Slinger is growing the company beyond a portable ball machine for tennis.
In the last few months Slinger, the maker of a highly portable tennis ball machine, has shown a desire to move well beyond just a single Slinger Bag product. In June it bought Foundation Tennis, a software application focused on providing business services for tennis facilities. Then came the September purchase of Gameface.AI, an artificial intelligence technology that can provide instant analysis of biomechanics. In October, Slinger followed that all up with the acquisition of PlaySight, a sport video, data capture and performance analytics company.
Slinger has become much more than a ball machine.
"We know that the world is becoming more connected," says Mike Ballardie, CEO, and former executive at Wilson and CEO of Prince. "Consumers will be able to tap into a 'smart' infrastructure, such as smart courts, to get deep insights into everything about their game. The time is opportune to provide sports consumers access to all levels of the sport—watch, play, learn—with insights and real-time data in ways they have never been able to access before.
Slinger launched product in 2020 with a portable ball machine for tennis. Since that time, it has added partnerships and ambassador roles with the likes of Patrick Mouratoglou and his Mouratoglou Academy, Genie Bouchard, Darren Cahill, David Grutman and Dustin Brown. In August, Slinger announced $11 million in an oversubscribed round and in September a 349% increase in first quarter fiscal 2021 net sales with new orders totaling $3.7 million.
Patrick Mouratoglou has become an ambassador for Slinger and he uses the product at the Mouratoglou ... [+]
This all signifies a shift of Slinger from just a hard goods brand into a connected sports technology company. "Slinger's new group of companies will appeal to the full spectrum of consumers in each sport vertical, whether that be fans, coaches, players, administrators, colleges, high schools, private facilities, academies or professional athletes," Ballardie says, "providing access to a wide variety of content and performance analytics to facilitate the watch, play and learn elements of sport."
Ballardie says they believe the coming years will show an acceleration in consumer adoption of the sports technology industry.
The current growth of the brand is attributed to delivering "fun, convenience and accessibility" regardless of skill level. The product itself allows players to get out and hit tennis balls virtually anytime, anyplace and anywhere. The next phase of growth, then, comes from layering technologies, such as AI, visual learning, deep-data analysis and video production and live streaming across the product.
Canadian tennis player Genie Bouchard is a Slinger ambassador.
"Each of the portfolio companies have experience and expertise in certain areas of the technology landscape," Ballardie says, "and we are fitting the puzzle pieces together to do what we have done with the Slinger Bag: focus unwaveringly on delivering value for the consumer."
The most recent acquisition of PlaySight ups the brand's AI video capabilities and taps into automated production, live streaming, data and analytics. It also brings with it a recurring revenue stream of sports clients and content subscribers.
"PlaySight pioneered the deployment of AI video technology and analysis in tennis and other major sprots and is now amongst the largest technology providers in the market," Ballardie says.
PlaySight first launched its proprietary SmartCourt platform in tennis. The technology has now spanned to tennis federations, academies, colleges and destination venues while moving into basketball in the NBA with over half the league training with the technology, along with teams in MLB and the NHL.
The Slinger product offers a portable ball machine option for tennis.
Chen Shachar, PlaySight co-founder and CEO, says Slinger can take the technology platform "to new heights in tennis and our other key sports."
The Gameface.AI product produces instant analysis of groundstrokes and biomechanics, as well as event recognition from match-play situations, through phone cameras. The technology was already part of the Slinger app before the acquisition.
Foundation Tennis software has over one million individual facility members registered on its platform and provides business services for the tennis industry, including operational and payments software as well as digital platform management.
Slinger Bag.
"We will now be better able to know and understand the specific needs of tennis players, member clubs and tennis facilities around the world and in doing so make use of this knowledge to drive monetization of our user base through offering a range of value-enhancing products and services," Ballardie says.
From the launch of the Slinger Bag, the company has used ambassadors for credibility. "From leading coaches to tennis legends and current stars, we've been able to collaborate with some of the most-respected and prominent names in the sport," Ballardie says, "and we are just getting started."
This ambassador and influencer program has helped bring an "authentic tennis story" to customers and he says moving beyond tennis will come next, first with other racket sports and then to baseball, softball and cricket. Recent acquisitions also give Slinger a presence in sports betting and the company will further develop this through partnerships that leverage their real-time data.
"We are now positioned to lead the market in core sports," Ballardie says, "and deliver to consumers an immersive sports experience."
