AMSTELVEEN, NETHERLANDS (November 17th, 2020) – With more than one million active tennis players, 20,000 padel players, and over 1,650 club associations, the KNLTB has been on a mission to get more people to play tennis and padel, increasing the significance of such sports in the Netherlands.
One of their latest moves toward this mission was to add PlaySight GO technology to stream wheelchair tennis, junior/pro tennis, and padel tournaments in high-quality, with scoreboard integration and PlaySight’s SmartScore stats available to their live streaming during breaks. When it comes to players and coaches, scoreboard and stats are also available after action, including extra features such as automated tags, slow-mo, and video editing tools.
We sat down with Hans Veldhuis, KNLTB’s Events Coordinator, to find out a bit more about this great initiative. Check out what he had to say:
How has the PlaySight GO been used at KNLTB?
“It has been implemented to meet one of our key goals this year: to bring more high-quality live events to our fans. PlaySight GO has had a big impact from the very beginning. We have been able to stream so many more events than we used to. Normally, we used to only stream once a year, during the national championships, but since purchasing a GO unit in July of 2020, we have streamed more than five live events between tennis, wheelchair tennis and padel. The easy setup, superior tech and affordability of GO has made it possible for the KNLTB to meet its goal of live streaming many more events to its fans.“
What has live streaming meant to your community of players, coaches and fans?
“Everyone is really enthusiastic about it. Players and coaches embrace it and use it to analyze the match they have played. Due to the current situation with COVID-19, fans are really happy they can watch matches they would otherwise not be able to watch live on-site. Furthermore, our referees are really happy with the SmartScore capabilities, powered by the MatchScorer app the system integrates to. It’s really easy to work for the refs and an incredible amount of insights for our viewers live, as well as players and coaches accessing the automated tags.”
How do you plan to use PlaySight looking into the future?
“We want to build a community of fans who can enjoy all of our big tennis and padel events. Such events will include the national championships, the national league, the youth championships, all big tournaments, and so on.“