Slinger Bag announced that it has agreed to acquire PlaySight Interactive Ltd., a provider of sports video technology, data capture, analytics and automated video production.
“This is a truly historic day for Slinger, bringing together the recent series of closed and announced acquisitions and supporting our evolution into a leading global connected sports company,” said Mike Ballardie, CEO, Slinger. “PlaySight pioneered the deployment of AI video technology and analysis in tennis and other major sports and is now amongst the largest technology providers in the market. Our goal is to create a full suite of ‘Watch, Play and Learn’ solutions, the three largest commercial activities in every sport. To accomplish this, we are building a 360-degree platform of products and services to meet the needs of our tennis consumers today and for other major sports over the next few years. With the acquisition of Foundation Tennis and the announced deals to acquire PlaySight and Gameface.AI, we now have the pieces in place to serve today’s sports consumers in a multitude of ways, from a SaaS business platform to video, streaming and production to artificial intelligence,” continued Ballardie.
PlaySight has attracted investment from Billie Jean King, Novak Djokovic, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, and PlaySight Ambassadors Darren Cahill, Ana Ivanovic, Tommy Haas, and Paul Annacone. Other investors include Verizon Ventures, Greg Norman’s Great White Shark Opportunity Fund, Unbound Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Naver, OurCrowd, and Tennis Partners, the former owners of the Indian Wells/BNP Paribas Masters Series.
Upon closing, Slinger will acquire 100 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of PlaySight in exchange for 28,333,333 shares of Slinger’s common stock plus additional contingent (earnout) considerations. The transaction is valued at an estimated $82,000,000 based on the Slinger’s previous market close. Dechert, LLP and Naschitz, Brandes, Amir & Co. are serving as advisors to Slinger. Sullivan & Triggs, LLP, Shiffer, Schneider and Co., and MJ Hudson are serving as advisors to PlaySight.
