ShotTracker Helps Big 12 Make Data Fun for Fans; Voice Commands Bring New Level of Control

ShotTracker technology has revolutionized the way NBA and college basketball teams, leagues, and broadcasters capture and use data and Davyeon Ross, ShotTracker, founder and CEO, says the company is ready to take the next step with the help of AI, generative AI, and much more. An upcoming new product, Scout Product will open up an improved way for coaches and players to interact with the data: voice commands.

ShotTracker continues to innovate in order to make its apps and services more valuable.

“It’s like Alexa or Siri meets our data and video and it’s all in real-time,” says Ross. “That helps coaches access video and data, whether it’s in preparation for a game or during it and we’re pretty excited about that.”

ShotTracker’s sensor-based system keeps track of all the action on the court, and captures tons of data with respect to movement, spacing, and speed. The trick is helping clients make the most of that data and apps are a great way to put the power of those stats coupled with video easily at the client’s fingertips.

“On the team app we really integrate with video in a way that’s streamlined and hasn’t really been done before,” says Ross. “And on the broadcast side we still have our APIs and are doing a ton of integrations with graphic engines as we figure out ways that we can use X, Y, and Z data.”

All the efforts are focused on democratizing access to the data and then continuing to advance towards a service that does not require sensors.

“Imagine a coach could say ‘Show me all of KU’s possessions for the past 10 games when they had a baseline out-of-bounds play and the score was within six points’,” says Ross. “The system will then bring up those clips, so it’s pretty slick.”

Another new offering is the Hype product which is focused on a completely new market: the fan experience, and the Big 12 conference has already been putting it to use.

“That product is about leveraging the data to create a new fan experience and 3D graphics for things like interactive apps or in-game animations on the video boards,” says Ross.

The goal is to make everyone from teams to coaches to players and even to in-venue entertainment teams and broadcasters more efficient and productive when it comes to using Shot Tracker data. And solid client relationships are helping continue that move forward.

“The Big 12 has been a partner of ours for several years and they were one of the first conferences that really embraced our technology, so we just keep building on the relationship,” says Ross. “So, for fans, we have a Bingo game that’s driven by events and stats and then a Tic Tac Toe game that also enhances the fan experience. The Big 12 really wants to be known as the most innovative conference.”

The cloud, going forward, will continue to play a bigger part as Shot Tracker is CPU intensive and the opportunity to lighten that demand for multiple servers to be fired up in a stadium could be an additional game changer.

“We’re using all the pieces, whether it’s computer vision or algorithms we train based on our sensor data to identify a type or play or using generative AI to sync data with video to allow voice commands,” says Ross. “And things like voice activation democratizes access because a coach can just use coach speak. And with machine learning we’re creating models to understand coach speak, translate it, and then bring back data the coach wants to see. From that perspective, I think it’s really, really powerful.”

Ross says other areas like sports betting and even sports journalism is ripe for transformation with the use of things like voice commands to place bets or to automatically associate video clips with a report.

“When you put all those things together it’s an explosion of different flavors and experiences,” adds Ross.