Remember Jeremy Bloom? The standout football star at the University of Colorado some 20 years ago? The Olympian skier with Centennial State roots and NFL aspirations? Well, he’s back. And now, he’s doing something very different – and very ambitious – with artificial intelligence.
Bloom, who grew up in Loveland, Colorado, was raised in a high-achieving family. His mother, Charlene, was a ski and fly-fishing instructor, and his father, Larry, was a clinical psychologist. Jeremy's sister, Molly Bloom, achieved her own fame – not in athletics, but in the high-stakes world of underground poker. Her memoir, Molly’s Game, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film directed by Aaron Sorkin. (And just for the record, Jeremy's brother, Jordan, is a cardiovascular surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.)
Jeremy’s athletic prowess emerged early. At just 15, he became the youngest male freestyle skier to ever make the U.S. Ski Team. And when he hit Folsom Field at CU Boulder, he made waves there, too – earning All-American honors as a freshman wide receiver and punt returner. By the time he wound down his athletic pursuits, he had competed in two Winter Olympics in freestyle skiing, racked up 10 World Cup gold medals, and spent time in the NFL with the Eagles and Steelers. Bloom was synonymous with speed and spectacle.
CEO of the X Games & Executive Chairman of Owl AI
Today, Bloom is applying that same energy and vision as CEO of the X Games and executive chairman of Owl AI, a Boulder-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to help improve fairness in sports officiating and judging. In launching Owl AI, Bloom is merging two powerful currents in his life: a love of high-performance athletics and a desire for objective, tech-driven improvement in how competitions are scored.
Owl AI emerged from a six-week sprint leading up to this past winter’s X Games in Aspen. Working with the former head of AI Solutions Architecture at Google, Josh Gwyther (now CEO of Owl AI), Bloom helped oversee the creation of a machine-learning system that could analyze live sports footage and assist judges in real time. The system proved to be so effective that it correctly predicted the men’s SuperPipe podium results before the official judging came in.
The results were hard to ignore – and Bloom knew they were onto something. In the months since, Owl AI has formalized its team, launched out of Boulder, and has raised $11 million in seed funding. The round was led by California-based S32, a firm founded by former Google Ventures chief Bill Maris, with participation from Menlo Ventures and Susa Ventures.
Removing Human Bias From Judging & Officiating
Owl AI's core proposition is simple: remove human bias and inconsistency from judging and officiating by layering AI onto the process. The system isn’t intended to replace judges, but to augment them, providing consistent, data-driven analysis and the ability to check calls against large training sets and real-time modeling. The system also has the potential to support multilingual commentary, coaching insights, and audience engagement tools.
"We believe there's an opportunity to make sports fairer and more transparent," Bloom told Fast Company. "This isn’t about taking away the human element – it’s about removing preventable error."
Expanding upon that idea, Bloom said in a statement to Boulder's Daily Camera:
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 technology, still in its early days, is already generating interest beyond the action-sports world. Owl AI plans to expand into traditional team sports like basketball and football, the latter an arena where Bloom's own experience and credibility give the company a unique edge. Other judged events such as gymnastics, figure skating, and diving are also in Owl AI's sights.
The company is showcasing its ever-improving, AI-assisted judging tools at the Summer X Games, taking place this weekend in Salt Lake City.
The Competitive Field
While Owl AI is carving out a new niche by focusing on fairness in scoring and real-time judging assistance, it's not the only company exploring the intersection of AI and sports.
Hudl, for example, provides AI-enhanced video analysis tools used by high school, college, and professional teams for coaching and player development. Pixellot offers automated sports production and AI analytics solutions that are used in everything from amateur leagues to professional broadcasts. These platforms focus more on performance tracking and broadcasting, whereas Owl AI is zeroing in on judging objectivity and officiating support.
What differentiates Owl AI is its focus on real-time decision-making during competition and the potential to transform how judging is performed in both subjective and fast-paced sports environments.
Looking Ahead
Though Owl AI is a young company, the ambition behind it is unmistakable. With a solid leadership team, national media buzz, and successful pilots at Aspen and Salt Lake City, the startup is poised to make waves in both the sports and tech communities. Its Boulder base places it squarely in Colorado's growing AI ecosystem, and Bloom’s journey – from Loveland to CU to the world stage – offers an inspiring narrative for the entire region.
As the Summer X Games take place this weekend, all eyes will be on the athletes. But behind the scenes, a real revolution is taking shape – one that could redefine how we understand fairness, judgment, and excellence in sports. And once again, Jeremy Bloom is at the center of the excitement.
