Stats LLC has struck a marketing-based partnership with Australian analytics outfit Catapult to expand their player tracking capabilities at the pro and collegiate levels. The two companies will blend their tracking data and market the joint product to their various team clients. Stats LLC in recent years has made significant gains with its camera-based SportVU player tracking, while Catapult operates more in biometrics, evaluating players via wearable sensors such as devices embedded into player jerseys. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal will be based in part on finders fee commissions paid by each side when new clients are signed. Stats works with 10 NBA teams on a premium-level "performance" analytics package above and beyond the base offerings of its league-level analytics deal, while Catapult holds 13 NBA team clients with minimal overlap. The pair also intend to expand the joint offering to other sports including football. "There's a real complementary nature to this partnership, and their data can do a lot of things that ours can't, and vice versa," said Stats Senior VP/Sports Solutions Brian Kopp. "Ours is game-based, theirs is more practice-based. And they operate in a more physical, biometric space than we do. Put together, we think this is going to provide teams with a lot more precision." Kopp said the alliance could particularly aid teams with injury prevention and recovery. "Looking at this data holistically, it allows you to see how a player is exerting himself in a given situation. And when you get established historical baselines, teams can get a better sense of how they should proceed and perhaps change a recovery plan," he said.
