Sports wearable and data and analytics company Catapult Sports announced Monday it launched a consumer product PLAYERTEK for footballers. According to Catapult, the player-tracking pod is the world’s first GPS-enabled performance wearable on the market for amateur footballers.
In 2016, Catapult acquired PLAYERTEK as part of $63 million purchase between the former company and XOS Digital, a sports video solution for coaches and officials.
“This is a true-world first,” Benoit Simeray, Chief Executive Officer of Consumer at Catapult Sports said in a statement. “This performance wearable brings together a series of cutting-edge technologies, forged in elite sports, in a package for the amateur competitive footballer. Developed in conjunction with top sport scientists, PLAYERTEK allows non-professionals to benefit from a subset of the insights and analytics used by the coaching staff of the world’s greatest football teams.
“For players looking to improve performance and raise their game, the data and insight generated by PLAYERTEK will allow them to see exactly how their performance improves over time. Not only this, but aspiring professionals will be able to measure themselves directly against world-class Premier League players.”
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The PLAYERTEK pod is worn on a player’s upper back and contains a series of smart sensors that wirelessly connect to iOS app on a smartphone device. Additionally, the advanced GPS device tracks top speed, distance covered, sprint distance and other various metrics. Its player-tracking technology and heat maps can measure a player’s positional changes during a match or practice to assess his or her performance with the overall team.
Users of the PLAYERTEK technology can also track their performance globally across the ‘World League’ setting. To date, Catapult — which recently launched its baseball analytics product — has worked with over 1,250 teams including Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Denver Broncos, Golden State Warriors and Real Madrid.
PLAYERTEK is now available for pre-order in the UK for £199 while it will be soon available for consumers in the United States, throughout other European countries and in Australian. Shipments are anticipated to start in May. The product will only be sold online.