Lauren Pedersen interview: SportAI co-founder on enhancing padel performance

SportAI won the Pitch Competition at this year’s RacquetX in Miami, further validating its mission of democratising access to cutting-edge technology for any level of player. Its practical use in racquet sports is helping padel club owners and brands provide insightful analysis previously reserved for elite professional athletes. Lauren Pedersen, co-founder and CEO of SportAI, speaks to Padel Business Magazine about the way its platform transforms how players receive feedback, the effectiveness of its equipment recommendations, and the company’s future plans.

Since its inception in December 2023, SportAI has brought cutting-edge tools to racquet sports designed to help everyday players improve their performance in ways not possible before.

SportAI’s SaaS platform is powered by computer vision, machine learning, and biomechanical analysis. It requires no additional hardware and can analyse video from mobile phones, mounted cameras, broadcast feeds, and more.

Using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to process data in real-time, SportAI gives users instant feedback filled with deep insight that taps into a database from thousands of professional players.

It delivers this data and analysis in three steps: by first capturing video, then performing instantaneous AI-powered analysis, and then providing actionable insights.

For instance, users can livestream a padel match or upload a video into SportAI’s software. SportAI then immediately processes the input with computer vision, allowing it to recognise and interpret visual data through its algorithms. It finishes the process by giving objective, precise insights specific to the player almost instantly.

SportAI positions itself as a B2B platform, working with coaching associations, training academies, retailers, brands, and broadcast media to deliver next-level insight.

Gaining traction

SportAI raised $1.8 million last August through early stage investors like Magnus Carlsen, a five-time World Chess Champion, and Skyfall Ventures. It also procured $805,000 in grants through Innovation Norway and the Eurostars programme this January, initiatives designed to support startups with strong growth potential.

In addition to gaining critical investments to continue its growth, the company has earned recognition for its inventive products and business strategy. During RacquetX in Miami, SportAI won the inaugural Pitch Competition. The competition featured some of the most innovative, compelling sports tech startups with usability within racquet sports.

Out of 31 applicants and ten finalists able to present on stage, SportAI emerged as the winner. In winning, SportAI received VIP passes for next year, a 10x10 booth for wider exposure, and introductions to investors from RacquetX’s investor network. 

Co-founder Lauren Pedersen was named one of the top 30 female founders of 2024 by VIVA Technology, which honours women leading tech startups with society-changing potential.

In a short time, SportAI has emerged as an industry leader in sports technology, with impact and great potential within racquet sports like padel.

Securing partnerships for greater impact 

Pedersen, a lifelong tennis player with years of experience in advertising and working in tech startups, believes SportAI has the potential to change how people train for sports.

“Having access to this type of data can really be a game changer for organisations”, she says. “And we are really a partner-first kind of organisation that wants to integrate and power experiences for our customers.”

So far, SportAI has partnered with Shark and MATCHi, allowing it to reach more players globally and prove its concept beyond its headquarters in Oslo, Norway.

SportAI’s partnership with MATCHi was its first major commercial contract. MATCHi is one of the fastest growing platforms for booking and managing racquet sports worldwide. Its network includes over 1 million users. With SportAI’s software integrated, users now have access to advanced technique analysis, detailed match statistics, and highlight videos.

A second partnership with Shark, a leading manufacturer of beach tennis and pickleball equipment, brings SportAI’s technology to a new arena. Announced at the end of March, the partnership will bring AI-powered coaching to Shark’s customers.

Pedersen believes its in-depth tactical analysis and personalised equipment recommendations, which are unique to the market, are differentiators that will allow SportAI to flourish.

“We can integrate with camera providers or somebody who's developing an app to deliver coaching, engaging stats, all of these things. So we're extremely partner-person integration oriented. Essentially, there's no one out there who can do technique analysis, equipment recommendations, and biomechanical analysis for these racquet sports the way that we can.”

Increasing customer satisfaction through equipment recommendations

One of SportAI’s most heralded features is its equipment recommendations. Players at any skill level can simply upload a video of themselves playing into SportAI’s software interface and receive personalised recommendations of what racquet to use.

Pedersen believes it will solve a long-standing issue for many amateur racquet sports players: not knowing the correct type of equipment to use based on their unique playing style and skill level.

“It's just never been possible before to get personalised racquet recommendations on scale. And I think it's a huge problem in the market that essentially consumers do not know what racquet to buy.

“There are so many weights and head sizes and tensions and all of this stuff happening in the market with these equipment brands. They end up asking a coach for a recommendation or buying something from a famous padel player or tennis player that they've seen, which is typically not suited to their game.”

By working with retailers and brands, SportAI introduces its technology at scale for greater impact. Equipment retailers can better assist their customers and, by using SportAI’s AI-powered platform, lower returns and increase customer satisfaction.

“With the SportAI technology, we can quite quickly see the level of the player and look at things like power creation, whether they need a lighter or a heavier react racquet”, says Pedersen.

“We can make really good recommendations that can help both increase conversion rates for the equipment brands and have a better playing experience for the player themselves.”

Scaling beyond racquet sports 

Pedersen believes SportAI will eventually expand into sports other than racquet sports. The company’s initial focus was on tennis based on her and other co-founders’ familiarity with the sport.

She acknowledges sports like padel offer immense growth potential and the similarities between the racquet sports allowed SportAI to add padel and pickleball offerings early in the company’s journey.

“We see that both padel and pickleball are growing fast and engaging a huge new audience”, Pedersen explains.

“These new audiences are super pumped about what we can deliver at SportAI, both from the kind of statistical and fantastic highlights, and all this stuff that this technology can bring into the games.”

SportAI’s success with racquet sports gives it critical validation of its usefulness within the space, but Pedersen doesn’t want SportAI to remain narrowly focused on racquet sports. The company wasn’t named RacquetAI for a reason, she says.

Despite fundamental differences, Pedersen sees many similarities in training regimens across different sports beyond racquet sports. Based on these similarities, Pedersen believes SportAI can eventually transition into other sports with ease.

“The sort of technique analysis that we are doing is perfectly suited for any technique where a player would repeatedly practice that technique over and over again to fix it”, says Pedersen.

“You can imagine that a free throw in basketball or hitting a baseball or even in running, these things are perfectly suited for this type of technology.”

Pedersen sees SportAI not just helping athletes gain performance insight and equipment recommendations, but potentially changing the viewing experience of everyday fans watching significant sporting events at home.

“I think there are huge opportunities to have new data insights, particularly in this sort of technique and biomechanical world so that you can engage audiences and help fans in the world understand how a technique changes for different players. It's really a fascinating and engaging side. I think we'll see ourselves being integrated there.”

Despite the potential to broadcast events on the biggest stage, Pedersen’s passion remains to bring SportAI’s capabilities to everyday players, not just at the pro level.

“I see the incredible opportunity to bring it from that pro level stage to all of the clubs around the world – because that's really our passion: to get that scale so that even if you're not in the Olympics or playing in Wimbledon or Premier Padel, at your local club, you will be able to get access to this type of data and analysis and automated highlights, and so on. I think that's gonna be an incredible experience for people.”

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