Slinger announced the completion of its acquisition of PlaySight Interactive Ltd., a producer of video technology, analytics and automated video production for sports.
The company said it estimates revenues of approximately $35 million in the first 12 months of operations for the new group of companies comprised of Slinger, PlaySight Interactive, GameFace.AI, and Foundation Tennis.
“We now have all the pieces in place to execute on our ‘Watch, Play, Learn strategy,” said Mike Ballardie, CEO, Slinger. “Integration plans for both our PlaySight and GameFace.AI acquisitions have been underway for a while, and we expect to progress quickly as we build out our fully integrated platform later in the year.”
Founded in 2014, PlaySight’s technology footprint across sports includes:
- 18 NBA teams that use it for all performance video and training;
- 90 total professional teams across the NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB, and international leagues;
- 125 NCAA collegiate athletic programs in tennis, baseball and other sports;
- Over 100 sports clubs, facilities and academies, including LakePoint Sports, IMG Academy and the USTA National Campus; and
- Over 75 prep schools and high school programs in the U.S.
“We are building something unique in sports with our combined technological capabilities, connection to and deep understanding of the sports consumer through the products and services that we will offer,” continued Ballardie.
Billie Jean King, Novak Djokovic, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, and ambassadors Darren Cahill, Ana Ivanovic, Tommy Haas, and Paul Annacone have invested in PlayPlaySight. Other investor groups include Verizon Ventures, Unbound Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Naver, OurCrowd, and Tennis Partners, the former owner of the Indian Wells/BNP Paribas Masters Series.
PlaySight said it would debut a mobile sports broadcast platform later this year, as well as further enhancements to its existing streaming, data capture and automated production infrastructure.
“We have been on the leading edge of innovation in sports technology for many years and believe that the best is yet to come for this industry,” said PlaySight Interactive Co-founder and CEO, Chen Shachar. “With the widespread adoption of 5G, combined with the developments to camera technology and AI capabilities, we are just scratching the surface of technology’s impact on sports broadcasting, training and video replay/VAR. Combined with Slinger’s consumer expertise, we are excited for the months and years ahead as part of this new group.”
Dechert LLP acted as U.S. and English counsel and Naschitz, Brandes, Amir & Co. served as Israeli counsel for Slinger Bag.