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Sports data and analytics company Catapult Sports has expanded its relationship with Champion Data in a three-year deal to supply the Australian Football League (AFL) with performance analytic solutions.

For the first time, teams across the AFL, AFLW, and AFL Pathways will use Catapult's Vector devices to empower data-driven decisions to improve player performance, quantify decisions to help prevent injuries, and inform return to play.

Catapult has been the performance technology supplier to Champion Data to deliver athlete tracking services to the AFL since 2015.  Their mutual commitment to research and development has played a pivotal role in assisting the AFL to stay at the forefront of innovation and adopt leading-edge technology to optimise and drive continuous improvement in player and team performance.

This is also the first time Catapult's ClearSky system will be installed and used across nine AFL stadiums during live matches.

The deepening of the relationship makes it the largest league-wide deal globally in terms of performance technology software, both on a player level as well as in-stadium with ClearSky installations and is a testament to the strength and longevity of the relationship between Catapult and Champion Data and the AFL.

Starting with this new deal, Vector will help coaches and players quantify, with pinpoint accuracy, the immense physical demands of Australian Rules football on each individual player. Combining advanced global navigation satellite system (GNSS) capability with ClearSky local positioning system (LPS), Vector devices will provide an integrated and comprehensive view of performance, in real-time, leveraging the latest data science to help players and teams find answers to complex performance questions. 

The ClearSky system uses miniature nodes attached to an athlete to triangulate and track their every move. With a positional accuracy of about 15-20cm, the produced data is considerably reliable for creating game plans, developing techniques and monitoring player performance.

The installation of ClearSky across an extended network of stadiums will deliver unrivalled real-time insights that will be integrated by Champion Data to support broadcast commitments, such as the Telstra Tracker, and create a more engaging fan experience during live matches.

Catapult Chief Executive, Will Lopes advises "our continued relationship with Champion Data to partner with the AFL is testament to the incredible possibilities that are unleashed when our performance technology is used in training and on match day.

“We are immensely proud of our Champion Data relationship and look forward to working together to continue to drive the development of AFL athlete monitoring and performance science."

Catapult empowers more than 3,425 elite teams around the world with its integrated SaaS platform, providing athletes and teams with a comprehensive view of performance.

Champion Data Champion Data delivers services to sports bodies and the media globally with Libby Owens, Chief Executive of Champion Data noting “our ability to service an insatiable appetite for sports data content has been key to our ongoing growth and success. We look forward to working closely with Catapult to continue to push the boundaries on creating high-performance athlete data for the AFL."

This announcement comes after the Company integrated its MatchMaker video analysis platform with Vector wearables to deliver an all-in-one video and data analytics platform for athletes and teams.

Image courtesy Catapult Sports https://www.catapultsports.com/sports/australian-rules

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