New technology from startup ventures is transforming the global sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story and pitch their idea. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for inclusion in this series.
Company Name: Sports Data Labs
CEO: Mark Gorski
Founders: Mark Gorski, Stan Mimoto, Afshin Shafie, Alex Davis, George Ku, Tony Weber
Headquarters: Detroit & San Francisco
1. What is your elevator pitch?
Sports Data Labs provides the infrastructure to allow for in-game capture, analysis and distribution of real-time human data.
2. Problem & Solution
Advancements in data technologies (e.g., wearables and other hardware, 3rd party analytics and data management systems) are outpacing sports organizations’ ability to effectively adopt and manage them, thus limiting the potential value of data. Existing data infrastructure is not designed to support new technologies, which has led to the overly complex, highly fragmented and costly data solutions that exist today. Data aggregation has become both a necessity and a commodity, and on its own does not meet the full requirements of leading sports organizations.
The Sports Data Labs solution closes this gap. Our real-time capable platform allows for an ability to adopt new technologies that come to market while providing an easy way to get best-in-class analytics and insights regardless of internal capabilities. Our platform and supporting components aim to become the backbone for in-game data infrastructure in sport, with our all-in-one solution providing a seamless way to work with multiple wearable sensors, other data capturing technologies and end users.
3. Market — your target market and the overall market
Sports Data Labs is targeting professional and elite amateur sports organizations globally that are looking to leverage multiple data technologies.
4. Business Model — how do you make money?
As a platform business, our business model will be customizable based on region, sport and end user.
5. Management Team
Our founding team is approaching and solving this industry problem based on our strengths: (1) building complex and scalable technology platforms; (2) artificial intelligence solutions; and (3) monetizing sports media rights globally. We come from a highly diverse group of leading organizations including the National Basketball Association, McKinsey & Company, eBay, IMG, Visa, MP & Silva, HP, Netscape and Stottler Henke.
Our advisory team is comprised of leading experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and various global sports/media entities.
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
Sports Data Labs will begin piloting its system with professional sports organizations starting in March 2017. We look forward to sharing more details as we roll out the platform.