sector putting it in 9th place for most patent assets in the sector, right behind its competitor Trackman who currently has forty (40) patent assets in the sector. Currently both Trackman and Sony/Hawk-Eye are working with Major League Baseball (MLB) in various aspects to improve the officiating in baseball. Trackman provides a ball strike system that is often referred to as “robo-ump”, while Sony/Hawk-Eye provides a review system to help umpires make difficult officiating decisions. Both companies have the technology and expertise to handle both responsibilities and become the MLB’s exclusive provider of automated officiating. Patent Forecast® predicts that because Trackman has a more impressive patent portfolio in the Sports Analytics Patent Forecast® sector that Trackman will become the exclusive provider of automated officiating for the MLB.