In January 2009, Bruce Ianni received the Pipeline Innovator of the Year award, but little did he know that he would be finding his partner for his next venture through the program.
Davyeon Ross and Ianni met through the Pipeline program despite being in different years, and they created a partnership around the passion that the two shared – basketball and technology. ShotTracker is a company that specializes in creating digital information about basketball practices and games. The technology does more than track shots, however. It tracks player movement and other key performance indicators in real-time.
The system is installed in a practice gym or arena. This system identifies player movement (through wearable sensors), the movement of the ball (through a chip in the ball), and actions by the players (shots, passes, rebounds, etc.). This can be utilized to provide analytics to coaches regarding the activities of players on the court. For example, on defense, identifying the physical location of players off-the-ball can create opportunities for coaches to refine positioning and ensure help from the weak side is available and moving at the right time. Ianni described the product and its capabilities as “ShotTracker is to gymnasiums as Wi-Fi is to coffee shops.” This also clearly expresses the goal of the company to become a ubiquitous gym feature.
The company is based in Kansas City – which has a rich relationship with the NAIA. Its primary customer base includes many universities – such as Texas Christian University, Kansas University, and the University of Oklahoma. These universities like the product because it creates reliable statistics that reflect actual behavior. In the past, the teams were required to assign managers, sometimes as many as five or six managers for a single practice, to watch and record game play statistics. ShotTracker simplifies and automates this process.
ShotTracker is part of the broader sports technology effort in the Midwestern United States. For example, many Silicon Prairie News readers are familiar with Hudl, a Lincoln-based video and statistics company. However, there are many others. And this sort of density has created opportunities for a variety of new sports technology companies in and around the Silicon Prairie.
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Investors and advisors have noticed. ShotTracker has received investment from both Magic Johnson Enterprises and David Stern, former commissioner of the National Basketball Association. These high-powered associations have been extremely beneficial for the organization in providing access and building relationships globally. For example, ShotTracker works with the Jr. NBA in a number of venues and circumstances. This program is global – including efforts in 70+ countries to expand the game.
This expansion creates rich opportunities for ShotTracker, and both founders are excited about the possibility to see ShotTracker grow to be an integral part of basketball all around the world.
You can read more about ShotTracker by visiting https://shottracker.com/.
