NCAA March Madness kicks off this week, which means millions of Americans are feverishly filling out their brackets, searching for this year’s best “Boss Button,” and deciding whether to love or loathe Kansas and Duke. And since the college basketball hype has us Springing Forward with sports top of mind, we found 10 Southern startups creating products to improve coaching, boost player performance, and enhance the fan experience.
- Founded in Jacksonville, Florida, Rostr is a mobile app that enables high school athletes to track and improve performance through stats, goal-based training, and photo and video content. Athletes can then share this data with coaches, teammates, or college scouts.
- Austin-based Cheggin allows you and your friends to share in the excitement of a game no matter where you are. Calling it “WhatsApp meets SportsCenter,” the app combines group messaging with real-time scores, stats, and play-by-plays.
- Similarly, Houston-based FanReact is a fan experience app that allows users to chat, follow teams, and upload reaction videos and photos for high school, college, and professional sports. Users can also start message threads and vote for their favorite reactions.
- Launched in Lawrenceville, Georgia, champSpot is creating a more “personalized sports media experience.” The news dashboard enables fans to select their favorite teams, athletes, and sports news sources in order to receive customized sports coverage.
- Set to launch this fall, Atlanta-based CoachCam is a mobile app that delivers real-time athletic performance data through photo, video, and motion and object tracking. Players can watch video playback and compare stats with friends and fellow players through the app.
- Also in Atlanta, Shot Stats is developing integrated hardware and software to provide athletes with performance stats. Their first product, a Kickstarter-backed device called the Challenger, connects to a tennis racket to provide real-time data and sound cues while on the court. The startup plans to launch products for other sports in the future.
- Athletes looking to learn from the top 5% of coaches can turn to Austin-based CoachTube. The marketplace for sports education features on-demand training videos and tips covering everything from basketball and soccer to yoga and gymnastics.
- Love REI? Check out Austin-based reQwip, a P2P online and mobile marketplace for buying and selling new and used sports gear. Their current focus is gear for cycling, triathlons, and adventure sports.
- Dallas-based Order My Gear streamlines the process of ordering uniforms and other sports gear. The company helps coaches, team parents, or club captains set up online stores for players to easily order what they need each season.
- Want to play a pickup game but none of your contacts are around? DC-based NextGame is a mobile app that helps people find and organize pickup sports through location searches and social posting.
