Australia’s Channel Nine has begun broadcasting Catapult’s wearable data during national team cricket matches. (Courtesy Catapult Sports)
Catapult is continuing to bring its wearable data to live sports broadcasts with the tech company’s latest partnership with Cricket Australia on a nine-match agreement.
The statistics gleaned from Catapult’s GPS devices will be presented in the sponsored Gatorade Tracker during Channel Nine coverage that began with the recently completed fifth test of the Ashes series between Australia and England. The Aussie team wore the Catapult devices, which produced such data as total distance run, top speed and sprint count.
“As data and analytics continue to form an increasing part of our broadcast here on Wide World of Sports,” Alex Rolls, the head of creative and innovation at Channel Nine’s Wide World of Sports, said in a statement. “I would like to thank Catapult and [graphics provider] Alston Elliot for delivering a seamless in-broadcast integration — we have already displayed metrics that I think will have surprised and engaged the Australian public.”
This continues the progressive commercialization efforts of wearable performance data in Australia, following previous partnerships between Catapult and the National Rugby League during last year’s State of the Origin Series — which led to a cinematic capstone to the second match — as well as the Australian Football League finals series and the National Basketball League regular season.
“We’re delighted to be able to work in partnership with Channel Nine and our longstanding client, Cricket Australia,” Joe Powell, Catapult’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is another exciting opportunity for us to showcase our credentials in providing live wearable data for broadcast, whilst helping our league-clients to drive audience engagement and incremental revenue.”
Catapult’s sport scientists will help identify key metrics and provide commentary and context during broadcasts while the team will have in-game access to performance analysis through the company’s data platform, Openfield.
“We’d like to thank the Australian players and Cricket Australia for enabling us to bring our viewers deeper insight into what fantastic athletes these cricketers are,” said Tom Malone, Nine Network Australia’s director of sport. “This is just the beginning, we look forward to continuing to work with Catapult on greater statistical analysis as the summer progresses.”
