Jeremy Bloom, a Boulderite, ex-ski pro and former University of Colorado football standout who was tapped in late 2024 as the new CEO of the X Games, has raised $11 million from investors to commercialize The Owl AI, a technology platform introduced during January’s X Games in Aspen that uses artificial intelligence to judge sporting events such as a snowboarding halfpipe contest.

“When we launched The Owl in Aspen, the mission was clear: to modernize and elevate how sports are judged, experienced, and understood, using the power of AI,” Bloom said in a prepared statement. “What I didn’t anticipate was the immediate surge of excitement among all the stakeholders including athletes and also other leagues. It was obvious that we were on to something big and necessary.”

Helmed by newly hired CEO Josh Gwyther, The Owl AI is headquartered in Boulder, where Bloom still lives. Gwyther, also based in Boulder, formerly led AI efforts for Google Cloud.

“Bringing Josh, who is one of the top AI minds in the world, to the frontline of sports marks a major moment, not just for The Owl, but for the entire world of sports technology,” Bloom’s statement said. “Josh’s expertise, paired with my athlete-first vision, will enable us to redefine fairness, engagement and the future of competition.”

The Owl AI platform, which made successful podium predictions during this winter’s X Game’s Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final, “is built to serve as a new layer of intelligence and objectivity for athletes, fans, coaches, and officials alike — across all sports,” the company said. “In an era where the sports betting market has exploded from $400 million in 2018 to over $16 billion in 2025, there’s never been a more urgent need for trusted, unbiased officiating systems. Owl’s AI capabilities help deliver exactly that: real-time scoring, referee assist tools, and video review enhancements that remove human bias and elevate competitive integrity.”

The Owl AI recently raised an $11 million seed round led by S32, a venture capital investment outfit formed by Google Ventures founder Bill Maris, with participation from Menlo Ventures and Susa Ventures.

An All-American kick returner for the Buffs, Bloom was a three-time world champion skier and an 11-time World Cup medalist when he earned his way onto the 2002 U.S. Olympic team to represent the nation in Salt Lake City. There, he finished ninth. In 2006 at Turin, Italy, he moved up to fourth.

Within the same week of failing to medal at Turin, he flew to Indianapolis for the annual NFL Scouting Combine — the tryout camp where young athletes display their abilities before the coaches and owners of NFL teams — and a month later, he was drafted in the sixth round by the Philadelphia Eagles. Injuries sidelined him there, and he ended up playing pre-season only. He moved on to the Pittsburgh Steelers and was ultimately cut before appearing in a game.

During his time at the NFL, he was enrolled at Wharton, the business school at the University of Pennsylvania, where his interest in business and technology grew.

Bloom then founded the Wish of Lifetime nonprofit, which fulfills wishes of senior citizens in their 80s, 90s and 100s, in 2008, and two years later embarked on his first private, for-profit venture: a business-to-business software firm called Integrate Inc.

In the months since taking over as CEO of the X Games, which next year will launch a new teams-based format called X Games League, Bloom has built out the 30-year-old event series’ leadership team with high-profile veterans of both the sports and technology worlds.

Kevin O’Connor, who has worked with Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE), Peter Millar and Beats by Dre., was hired in May as the X Games’ chief marketing officer.

Prior to O’Connor’s hiring, Bloom recruited Cherie Cohen, most recently global chief revenue officer at World Surf League, to that same role with X Games, while corporate finance veteran Keith Senglaub joined the organization as its global chief financial officer.

Annie Lokesh, former WNBA business transformation director, recently joined the X Games team as its head of XGL, where she will “league operations, growth initiatives, and growth strategy, and the competitive structure of what will become a first-of-its-kind global action sports league,” according to an X Games news release.

The company also recently added Sarah Farnsworth, a former senior defense official with the U.S. Dept. of Defense and senior vice president for the San Diego Padres, as chief of staff and head of communications, and Tim Messner, formerly Dish Network’s general counsel, as chief legal officer.

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