Data Driven

PMY have partnered with the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) in a 10-year technology investment and management partnership.

Kelly Overall explains how the PMY Group is fl ying the fl ag for Australian sport and entertainment technology companies on the global stage

Melbourne headquartered global technology solutions company, PMY Group has experienced significant growth throughout the pandemic, a period during which it has focused on transforming venues and major events through technology.

Growing from its launch in 2009 with the vision to provide major venues and sporting teams with independent advice to support their technology needs, PMY has grown to partner with the biggest and brightest venues and events globally having assisted more than 200 venues and major events across 14 countries and has offices located in Australia, USA, UK, and Asia.

And with new client wins and pending acquisitions, the fun looks like it has only just begun.

On the eve of the pandemic, PMY had finished the first phase of its global expansion and secured an impressive array of clients in the USA, UK, Europe, and Asia Pacific, and the future for the business looked bright.

Then, like all in the sport and entertainment industry, it experienced an unparalleled shockwave courtesy of COVID-19.

As PMY founder and Chief Executive, Paul Yeomans comments “when COVID hit, as with all businesses, we were initially shocked, but very quickly recovered and strengthened as a business for the following two reasons; we deepened our role with key infrastructure and major event clientele, and through the loyalty and commitment of our team, board and shareholders.”

Growing its major event technology prowess With its foundation secured, PMY sought to aggressively expand.

Firstly, it bolstered its UK and European event technology

The Open Championship

offering through the acquisition of C3i Technologies (the preferred technology provider to The Open (Golf’s Oldest Major), Championship golf and the Welsh Rugby Union).

A second acquisition quickly followed with the leading UK event technology and temporary overlay company, Etherlive, about which Yeomans comments “we understood the need for strong delivery and operational teams in key markets to ensure the sustainability of our business over the long term. We saw C3i and Etherlive as the right combination of technical expertise, core values, and operational experience to thrive as part of PMY.”

The decision proved correct, as the newly bolstered PMY event technology team has blended well, and is now preparing for a bumper summer of events, festivals, and sporting tours throughout the UK.

Strengthening this delivery expertise enabled a trusted

overlay team to be on hand to assist in the delivery of technology packages arising from the advice of the PMY Sport and Major Events division, which is led by respected industry figure, John de Carvalho. de Carvalho and the PMY team had been successful in securing the venue technology integration and management role across recent and future Olympic games, three of the four tennis Grand Slams, and a series of major global sporting multi location competitions.

Explaining that the expansion of the sport and major event technology integration role into event technology installation on relevant projects has set up PMY to confidently offer turnkey technology strategy and implementation services for major events, de Carvalho notes “PMY focuses on providing the right technical expertise and experienced major event technology personnel at the right time to deliver a world class outcome, each and every time.”

As the events industry sets to rebound itself, there seems to be no doubt that PMY will be there every step of the way.

Embracing major stadia and infrastructure In parallel with its major event focus, Yeomans is of the view that infrastructure related technology will be a core focus for governments and venues as they search for greater operational efficiencies, customer experience benefits and revenue improvements post COVID.

To ensure PMY would be ready to cater for this demand technically, Yeomans connected with industry associates Jack Wrightson and Chris Williams of Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon, Williams (WJHW).

WJHW, which PMY acquired in March last year, has been the leading US design firm for sport and entertainment venues for thirty years, and boasts an impressive array of clients across the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, Collegiate Sports, music, theatre, entertainment and educations sectors.

WJHW set the benchmark for stadium technical design with its work on SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles - host venue for the Super Bowl LVI in February this year.

Explaining that the opportunity of a combined PMY and WJHW offering was a compelling prospect, Yeomans added “we shared a common view from the outset that combining WJHW’s best in class experience with PMY’s global network would add huge value to our clients in new territories and ensure the distribution of WJHW best in class knowledge globally.”

PMY is now positioned to design, implement, and manage technology solutions globally. The final piece was to support clients with their funding and return on investment needs. Enter PMY Capital, the wholly owned investment company within the group. With experienced funds management professional Costa Alexiou as Chief Executive, PMY Capital is positioned to invest in partnership with its clients to accelerate their technology transformation.

A whole new world of data With smart technology in place, venues and events are positioned to take advantage of a whole new world of data. The PMY team is now focused on ensuring real-time intelligence is available to clients via its proprietary Smart Operating Platform, to be officially launched in May 2022. The new Sports and Venue Data Solutions service offering has been made possible by the acquisition of leading UK data solutions business, Sports Data Services.

Sports Data Services (now PMY) provides innovative data solutions that enables sports and leisure bodies, venues and clubs globally to optimise the capture, storage and use of critical data points derived from customers, participants and fans.

As Costanzo notes, PMY is confident of the important role that Sports Data Services will play in leading PMY’s global sports and venue data solutions offering, concluding “we are incredibly pleased that Luke, Colin and the Sports Data Services team are joining PMY.

“Our clients are rapidly embracing a data driven approach to business, and we are pleased to be able to provide the deep technical expertise and practical solutions required to support this transformation.” Kelly Overall is Marketing Manager for the PMY Group.

For the Australian Open, PMY Group were responsible for the design, delivery and operation of venue technology solutions and provision of Smart Operating Platform to manage crowd intelligence, health and safety protocols The PMY Group experienced signifi cant growth throughout COVID - a period during which it focused on transforming venues and major events through technology.