You learn something new every day in youth sports.
Like every sprawling volleyball tournaments still uses paper scoring.
“It is as archaic as it comes,” Eugene Tichenor, the GM of Otto Sport AI’s SportWrench volleyball management platform, told Buying Sandlot with a laugh.
Maybe not for much longer, though, after Otto announced an integration partnership with Polish data and tech firm VolleyStation yesterday.
Scorekeepers, officials launch match with QR code
SW’s match context, rosters, safety compliance flow into VS
VS provides real-time scoring, substitutions
Results then flow back into SW
Matches start, finish faster; courts maintain schedules
Event operators have complete visibility wherever they are
“I had it on our road map, a ‘If we get to it, we get to it’ sort of thing,” Tichenor said. “Obviously it’s the future, it’s where the sport needs to go for event operators, for the kids, for the parents, for the coaches. And then VolleyStation came along, did it really well and it got approval from the governing bodies. So we said, ‘Heck yeah, let’s integrate.’”
This is the first major foray in the U.S. youth ecosystem for VolleyStation after establishing itself at the collegiate, professional and international levels. The platform also has analytics and scouting tools, broadcast integrations, websites and more.
Otto will also integrate VolleyStation into its University Athlete volleyball recruiting platform later this year to make event scouting more efficient for college coaches.
“It’s going to revolutionize their world because they will be able to plan their day out,” Tichenor said. “They’re going to be able to make real-time live decisions on who and where they go to see based on this live scoring data.”
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