Genius minds score a big deal
GOLD Coast football company Soccer Genius has landed two major deals that could pave the way for its transformation into an international juggernaut.
The business, owned and operated by former Socceroo Craig Moore and Tweed United Premier League coach Jason Buchanan, has struck a partnership with Fox Sports and the Queensland Government to expose its state-of-theart system to players and fans across Australia.
Launched in Iceland five years ago, Soccer Genius is built on a series of measurements collected with sensors and radar technologies that provide feedback on player performance.
Players are put through five drills – dribbling, game action running, passing and receiving, shooting accuracy and shot velocity – with the data put in an online profile to compare with others across the world.
With the help of a State Government grant, the company now plans to sell the equipment and training to local clubs, who can on-sell their expertise to players and schools to create a continued revenue stream.
The program has attracted the attention of Fox Sports, who will film a season-long show focused on Soccer Genius to run during the 2018-19 A-League season. “We’re going to film two NPL clubs from every state doing Soccer Genius over the coming months … and Fox Sports will go and film all the A-League clubs, and they’ll make that into a competition,” Buchanan said.
“That will be aired 30 to 32 weeks, which covers the whole A-League season. Obviously that’s massive for us in terms of people seeing our product.
“The crucial part (with the grant) is after the clubs purchase a Soccer Genius base (equipment pack), they can then go out into local schools. It’s really attractive for the clubs because as much as Soccer Genius is great for the kids, now the clubs can go ‘if we partner with Soccer Genius, we can make money out of it’.”
With Buchanan and Moore holding the Soccer Genius licensing rights for Australia and New Zealand, the former said the plan was to eventually expand internationally.