TENNIS HEADLINES
Slinger Continues to Grow Through Acquisitions As reported recently in Net News, as well as in national publications such as Forbes, Slinger continues to move beyond just manufacturing its Slinger Bag product. Last summer, the company purchased software developer Foundation Tennis, whose application provides business services for tennis facilities. Then last fall, Slinger acquired Gameface.AI, an artificial intelligence technology that offers instant analysis of biomechanics. The company followed that purchase with the acquisition of PlaySight, a sport video, data capture, and performance analytics provider. “Our goal is to create a full suite of ‘Watch, Play and Learn’ solutions, the three largest commercial activities in every sport,” said Slinger CEO Mike Ballardie in a statement released following the PlaySight acquisition. “To accomplish this, we are building a 360-degree platform of products and services to meet the needs of our tennis consumers today, and for other major sports over the next few years. With the acquisition of Foundation Tennis and the announced deals to acquire PlaySight and GameFace.AI, we now have the pieces in place to serve today’s sports consumer in a multitude of ways, from a SaaS business platform to video, streaming and production to artificial intelligence.” 18
NETNEWS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
Slinger launched its product in 2020 with a portable ball machine for tennis. Since that time, it has added partnerships and ambassador roles with the likes of Patrick Mouratoglou and his Mouratoglou Academy, Genie Bouchard, Darren Cahill, David Grutman, and Dustin Brown. According to Forbes, last August, Slinger announced $11 million in an oversubscribed round and in September a 349-percent increase in first-quarter fiscal 2021 net sales with new orders totaling $3.7 million. The current growth of the brand, says Ballardie, is attributed to delivering “fun, convenience, and accessibility” regardless of a tennis player’s skill level. The product itself allows players to get out and hit tennis balls virtually anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. The next phase of growth comes from layering technologies, such as AI, visual learning, deep-data analysis, and video production and live streaming across the product. “Each of the portfolio companies have experience and expertise in certain areas of the technology landscape,” Ballardie tells Forbes, “and we are fitting the puzzle pieces together to do what we have done with the Slinger Bag: focus unwaveringly on delivering value for the consumer.”
