We are thrilled today to announce our acquisition by Slinger, a leading connected sports company.
“When I first founded PlaySight with my partner and our CTO Evgeni Khazanov, we had big plans to bring AI video technology to all levels of tennis and ball sports. It has been an amazing journey with a great team, and I believe that Slinger is the right company to take our technology platform to new heights in tennis and our other key sports,” said PlaySight Interactive Co-Founder and CEO, Chen Shachar. “We share many commonalities from the launch in tennis to the focus on consumer and sports connectivity. Mike and his team have very bold aspirations to build a leading global brand powered by AI technology, and we are thrilled to join their team and add our capabilities and experience. I believe Slinger is very well positioned to further commercialize PlaySight’s technology and drive even more meaningful value for athletes, coaches, teams, fans and the entire sports market.”
Selected twice by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in Sports, PlaySight first launched its proprietary SmartCourt™ platform in tennis, its flagship sport. Today, hundreds of thousands of athletes, coaches and fans use PlaySight each day across all major sports, from leading tennis federations, academies, colleges and multi-sport destination venues to NBA Champions and professional sports clubs and leagues.
Since inception, PlaySight has attracted investment from industry leaders including Billie Jean King, Novak Djokovic, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras and PlaySight Ambassadors Darren Cahill, Ana Ivanovic, Tommy Haas, and Paul Annacone. Other notable 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.
“We see immediate complimentary business integrations across our brand portfolio that will better serve the tennis ecosystem, as well as drive exciting longer-term commercial opportunities through the integration of advanced technologies across the entire Slinger portfolio,” concluded Mike Ballardie, Slinger CEO.
George Mackin, PlaySight Chairman and former owner of Tennis.com and Tennis Magazine, commented, “The board is excited to have PlaySight as a significant part of the visionary Slinger Group of companies, and I am looking forward to working with Mike and his team in architecting an industry-leading connected sports company in the coming months and years.”
Click here to read today’s news release in its entirety.