PrePlay closed its $3.1 million Series A last July, with RSE Ventures’ CEO Matt Higgins participating in that round as an angel investor.

The startup, which was founded in 2010 and has just clocked up its 100,000th registered user, acts as a second screen companion for live TV shows. It creates social gaming apps for smartphones and tablets that allow sports fans to compete with each other by predicting the outcome of the match — you know, just like they do down the pub anyway — such as in its PrePlay Football app, shown below:

Mike Trout and Robert Griffin III had monster breakout seasons last year, and they may very well be the future perennial all stars of their respective sports. But those names are already known to the average sports fan, just as the ordinary morning jogger knows all about barefoot running shoes and golf’s weekend warriors are experts on graphite club shafts.

We aren’t interested in that old news.

Rather, we wanted to know about the next big names, the ones poised to burst onto the scene in the coming months and years. We asked you, the readers, to point us in the right direction, and you didn’t disappoint. We picked the best of the bunch and have compiled our list of the athletes, companies, technologies, mobile apps and other sports names that you need to know in 2013:

The video connects the dots of the changing media world among news organizations, advertisers, social media, digital devices and sport events worldwide — and how all of the changes are resulting in quickly evolving content consumption habits

And until Sunday’s Super Bowl game and blackout, “real time” was pretty much just another overhyped fad to most, an empty buzzword. But this game was a turning point, a pivotal application of real real time by some of the biggest brands in the world. This year there was way less of the “let’s blow this thing out” or “let’s create the next Budweiser frogs” type of agency BS. For the first time, brands reacted quickly — in a relevant and authentic way.

With the Marlins out of the building, the stadium has been aggressively seeking world-class soccer matches to fill open dates. Colombia plays Guatemala on Feb. 6 in a friendly. Word is, a summer exhibition tournament featuring internationally known club teams is in the works. And, on Wednesday it was announced that Sun Life Stadium is one of 13 venues chosen to host matches during the 2013 Gold Cup, which runs July 7-28.

Led by team president and co-owner Gideon Yu-a former Facebook, YouTube and Yahoox ecutive—the Niners have been quietly plucking from the neighboring tech world to fill their top jobs. Rather than pursuing the normal Silicon Valley routine of bouncing between startups and hoarding stock options, the nucleus of tech veterans in the team’s executive offices focuses on everything from streamlining the draft scouting process to finding out how fans in different parts of the stadium can organize chants with their smartphones. They are, as Yu puts it, “fundamentally trying to rethink everything about live sports.”

Thuzio, a new company co-founded by former Giants star Tiki Barber, offers fans the opportunity to rent current and retired sports celebrities. The experiences available run from common events like lunches and corporate outings to the unique.

You can rent former Jets quarterback Ken O’Brien for a pickup game for $1,000 an hour. John Starks, the former Knicks star, is available for everything from coaching your recreation-league team ($2,500) to attending a game with you ($4,000). Barber can be booked for celebrations in which he would be happy to do karaoke. (His go-to song: Maroon 5′s “Sunday Morning.”)

We have the slides of her presentation here.

As usual, it’s a must read for anyone in the industry, or anyone with interest in technology.

This update to Meeker’s deck has new data, and new slides covering digital payments, education, and healthcare. There is also a new section on big data.