Vote for VyStar Ballpark to win national contest

The home of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp could be named the best Triple-A ballpark of the year.
Newsweek is holding a contest.
VyStar Ballpark was nominated after its recent renovation.
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The winner will be announced on July 2.
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Newsweek

7 hours ago

• Newsweek

DraftKings Promo Code: Claim $300 Bonus For MLB, NBA Finals Game 7, More

Sign up for a new account with the DraftKings promo code for a chance to win $300 in bonus bets if your initial $5 bet on any of Saturday's MLB games wins. Click here to claim this offer and get a chance to start your account the right way in time for Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder -- no bonus code is even needed. With games like Mets-Phillies and Red Sox-Giants taking place on Saturday, new users have plenty of opportunities to find a market to bet $5 on. If you win the $300 in bonuses, you will have a great opportunity to turn around and use those bets for Game 7 on Sunday night. DraftKings Promo Code For MLB, NBA Finals Game 7 DraftKings Promo Code Sign Up Through Our Links - No Code Needed New User Offer Bet $5, Win $300 in Bonus Bets In-App Promos MLB All Purpose Boost, Daily Profit Boosts etc. Terms and Conditions New Customers - 21+ in Eligible States Bonus Last Verified On June 21, 2025 Information Confirmed By Newsweek Knowing that you must win your $5 bet to get the $300 in bonuses, you should look across the sportsbook to find a market that you believe is likely to settle as a win. The only parameter is that your $5 wager must have odds of -500 or longer. This wager could be a simple moneyline bet, but you might be better off looking for some prop bets for Saturday's MLB games. This could be on a pitcher to record a certain number of strikeouts, or a batter to record a hit. Some of these prop markets allow you to adjust the line, too. Just make sure that the odds fit the parameters outlined above. Once you find your preferred market, make your $5 bet and wait for it to settle. If you receive the $300 in bonuses, make sure to use them within seven days before they expire. Redeem DraftKings Promo Code Offer Click on the offer above to redeem the welcome offer upon completion of your new account. To set up your account, you just have to enter basic identifying information, like your name, date of birth and mailing address. From there, just make an initial deposit to cover your $5 bet. You can use a credit card, debit card, PayPal account or several other convenient options to make your deposit. From there, place your $5 bet and wait for it to settle. If you win the $300 in bonus bets, you will have seven days to use them before expiration. MLB Boost Pack Offer At DraftKings When you are signed up with your new DraftKings Sportsbook account, one of the main in-app offers you can claim for this weekend is the MLB Live Profit Boost Pack. This will give you three profit boost tokens to use on MLB live bets for this weekend's games. The profit boost percentages may vary for these tokens, and the minimum odds for the bet are -250. These tokens will expire at the end of each day they are offered. Newsweek may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up through the links in this article. See the sportsbook operator's terms and conditions for important details. Sports betting operators have no influence over newsroom coverage.

Newsweek

a day ago

• Newsweek

AI Impact Awards 2025: SailGP Delivers Data to Teams, Augmented Reality to Fans

How do you create an intimate fan experience for an event that takes place miles away from shore? Artificial intelligence. High-speed catamaran racing series SailGP is doing just that, providing fans with a deeper understanding of the sport and enhancing the entertainment factor. SailGP is the winner of Newsweek's AI Impact award in the category of Best Outcomes, Sports Broadcasting/Streaming for redefining data-led sports storytelling through AI to bring sailing to new fans. Each year, the Rolex SailGP Championship features 12 national teams battling for a title, sailing identical 50-foot catamarans at speeds well over 60 miles per hour. Racers from Great Britain, Switzerland and Australia, among others, race on waterfronts in New York City, Sydney, Auckland, Dubai and beyond. SailGP has taken a fan-first approach to the events, catering to both those in the grandstands and those watching at home. Broadcasts reach more than 200 million TVs across 212 countries and territories. During a race, SailGP uses Oracle Cloud Insights to process 56 billion points of data via 125 sensors on each boat. That data is received via a private 5G network using RF mesh. The result is a product called LiveLine, an augmented reality (AR) overlay tool that helps existing and new fans better understand the on-screen action of the races. "The use of AI almost feels like a natural progression, given that we're a sport that's heavily based on on data," Melissa Lawton, chief content officer at SailGP, told Newsweek. "And because we're such a data rich sport, we can do a lot with that." AI Impact Winner: SAIL GP AI Impact Winner: SAIL GP Newsweek Illustration No matter where the race is happening, LiveLine is produced from SailGP's offices in London. New graphics opportunities that push the boundaries of fan interactions are delivered to television screens. AI helps make that happen. Using AI image detection, the boat cameras detect human shapes, strides and biometrics to generate AR identifier graphics for athletes as they move around the boat. This helps viewers at home identify the individuals, who generally all look nearly identical to the naked eye with matching wetsuits, goggles and helmets. "The athletes go from side to side. And one of our really big issues was, as this camera is following athletes going from side to side, [viewers] couldn't really detect who the athletes were. And for a new viewer, everyone looks the same," Lawton said. "Using AI image detection to figure out the height of the athlete, the weight, their stride, length, their positioning, through that same sort of algorithm to then automatically pop the athlete's name above the head in a moving graphic. That graphic that sort of moves with them in augmented reality, in our augmented reality suite of graphics. This is revolution." Using AI predictions, SailGP can display to viewers which boat has the right of way while showing explainer graphics on the screen. SailGP was recognized as Best Outcomes, Sports Broadcasting/Streaming in the Sports category. There were more than a dozen, including ones focused on sustainability, health care and customer service. The 38 total winners were selected by a panel of AI and subject matter experts. Additionally, AI-powered race marks, developed in partnership with ePropulsion, use GPS, negating the need to anchor each mark to the sea bed, avoiding damaging the local environment. These marks have AI-operated cameras that use Oracle's anomaly detection software to predict which boats are most likely to experience an issue, crash or near miss. Lawton said: "If the boats look like they're about to collide, or in a position where they could be on a trajectory to collide immediately, or if something's not working optimally on the boat, it sends a signal directly to our data analysts and the team to give them a warning. "This anomaly detection is actually a medical tool that vendors of Oracle use to find medical issues within the human body. They can sort of say, 'this is an unusual cell,' or deep detection of a medical issue can be found by using literally data and analytics through AI." Buoys equipped with cameras are able to capture footage that is traditionally unavailable. "They are in the middle of the racecourse in, I would say, an area that would be too dangerous for a human to be gives us really cool shots that we can post either immediately to social [media] and really fun and weird shots that we can send straight out that our fans love. SailGP's AI-enhanced race coverage for television audiences. SailGP's AI-enhanced race coverage for television audiences. SailGP "It gives us another angle on crashes that we wouldn't have just through our broadcast available camera... I would say it's a camera that's always knowing where the excitement might be happening, and therefore is more efficient for us," Lawton said. Efficiencies have been achieved in procuring and producing video, as well as gathering and understanding data, but that doesn't mean SailGP is eliminating positions within the company. Instead, they're growing their team, capitalizing on priorities and opportunities as it builds its audience. "In live sports, the faster we can get content out, the faster we can get relevant content out, the more consistently we can get it out, the better it is for our overall viewership and numbers down the line," Lawton said. To see the full list of AI Impact winners, visit the official page for Newsweek's AI Impact Awards. Newsweek will continue the conversation on meaningful AI innovations at our AI Impact Summit from June 23 to 25 in Sonoma, California. Click here for more information and to register for the event.

Yahoo

2 days ago

• Yahoo

It's crucial that Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars avoided sacks this year

Pressure causes sacks. Shocking statement, I know. But, what if I told you that sacks as a statistic are far more indicative of quarterback play rather than the offensive line. Let's take a look at sacks in the NFL and just what they mean to an offense. Sacks are a death sentence for offensive drives in the NFL. Since 2020, score rates drop from 41.2% on drives without a sack to just 23.3% on drives with at least one sack according to TruMedia. Advertisement The difference in points scored on those drives is even more drastic. On drives without a sack, teams scored an average of 2.26 points per drive compared to a mere 1.03 points per drive on those with at least one. A single sack on any given drive cuts a team's average points per drive by more than 50%. It's for this reason why offensive line play and thus a quarterback's ability to avoid sacks are so important. Everyone talks about how important pass-protection is, but not enough conversation is had regarding a quarterback's ability to avoid sacks. It might be the single-most underrated talent in the NFL today. >>> STREAM ACTION SPORTS JAX 24/7 LIVE <<< Advertisement An easy way to justify sacks being a quarterback stat rather than that of the offensive line is looking at the least sacked quarterbacks in NFL history by percentage. It's by no coincidence that Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes all find themselves within the top-ten. Avoiding sacks isn't just about escaping and making plays off script, it's also about knowing where to go with the ball when in the face of pressure. It's actually a fairly reliable way to evaluate quarterback talent. The active leaders in sack rate are Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert. Sack rate on pressured drop backs, however, is an even better indicator of a quarterback's ability to avoid sacks as it normalizes pressure rate differences between teams. For instance, due to the Jaguars' and Dolphins' extremely quick time to throw, it naturally reduces the chances of pressures occurring and therefore sacks as well. That's partially why Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa's sack rates are so low. When looking at pressure to sack rates, none have been better than Mahomes and Allen. Advertisement Mahomes led in 2022 and was second in 2023. Allen led in 2023 and was second in 2024. For context, Mahomes' career pressure to sack rate is 12.4% and Allen's is 12.9%. In regards to the Jaguars, Lawence has historically been pretty solid at avoiding sacks, all the way back to his college days. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Pressure to sack rates have been a fairly transferable statistic from college to the NFL. Trevor Lawrence's 16.4% pressure to sack rate in the NFL is nearly identical to his 16.7% rate during his final season at Clemson. While most pressure to sack rates don't change much over the course of a player's career, Lawrence has sadly regressed each of the last three seasons despite his pass-protection improving. According to Pro Football Focus, Lawrence posted a career best 14.5% pressure to sack rate (6th) in 2021. He then posted a 14.6% in 2022 (5th), 18.4% in 2023 (18th), and finally 20.0% in 2024 (17th). Each year, he's regressed in his ability to avoid sacks. It's hard to nail down the exact reason or reasons for this gradual decline. Lawrence's ability to create plays outside of the pocket has similarly declined over time. Advertisement In 2022, Lawrence ranked fourth in EPA per play. That number dropped to just 31st in 2023, and then all the way to dead last (40th) this past season. In 2024, Lawrence completed just seven of his 29 pass attempts outside the pocket (24.1%) according to Fantasy Points. For reference, that ranked 39th among 39 qualifying quarterbacks and quite frankly it wasn't close. Anthony Richardson, who was 38th, completed 40.4% of his attempts outside the pocket. Lawrence has shown that he's capable of being among the best in the NFL both at avoiding sacks and at producing outside of the pocket, however, that hasn't been the case the last couple of seasons. The additions of a new staff, interior offensive line, as well as Travis Hunter and Dyami Brown should do wonders for Lawrence in 2025. The support staff is there and better than ever for Lawrence, It's time for him to right the ship and get the Jacksonville Jaguars back to the playoffs. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action Sports Jax 24/7 live.