The answer is Dunedin tech business Axon Perform, which is providing literally game-changing insights to give global sports teams the edge.
The company has seen a rapid uptake of its integrated intelligence platform and, as the international rugby season approaches, there has been a flurry of new signings.
Chief executive and founder Jon Foote started specialist data and analytics consultancy Flock Consulting more than six years ago. He always had a vision of building something that helped smaller organisations that could not build big data platforms, and making it easier for them to access.
He was doing that in the health space and also supporting New Zealand Rugby, which is where he got to know Andy Watts, then an analyst with the Highlanders who has also held roles at the Japan Rugby Football Union and Cardiff Rugby.
Mr Watts joined the business and that was the impetus to start building a platform for professional sports teams that was both scaleable and easy for teams to use. They have gone from looking solely after New Zealand Rugby to turning it into a global solution.
Mr Watts, who is product lead, said high-performance teams had access to a multitude of high-performance insights, across numerous streams, and everyone was looking for improvements.
“By analysing the performance information recorded during team training and games, we can provide performance staff with the link between what’s happening on the field and what a team does next, all in one platform,” he said.
Mr Foote is now stepping away from the Flock Consulting leadership team to focus fully on its sister company, Axon Perform, while Mr Watts — who is originally from the United Kingdom — is heading back there to launch a UK office from next month.
Mr Foote acknowledged growth of the business had happened quickly. He started building a platform five years ago that morphed into Reportabl., which is a health and sport platform. At the end of last year, the decision was made to focus on sport and a rebrand to Axon Perform was launched about two months ago.
Clients now include teams from across New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa and Europe and include the Sydney Roosters, British and Irish Lions, Springboks and English men’s and women’s rugby teams. There was interest from a German field hockey team as any sports team could use parts of the solution, Mr Foote said.
Axon was working hard on a solution specific to football, a sport which made up quarter of the global spend on data and analytics in the global sport market. Basketball was not far behind at just under a quarter.
The company started with game analytics and then started expanding into performance analytics and its platform was way more advanced, usable and customisable than its competitors, Mr Foote said.
Asked what it was like to be involved in global sport, Mr Foote said the “little kid” in him got excited when it was decided to focus solely on sport. He had always been sporty and he loved watching sport. Data had been his world for the past 20 years and now there was an opportunity to bring the two interests together.
He acknowledged the potential of Axon was “pretty significant”. ‘
“We are chasing a big number — that’s why we are here. There’s a lot of work in front of us but it’s working pretty good at the start.”
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
