Catapult Sports's acquisitions will enhance wearable technologies

Catapult Sports acquired XOS Digital and PlayerTrek in hopes to expand the offerings of their wearable technologies.

Catapult Sports already has one of the most popular player tracking wearables on the market. The Melbourne-based company supports 19 NFL and NBA teams, along with a number of NCAA programs and many more pro teams around the world.

Now, the analytics group is set to make an even bigger splash on the world of sports, with their recent acquisition of two companies for a grand total of nearly $63 million. The majority of that hefty figure went towards Boston-based XOS Digital, who pioneered a technology to give coaching solutions via video analytics. XOS Digital has more than 400 clients in college and professional sports.

“The addition of XOS will substantially enhance Catapult’s sales network and capabilities in the US, thereby significantly accelerating our strategy to increase penetration of our analytic solutions in the largest addressable market in the world for elite sports,” Catapult CEO Shaun Holthouse said in a statement.

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Catapult spent the rest of the sum on a player-tracking technology out of Ireland, with a slightly different focus than Catapult. PlayerTek uses GPS technology to provide amateur and professional athletes with valuable data to improve their performances. Their specialized market is centered around groups wishing to have a relatively cheap and easy-to-use experience. They tend to hit the amateur athlete market, but they do have some big name customers like Scottish soccer team Celtic FC.

This is the reason Catapult wished to purchase PlayerTek in the first place though, now they will have a wearable that they can push into markets beyond just the professional sphere. Using the wide array of resources at their disposal, PlayerTek’s signature technology will surely grow in the coming months and years.

All in all, one of the biggest names in athlete wearables just got quite a bit bigger, and their breadth of player data tracking and now video analysis from XOS Digital is a strong offering.