Tag: Aviva

Aviva Insurance Ireland and ClubberTV join forces in multi-year partnership

Aviva Insurance Ireland, one of Ireland’s leading insurance providers, has today been announced as a major partner of ClubberTV, the fast-growing sports streaming platform transforming how grassroots GAA and community sport are brought to fans across Ireland and beyond.

The new partnership marks a significant moment for both organisations, bringing together Aviva’s long-standing commitment to Irish sport with ClubberTV’s innovative approach to live and on-demand sports coverage.

Under the new agreement, Aviva will become an official partner of all ClubberTV coverage for the upcoming 2025/26 season, with prominent branding integrated across Clubber’s live match broadcasts, digital platforms, and community outreach initiatives, reinforcing both organisations’ dedication to growing grassroots sport.

Speaking at the announcement, Declan O’Rourke, CEO at Aviva Insurance Ireland commented, “At Aviva Insurance Ireland, we understand the power of sport to connect communities, and grassroots GAA is at the heart of communities throughout the country. We are proud to support the growth and development of ClubberTV in making our national game more accessible to national and global audiences. We’re delighted to support a platform that gives communities more in terms of access, entertainment and inspiration”.

Founded in 2020, Clubber has become Ireland’s leading live streaming platform for local and grassroots sport. Using cloud-based technology, it removes the need for traditional broadcast infrastructure, enabling high-quality, live coverage from any location. This year alone, it will stream over 1,500 games, cementing its position as the go-to platform for grassroots and semi-professional sports. Clubber holds exclusive, multi-year GAA broadcast rights across Ireland and is actively expanding its footprint into additional counties, sports, and international markets.

Jimmy Doyle, CEO of Clubber TV added, “To welcome Aviva Insurance Ireland as our first major partner is a proud moment. It validates the vision we’ve had from day one: to unlock the power of local sport and bring it to fans everywhere. Together with Aviva, we look forward to increasing the visibility of grassroot sport.”

 Fans can watch games from 14 counties including the Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny Club Hurling Championships, as well as the Kerry, Kildare and Meath Club Football Championships, plus some of the Camogie Club Championships with flexible subscription options.

AI to supercharge Deepfakes, Ransomware and Phishing Attacks.

Every 39 seconds a cyberattack is happening somewhere in the world. And, while cybercrime involving large organisations, like the HSE or Sony, makes headlines; in reality, small and medium businesses are three-times more likely to be victims of attack, due to weak defences.

Current cyber threats facing businesses in Ireland, and what can be done to manage them, is the subject of the annual Irish Reporting and Information Security Service cybercrime conference, in Dublin in November.

IRISSCON 2024 takes place on November 6th next, at The Aviva Stadium in Dublin, featuring expert speakers and delegates from all over the world, as well as the popular Cybersecurity Challenge, testing the skills of would-be hackers to break the system!

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor for security software company, ESET, is a keynote speaker. With a 14-year background in the UK police force, in digital forensics and cybercrime, Moore now helps businesses bolster their cybersecurity, blending real-world crime insights and social engineering techniques, with advanced digital security strategy, to combat ever-evolving cyber threats.

Attackers have been known to spend over 200 days in an organisation’s network, unnoticed, before launching any sort of attack, he says.

“Once a hacker has breached an organisation’s network through unprotected endpoints, like a mobile phone, laptop or IoT device, it takes around one minute, 84 seconds on average, to move laterally and get deeper into the network.

“That is not a lot of time for any network security to react, and, once the harm is done, it takes 73 days, on average, to contain the breach. So, the objective is to prevent the network access in the first place.”

Ransomware and phishing attacks remain top threats, according to the ESET software developers. Cybercriminals use AI algorithms to analyse vast amounts of their target segments’ data. They look at social media profiles, online behaviour, recent purchases and other publicly available information to create very personalised phishing and social engineering attacks.
Your Voice is my Password

With Artificial Intelligence affecting every single industry, AI obviously benefits cybercriminals too, Jake Moore says.

“From text and image creation tools, to audio and video generation, the newest wave of cyberattacks is AI supercharged. New defences are needed to protect companies from this next generation of attacks.”

The ESET expert’s work with clients begins with some very telling practical examples of their vulnerabilities. Jake Moore has hacked businesses using AI voice cloning technology, stealing money, completely unnoticed, in minutes.

He has also, in the guise of work, hacked a police station. Having socially engineered his way into the police station, he was able to steal a laptop, break the encryption, hack into the entire network, and change the password of the Head of Professional Standards, without being caught.

Moore also engineered a targeted phishing attack, via LinkedIn, on the CEO of a company, illustrating how easy it is to manipulate people into handing over their account credentials, and data, using hacking tools widely available on the internet, (if you know where to look).

Simple social engineering techniques, like psychological manipulation, tricks users into making security mistakes, or giving away sensitive information, so the criminal can take over their email account, website, or even their life, the cybersecurity pro says.

Conference updates and bookings are available on the IRISSCON website: https://iriss.ie/irisscon/#about

Will Irish sports tech give Georgia Tech the edge this weekend?

As tens of thousands of Americans fly into Dublin this week for the Georgia Tech V Florida State Aer Lingus College Football Classic, the game presents a dynamic opportunity to promote the strength of the Irish-US business relationship and particularly the success of Irish sports tech companies in the USA.

This week, Enterprise Ireland will host an inward US buyer delegation with representatives from Atlanta Hawks, Pittsburgh Steelers and other US sports tech investors. The delegation will meet with Irish sports tech companies and will focus on the IRFU and Enterprise Ireland’s technology innovation programme, which provides Irish sports tech companies an opportunity to test, trial, and potentially scale their products in a professional rugby environment. Visiting the Sport Ireland Campus, the delegation will also meet with Sport Ireland, who lead the development of sport in Ireland, and who are collaborating with Enterprise Ireland to drive the development of Irish sports technology.

From NFL Teams to NBA Players, Irish sports tech has gained a dominant “behind the scenes” position with elite sports in the USA and globally. Their innovative solutions have been sought out by major global sporting powerhouses from the NFL and NBA to PGA golfers, Olympians, F1 Drivers and English Premier League soccer teams.

Irish sports tech companies Orreco and Output Sports are also working with Georgia Tech University.

  • Output Sports, a leader in elite sports-science technology works with Georgia Tech athletes to optimise their athletes’ training sessions and to achieve specific fitness goals. Output Sports enables coaches, sports scientists, and rehab professionals to fully understand and optimise their athletes’ performance using a single wearable sensor system. The company’s technology is used by sports practitioners across 30+ countries, including in the USA and in multiple sports, with flagship clients in the NFL, NWSL, MLB, NHL, WNBA and NBA.
  • Sports data company Orreco have been working with Georgia Tech Women’s Swim team since 2022, using Orecco’s FitrWoman app and FitrCoach platform. The app and coach platform, part of Orreco’s Te@m platform are also used by USA Swimming, USA Volleyball and global soccer teams including The Lionesses, NSWL teams, Women’s Super League teams and multiple Olympic Medal winners. Orreco’s AI platform helps athletes optimise performance, accelerate recovery and extend playing careers.

Today, Irish sports streaming company, Wiistream announced a collaborative alliance with US Youth Soccer (USYS), the largest youth sports organisation in the United States. The collaboration will see Wiistream explore streaming and content solutions for USYS, to enhance the sports experience for young athletes across the USA. Wiistream are previous participants of the US Techstars accelerator programme and have the backing of Enterprise Ireland and US Venture Capital firm Elevate Ventures. Having started life streaming GAA matches for fans during Covid-19, the company, with its US headquarters in Indianapolis, has since secured significant international breakthrough deals, including contracts with The Big3 and the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

Welcoming Enterprise Ireland’s US sports delegation to Ireland, Minister of State for Sport, Physical Education and the Gaeltacht, Thomas Byrne TD said: “The Aer Lingus College Football Classic provides a valuable opportunity to not only enjoy a great game of American college football play out on Irish soil but also, to deepen the Irish-US business relationship. It is clear that the future of Irish sport is one where digital technology will be embedded across all sports organisations and that is why our National Sports Policy recognises the importance of encouraging innovation in sport. We want to see Ireland’s strong sport tech industry continue to grow and I welcome the work being undertaken by Enterprise Ireland to enhance the Irish-US business relationship in this respect.”

Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, said: “We are proud to partner with the Aer Lingus College Football Game. It’s more than a game – it presents an important opportunity to promote the strength of the Irish-US business relationship and showcase Ireland’s dynamic business environment and innovators to the US visitors. The USA is the second largest export country for Enterprise Ireland clients, achieving exports of €5.9bn in 2023, up 5% on 2022. Across our 6 offices in the USA, we are focused on supporting Irish companies to achieve even greater scale in this market. On the sports tech front, this sector is achieving phenomenal global success, with major national and international sports leagues, athletes and brands turning to Ireland to drive performance.”

It was also announced today that the IRFU and Enterprise Ireland’s Technology Innovation Programme is set to continue for another season 2024/ 2025. The partnership will be showcased to the visiting US sports delegation, as part of events organised around the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in the Aviva. Through the programme, the IRFU has embraced Enterprise Ireland client technology to advance the game and the partnership has provided an invaluable opportunity for Irish sports tech companies, to test, validate and scale their innovations, working with teams across the organisation, including the national squad. To date five Enterprise Ireland sports tech companies have participated in the programme, including Output Sports, MoveAhead, RugbySmarts, Brace and Wiistream, resulting in commercial deals for three Enterprise Ireland clients, soon to be announced.

Mobile data usage surges during weekend events in Ireland

eir, Ireland’s leading telecommunications company, announced a milestone that they carried over 50 terabytes (TB) of data across its event mobile sites last weekend as a series of high-profile events took place across Ireland.

From the excitement of the Longitude Festival to the spectacular Taylor Swift at the Aviva and Shania Twain concerts at Malahide, the vibrant Dublin Pride Parade, the family-friendly Kaleidoscope Festival, and the iconic matches at Croke Park, eir’s network delivered seamless connectivity to thousands of customers.

To put this achievement in perspective, 50 TB of data is the equivalent of streaming 50,000 hours of video, which translates to non-stop watching for over five years.

On Sunday night, during Taylor Swift’s concert, twice as much data was carried over the eir mobile network compared to the Six Nations decider at the Aviva Stadium on March 16th, both of which were sold-out events. This highlights the significant difference in mobile data usage between Swifties and rugby fans.

Additionally, the data usage during the Taylor Swift concert was double that of the FAI Cup final in November and triple that of the Leinster versus Munster game in the same month. The surge in data usage was primarily driven by extensive video recording, sharing, and live streaming activities.

Fergal McCann, Chief Technology Officer at eir, commented on this achievement, stating, “The deployment of 5G technology and the addition of new mobile sites across the country have been crucial in handling the surge in data usage during these events. The Taylor Swift concerts alone showcased significant usage patterns, with fans live streaming and sharing their experiences. Compared to other major events like Six Nations games, the data usage was exceptionally high, demonstrating the growing demand for robust and reliable mobile connectivity.”

EV charging company Erapid announces €30 million investment by Aviva Investors and creation of 60 roles

Erapid Charger Company Limited (Erapid) has today announced an investment of €30 million by Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc. This investment will lead to the direct creation of 60 Irish jobs. Erapid trades in Ireland as EasyGo, Ireland’s largest private car charging network provider, and CarCharger EV Limited.

The phased investment, which is being made by Aviva Investors as part of its Climate Transition Real Assets strategy, will enable Erapid to rapidly expand CarCharger and EasyGo, increasing operational capabilities and its network of chargers. In addition, and as part of the transaction, Rubicon Capital Advisors, an Irish based merchant banking boutique and one of Erapid’s largest shareholders, will also increase its stake in the company to further assist with the growth of the business. Erapid plans to roll out over 3,000 fast DC chargers onto the national charging network by 2032. The company also plans to add over 20,000 commercial AC chargers into apartment, buildings, hotels and other key locations. To facilitate this next growth stage, the company’s new headquarters will be based in Maynooth, where the company has also established an operations support centre of excellence.

Chris Kelly, co-founder of Erapid, said: “Today’s announcement will accelerate our mission to decarbonise transport, providing accessible and efficient EV charging solutions across the island of Ireland and into the UK. As Ireland’s largest owner and operator of charging stations, this strategic investment by Aviva Investors propels us into an exciting phase of growth. One of the immediate goals resulting from this funding is the significant expansion of our network, including the rollout of over 3,000 fast chargers. We will also be hiring for up to 60 new roles across operations, customer support and sales.”

Mr Kelly added: “This marks an exciting new phase for Erapid and our two brands. With this funding, we will be strategically reviewing our market approach, with plans in place for an overall brand refresh to reflect the new vision and growth plans for the business. The EV sales market in Ireland is booming but needs the infrastructure to catch up. This investment combined with our history of introducing the latest charging technology to Ireland means we are well positioned to create and scale a seamless EV charging network that supports a sustainable future. We are delighted to be partnering with Aviva Investors, whose strong focus and presence in sectors including sustainability and commercial property mirrors our own. We look forward to working together to capitalise on synergies arising that can lead to future shared growth.”

Adam Irwin, Fund Manager, Infrastructure Equity, at Aviva Investors said: “Our investment into Erapid and its two core brands CarCharger and EasyGo is a terrific opportunity to invest into one of our home markets and support the growing Irish and Northern Irish EV charging sector. Ireland has some of the lowest public charger to EV ratios in the EU, giving potential for substantial growth in the platform as part of the transition from internal combustion engines and towards electric powertrains. We view this as a great opportunity for the money we look after on behalf of our clients to make a material contribution to delivering on the UK and Ireland’s net zero ambitions, whilst also meeting their long-term investment objectives.”

Conor Kelly, CEO of Rubicon said “Our further investment into the Erapid business demonstrates our confidence in the business, its two brands and its excellent management team to build Ireland’s premium EV car charger business and solidify its market leading position. We are also delighted to be making a significant investment in the build out of Ireland’s essential, and much needed, EV car charging infrastructure which will greatly assist Ireland with meeting its 2030 targets as laid out in the Climate Action Plan 2023 (CAP23).”

Erapid, through CarCharger and EasyGo, currently manages over 4,000 charging points in 1,500 locations across the island of Ireland which are currently used by more than 50,000 registered drivers. Approximately 2,000 new users have been added each month in 2023.