Elite professional athletes receive handsome salaries, and represent the major portion of a team’s assets. As a result, their organizations are willing to spend money to make sure that they are healthy and performing at their peak. As a result, pro sports has long been a proving ground for a wide range of health technologies. Now comes news of a French soccer team that is testing a new ingestible device to track player biometric data.

FC Nantes has announced that the club has used the BodyCap temperature monitoring device on 10 players during two recent games. The BodyCap is a smart pill that measures an individual’s body core temperature every 30 seconds. This data can be retrieved remotely using a monitor device when it comes within about 10 feet from the person. FC Nantes is using the device to track players’ ability to regulate their body temperatures during warm up and game play, and then monitor their temperature during recovery periods. The data is especially useful when treating players with an ice bath to rapidly drop their temperature after a game, which helps reduce aches and pains that result from their exertions during play. Having individual data from each player can help the training staff understand the differences in how their bodies react to the exercise and the subsequent cooling.

Professional sports has the resources to explore the value of new technology, such as this smart pill. This can not only help prove the value of these new devices, but can also pay for initial development and production, leading to lower-cost consumer products that will benefit many more people.