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In today's edition of Power Up:
- GameChanger continues enhancing platform with AI
- Sportlight and Saudi Pro League ink deal
- SuperSpeed Golf rolls out app
How GameChanger is growing its reach with AI-powered features to enhance user experience
Youth streaming platform GameChanger keeps growing in impact. In 2023, more than six million unique users (like coaches, players and family members of athletes) interacted with GameChanger, an 11% year-over-year increase.
That reach – created through the streaming of seven million-plus games last year – has been met with a steady push to enhance the user experience with artificial intelligence. Last year, GameChanger released AutoStream , a computer vision-powered stream for basketball that shifted with the action. And this week, a second AI enhancement emerged: Film Room . This feature cuts down on dead-ball sequences of game film for basketball and volleyball, a pressure valve on the film review and clipping process that bogs down a youth coach’s workload.
GameChanger president Sameer Ahuja pointed to it as a next step of evolution in this tech-enhanced support of users.
“The vision is a set-it-and-forget-it future, where you mount [the phone] in a tripod and you get all the insight that’s going to come from the film,” Ahuja told SBJ. “That’s going to be elements of the film, it’s going to be obviously stats, and there’s components to it.”
Film Room took about six months to arrive from ideation. It’s boosted by AI models created from millions of games in the GameChanger archives to recognize the differences between live play and downtime. Ahuja said that Film Room has produced a high-90 percentile in accuracy.
With GameChanger handling the cut up of film, coaches have a fast track to getting the right tape to players and can lean into the teaching of their sport.
“When you think about time constraints that you have,” Ahuja said, “when you think about time constraints that you have, to be able to do that with the speed that you can do it now, it’s going to be noticeable for coaches.”
Ahuja pointed to these two AI features as Lego pieces. The GameChanger engineering team – which added nine AI/CV developers last year and plans to expand more in 2025 – are working to build other Legos to fit and stack together. With this foundation created, Ahuja added, GameChanger now has more capabilities that it can offer, and an ability to begin rolling them out at a much quicker clip.
“We think in youth sports – also in pro sports, kind of the whole spectrum of play – we think this is going to be table stakes,” Ahuja said. “And we want to continue to be at the forefront of it.”
Sportlight signs multiyear deal with Saudi Pro League
Sportlight, which uses Lidar and AI for player tracking, has reached its first commercial, league-wide deal with the Saudi Pro League to become its exclusive provider of player tracking and performance insights. This multiyear agreement follows recent acceptance into the MLS Innovation Lab , work with the majority of English Premier League clubs and pilot projects with franchises in the NBA, NHL and MLB. Sportlight is installed in every EPL stadium, but that was done ad hoc and without a formal league relationship.
Most league tracking systems rely only on camera-based technologies whereas Sportlight primarily uses Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging and is a laser-based system best known for its use in autonomous vehicles. Sportlight uses cameras to assist with player identification, but Lidar is its differentiator, with CEO Raf Keustermans explaining that it more directly measures movement rather than derives it via optical tracking.
SuperSpeed Golf launches mobile app, subscription service
Golf speed training company SuperSpeed Golf is rolling out its first mobile app and adding a subscription service as the company celebrates its 10-year anniversary.
SuperSpeed was founded in 2014 as a company that utilizes data and targeted speed training for golfers of all levels, with its main product being a three-piece set of weighted clubs that retails for around $150. The company has had ambassadors including the LPGA’s Cheyenne Knight and PGA Tour Champions player Padraig Harrington.
“What many golfers do not have access to is the comprehensive nature of the way a tour player goes about managing their overall training program,” said Mike Napoleon, SuperSpeed’s president. “Every player out on tour now has a golf coach and has a fitness trainer and has all of these pieces that are connected so that what they're doing in their swing is reinforced by what they're doing in the gym and is reinforced by what they're doing in their speed work. We wanted to try, at least on a microcosm of the speed and power side, to bring that more connected and comprehensive training program to golfers that don't have access to a tour level coaching team.”
The app, which was developed in house, will put users through a speed data assessment and look at the player’s body movements. It then will recommend various protocols through speed training mechanics, fitness drills and even grip strength.
There will be two versions of the app: free and paid. The free version will still allow users to access a training program, data and various speed gains acquired. The premium version ($9.99 per month) will include the physical assessment and other customized programming.
In addition to the app, Napoleon said SuperSpeed will debut a second-generation speed training system at the PGA Show in January, the first major update to the training set since the company’s founding.
SuperSpeed works with Fidelity Sports Group’s Drew Carr on its partnerships.