On March 9th, Little League Baseball and Softball, the world’s largest organized youth sports program, announced that one of the leaders in live scorekeeping and game updating for amateur sports, GameChanger, would continue to be an approved licensed scorekeeping tool for the 2015 season.
GameChanger, which is an iOS app that is free for coaches and teams to use, will continue to allow users to have access to detailed statistics, records and tracking metrics. Parents and fans can also follow their favorite teams and kids from their mobile device.
During this year’s Little League World Series, which will be the third year that the app has provided digital stats for the tournament, a total of 35 iPad’s will be used to record every pitch with the GameChanger app.
“Working with GameChanger is an excellent opportunity for our teams and coaches to integrate technology into their games,” Elizabeth DiLullo Brown, Little League Baseball and Softball Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, said in a press release. DiLullo went on to explain that the app helps 2.4 million players around the world keep stats and records games more easily.
This partnership helps Little League to stand out from other youth leagues by being proactive in using analytics and GameChanger gets to provide services for one of the most famous youth leagues in the world.
GameChanger’s partnership with Little League is not the only baseball related partnership it has entered into in the past week. Major League Baseball and USA Baseball announced that GameChanger had become the first Pitch Smart certified app.
This partnership means that Pitch Smart, which is a joint venture between the MLB and USA Baseball that provides practical, age-appropriate guidelines to help parents, players and coaches prevent overuse injuries, will promote GameChanger as an approved app and an officially certified method of tracking player’s pitches. Additionally, GameChanger will use Pitch Smart’s guidelines and other pitch counting features in its app and website.
GameChanger will also provide all tournament administrators with spreadsheets that will show pitch counts for all players.
Regarding the partnership, Chris Marinak, the MLB’s Sr. VP of League Economics and Strategy said in a press release, “The GameChanger app is a great way for players, parents, and coaches to track pitching workload and ensure young pitchers stay healthy.” GameChanger CEO, Ted Sullivan also commented in a press release on the new partnership, saying, “By working with Pitch Smart, we can increase understanding of the guidelines for coaches and pitchers and provide a better way to track pitching workloads across competitions and teams.”