Member focus
Sportlight
This edition's Northridge TRACK member focus looks at Sportlight, a sports tech business leveraging tracking technology originally developed in the military to provide Premier League clubs and others with highly precise information on player performance.
Background
It's common to see technology developed in the sporting world then adapted for other industries. The classic example is Formula 1, a sport which has produced numerous technological innovations used not only in road cars (e.g. active suspension, otherwise known as 'Sport' mode) but also within hospitals.
Sportlight, on the other hand, is a highly successful example of technology being developed elsewhere (in this case, for the military), then pivoting to be used in the sports world.
The origins of Sportlight started in a specialist R&D company, Createc, which developed threat analysis and tracking technology for those working in conflict zones. It may seem like a leap to go from conflict zones to the football pitch, but that reflects the bold approach of the team behind Createc and Sportlight: to focus on solving a problem but ensuring the solution is not industry-specific.
Raf Keustermans CEO, Sportlight
Our ambition at Sportlight is to become the gold standard for athlete performance and tracking, replacing legacy technologies as the main source of data for professional sports organisations.
What makes the tech so revolutionary?
Sportlight combines military-grade 'Light Detection and Ranging' (LiDAR) sensors (which are also used in autonomous vehicles) and artificial intelligence to produce highly precise and granular data on player tracking and performance. The key differentiators are:
- Hyper-accuracy: Through this technology, Sportlight gives teams a deeper insight into the tracking of highly complex athletic data such as acceleration, exit velocity and change of direction that had once been difficult, if not impossible, to measure to a hyper-accurate standard. Not only can this help with assessing athlete performance, but also (crucially) injury prevention given that sudden acceleration, deceleration and turns are often linked to injury risk.
- Consistency & robustness: Because LiDAR works everywhere (indoors and outdoors), as well as in all weather conditions, the technology has a high degree of consistency and robustness. By contract, legacy tracking technology often struggles in harsh weather conditions, indoors or near tall structures.
Recent news
The prospect of superior performance and tracking data has already attracted a number of high-profile sports teams to sign up with Sportlight, in particular across the English Premier League as well as a leading NBA team.
As well as attracting high-profile clients, Sportlight has recently completed a successful £4million funding round, with investors including Sport Republic (owner of Southampton FC), Bolt Ventures (a venture capital firm) and the former CFO of City Football Group (owner of Manchester City FC).
To hear the latest about Sportlight, click on the links on the right.
George Willis Managing Associate, Northridge
It's been great to support such an exciting sports tech company with a number of its contractual arrangements as it gains momentum both within the UK football industry and globally.
