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Catapult targets wider sport tech market

Australian firm Catapult helped Leicester win the EPL and the Denver Broncos take the Super Bowl, but it's now looking to tap a much wider market.

Having compiled a client list that looks like a who's who of world sport, Australian tech firm Catapult is now targeting the "who's that?" market.

In the past 12 months alone, Catapult's performance-tracking wearable tech helped Leicester win the English Premier League, the Denver Broncos the Super Bowl and the Cowboys the 2015 NRL grand final.

The Melbourne-based firm has now launched a $100 million equity raising to fund two acquistions it says will help it tap an even more lucrative market that includes schools and colleges.

Executive chairman Adir Shiffman says the so-called prosumer market is at least 10 times bigger than the elite category Catapult already dominates through clients that include the NBA's Golden State Warriors and world football superpower Real Madrid.

"We've got the majority of NFL teams, the majority of NBA teams, and a large and very rapidly growing number of college teams: all of that spreads word of mouth pretty rapidly and the fact that our clients tend to end up winning championships year after year also doesn't hurt," Mr Shiffman said on the phone from Hong Kong.

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"That halo effect sets us up really nicely."

Catapult is splashing out $US60 million ($A78.7 million) on US-based video analysis specialist XOS Technologies and another 3.3 million euros ($A4.82 million) in cash and scrip on wearable tech firm Playertek, which is based in Ireland.

By adding the newly aquired tech to its existing systems, which give coaches an in-depth look at athletes' biometric data, Catapult aims to offer a cheaper version of its premium product and expand access to its performance monitoring capabilities.

"We're not specifically speaking about individuals that might go into a store and buy some hardware or a solution for themselves: it tends to be a team, be that amateur teams or lower league teams," Mr Shiffman said.

"That is the next market we see as ripe for this technology. We see this market being at least 10 times the size of the elite market."

Mr Shiffman added that 90 per cent of the global elite market remained untapped.

XOS is expected to deliver $27 million in annualised recurring revenue, and help Catapult become earnings positive over the 2016-17 financial year.

Catapult's shares, which started trading at 55 cents in 2014, have almost trebled in value over the past year to about $3.80, giving the company a market capitalisation of $194 million.

That's despite its most recent figures showing a first-half loss of $2.6 million on revenue of $7.8 million.

The $100 million placement and entitlement offer is fully underwritten by Goldman Sachs.

"The addition of XOS will substantially enhance Catapult's sales network and capabilities in the US, accelerating our strategy to increase penetration of our analytic solutions in the largest addressable market in the world for elite sports," chief executive Shaun Holthouse said.


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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