Magnus Carlsen, the world's number one ranked Norwegian chess player, became the second youngest chess grandmaster in history in 2004, at the age of 13.
The 33-year-old is backing Oslo-based SportAI, which aims to provide commentary and analysis for tennis and other sports (chess is not competed in the Olympics, but is recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee).
The AI sports tech company wants to democratize access to technical analytics in an AI-influenced sports market predicted to reach $30 billion by 2032. Add to this the way artificial intelligence, including computer vision as well as chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, is impacting exercise, art, gardening and other hobbies and activities by generating new content or suggesting ideas that have never been tried before.
AI-powered swing tips
If you were to take tennis lessons from a human coach and ask for advice on your swing, the advice you receive would likely vary depending on the coach and their background and training.
“Currently, technical analysis in sports is highly subjective, expensive and not scalable,” said CEO Lauren Pedersen.
SportAI's founders, including Pedersen, a former NCAA tennis player, saw an opportunity to use computer vision (a branch of AI that enables computers to analyze visual content in the same way humans do), machine learning (which uses data and algorithms to enable AI to learn in the same way humans do), and biometric analytics (which measure human physical and behavioral characteristics) to analyze and track players' techniques on a more personal level.
After analyzing video from your phone, cameras on the tennis court, and broadcast footage, SportAI can compare your technique to a variety of tennis players: the best in the world, a specific player you admire, another player you want to emulate, or the thousands of players the model watched while training. SportAI can then provide personalized feedback on what you need to do to improve. (SportAI trained its model with input from coaches to understand the characteristics of good technique.)
In a demo video of a tennis player, SportAI measures the curve of the player's swing against that of a pro and highlights areas for improvement. It then measures hip and shoulder rotation, swing speed, and suggests the player move their weight towards the strike. It also evaluates their attack angle and curve against the pro, and recommends choosing a compact backswing with a solid follow-through to improve their swing.
While the startup is starting out with racquet sports like tennis and paddleball, mainly due to the team's personal expertise, SportAI plans to expand into other sports that use swings, including golf, baseball and cricket.
However, this is not a product that consumers can buy: instead, SportAI is positioning itself as a B2B platform, seeking to partner with coaching associations, training academies, retailers, brands and broadcast media.
The latter would complement live sports commentary and “captivate fans and show them, for example, how (Spanish professional tennis player Rafael) Nadal's forehand and serve differs from (former Swiss professional player Roger) Federer,” Pedersen said.
One of the company's first customers is a training platform that runs tennis clubs (Pedersen declined to name it).
“These clubs are putting cameras behind the courts so players can book the courts and also have access to their own video, which can then be analysed by AI to provide statistics, technical analysis, tips and highlights,” she said.
Their goal: to make personalized analytics that were previously limited to elite players more accessible.
The startup closed a $1.8 million seed round in August, led by early-stage investor Skyfall Ventures, whose backers also include Norwegian pension fund MP Pension, former professional tennis player Dekel Walzer and chess grandmaster Carlsen.
Founded in 2023, SportAI plans to use the funding to further develop its technology, as well as hire employees and expand its customer base.
