Speculur Technologies: Introducing the Next Tech-Revolution in Cricket
Everyday, in alleys, academies, maidans and ovals across the cricketing world, millions of balls are bowled and millions of shots are played and not one of them is turned into data that can help enhance the skills of players and thereby enhance the sport. For a sport that is so highly technical in nature, technology solutions are conspicuous by their absence.At the end of a practice session, most cricketers reflect on their session and speculate on how they played. Eventually they distill the speculation down to a‘feeling’and self-certify, with no discernible accuracy, how poorly or how well they played. No real data, so no real analysis. Not anymore.
Unlocking the Bat
The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 has been touted as a festival of the‘smart’cricket and has witnessed multiple technology innovations from tech giants, Intel. While Intel’s drone pitch cameras and virtual reality solutions have aroused some interest, the cricketing world has been taken by storm by the launch of Bat Sense product from Speculur, built in conjunction with Intel. The best batsmen from the participating nations at the latest edition of the ICC Champions Trophy have been seen sporting this beautiful looking sensor atop their bat handles and the cricketing world has watched in amazement as Speculur Bat Sense marks the dawn of a tech-revolution in cricket, promising to infuse smartness to cricket training & shot analyzing paradigms.
Speculur Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a dynamic smart wearables and cognitive computing company, headquartered at Bangalore, has created the first ever Bat Sensor, that sits atop the handle of the cricket bat and captures data from every shot played by the batsman. Speculur’s BatSense product, painstakingly developed by Silicon Valley’s finest engineering minds from Intel, levels the cricketing playing field, by taking research and development, worth millions of dollars and placing it all in a coin sized puck that is affordable and empowering to every batsman, irrespective of age, proficiency level or location.
When placed on the top of a bat handle offers a groundbreaking 360° analysis of any shot played, thus providing essential information to the player and their coaches to plan on improvement and game development. The disruptive capability of Speculur’s BatSense product is perhaps best summed up by its Founder &Managing Director, AtulSrivastava, when he says, “The bat is the player’s weapon. We knew there had to be a way to make this weapon more powerful. BatSense enhances the bat, by unlocking it and letting the batsmen know, how to make better and smarter use of this weapon”.
A Cricket Product by a Cricket Company
It is hardly surprising that Atul uses military metaphors, given that he has served as an officer in the Indian Army, prior to making a foray into the corporate world, via senior management roles at some of India’s leading corporate houses. Having been there and done that, Atul chose to dedicate his life and career to his verticals. Gaames has previously managed Indian cricket stars such as Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane & Ravichandran. Presently, the company manages the likes of Manish Pandey, Karun Nair and Parthiv Patel, while also working with international cricketing superstars.
The Gaames Group has been the exclusive & long-term licensing & merchandising partner of the International Cricket Council in India and holds these rights with ICC on a long term basis. The Group also operates e-Commerce portals (ICC cricket store.com among other portals),and owns 38 Adidas stores under Gaames Group (through Goodwill Enterprises), along with exclusive distribution rights in India, for Masuri Helmets, UK. These diversified business verticals, all deeply entrenched in cricket, made the Gaames Group the ideal mid-wife to birth a company like Speculur and to deliver a product such as BatSense.
Shaking up the Market
Within merely two weeks of its introduction, the disruptive technology in BatSense has changed the way shots are analyzed and the way batsman train. With the kind of impact the product will have on cricket, the company is betting high to double the cricket equipment market within a year, which has been crouching at 3.3 percent CAGR over the past seven years.
Predictably, Speculur are delighted by the acceptance the product has received worldwide, receiving hundreds of queries & requests from cricketers, coaches,
academies, distributors, broadcasters and bat manufacturers, all seeking to be involved with Speculur and its suit of smart wear ables. With the first volume being in production, the company looks forward to selling half a million of its product by the end of this year, and a million by the end of 2018. And then there are the investors. It is hardly surprising, that the company that has just launched the most exciting innovation in cricket, is being wooed by investors, keen to be involved and ride the technology wave with Speculur.
Research & Innovation
Speculur’s BatSense is embedded with an Intel Curie module to track real-time bat data, along with a wide range of measuring sensors ranging from Accelero meter to Gyro meter and Magnetometer, and a RAM that saves data for at least eight hours of continuous batting. Joining hands with Intel, Speculur also leverages on a huge set of intelligent algorithms and a significant amount of Machine Learning to gather a massive volume of data to produce result-oriented statistics. “Besides helping to gather data, Intel ensures its encryption as well. As an organization, we are compliant with all the data rules & regulations in every country,” asserts Atul.
Enhancing the Coach–Player Feedback Loop
Speculur Bat Sense is powered by the Speculur App (soon) available on Android and iOS platforms. BatSense is the first product of its kind in the cricketing world that allows batsmen and their coaches to view, analyse and annotate, data sets from every ball played. Packed with features like Smart Video and Coaching Tools, players and coaches can now rely on the 3D avatar rendering of each shot played and improve on specific parameters and fine tune their game.
The mobile app is powerful to ascertain the training assistance even without the hardware. Without Bat Sense, the app not only automatically captures the video of every shot played (doesn’t record the walks & talks in between), but also performs a multi tagging of shots, in terms of day, ground,time & type of shot.“Even if you are a gully cricketer, you can savor a lucid & comprehensive self-portrait with this product, and thus improve your self,”adds Atul. He continues,“We have already created a panel of 500 coaches across India, Australia & UK. When we commercially launch on 1st of September 2017, we will also create 800 forums across the world, and conduct the ‘Coach the Coaches’ program to educate coaches (and through them batsmen) about how to use this technology for the better by unlocking the data that they never knew about before”.
The Engine Room
Speculur’s core management team was aware that a product of this caliber demands tremendous R&D efforts and a workforce of experienced experts. This was where Speculur leaned on Raghavendra Patnaik, CEO of the Gaames Group to lend his legal and operational expertise to the Speculur business. A serial entrepreneur and pioneer, Raghav has been a trail-blazer in the Indian Sport & Entertainment industry. An alumnus of the prestigious National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, Raghav holds the distinction of being India’s first Sports lawyer. At Speculur, Raghav lends his legal expertise, business acumen and operational experience in addition to advising on marketing, media relations, distribution, sales and business development.
For a technology company, it is critical to have the right technologists at the helm of research and development and to address this need, Speculur roped in ShriHarsha K (Shark) as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. A veteran of the Tech industry, Shark has a keen sense for emerging technologies and the knack of unleashing their disruptive potential. With long stints at Hewlett Packard & WIPRO and having mentored a number of technology start-ups, Shark brings with him a wealth of experience and exposure.
Having put together an experienced and dynamic team of professionals,Speculur’s pinpoint focus now was on building an organization that breathes innovation. “We have a 24x7 research lab, which includes a cricket pitch & a bowling machine. It’s located on the top floor of our headquarters and hence free from any disturbances,” noted Atul. With a battery of passionate engineers and cricketing experts, within its workforce of 27 strong, humble & well trained people, Speculur has readied itself for a full fledged market launch within the next six months.
Having its research on-the-go round the clock, the company will soon explore the market with its pipe lined products to be released in the next few quarters such as Helmet Sense (sends a real-time message to physiotherapists when a batsman is hit with a ball on his helmet), Ball Sense(provides all the parameters of the ball) & ShoeSense (a smart shoe that dynamically charges without a USB). Additionally, other smart gear like GloveSense & PadSense will be released down the pike.
The Next Generation of Cricket is Here
Speculur additionally plans a revolution in the cricket watching paradigm through its product – Fan Band, which connects to the player’s bat. “Having Fan Bands in the hands of the audience, if the player hits a boundary, the entire gallery will be of a single color. The fans can also choose the color of their team,” Atulproclaims.
Going forward, Speculur plans to concentrate its sports-tech innovation on cricket for the next two years, and then aims to diversify into Badminton, Tennis and Golf. The company has set an ambitious revenue target of $200 million by the end of third year of operations. “We have remained a bootstrapped organization till date, but by the end of 2017, we plan to raise funds to fuel our R&D and thus take our revenue to $600 million in the first five years. We are well focused on the target, because passion and innovation make our company different,” concludes Atul.
Given how this determined band of committed professionals has grabbed the attention of the world, from Silicon Valley to Sydney, it would be unwise to bet against, Speculur meeting its targets and indeed exceeding them. For the lovers of sport and technology, that surely is music to their ears.
Panel
Key Management:
Atul Srivastava, Managing Director
RaghavendraPatnaik, COO
ShriHarsha K, CTO
Offerings:
• BatSense
• HelmetSense
• BallSense
• ShoeSense
• GloveSense
• PadSense
Offices: Bangalore (Headquarter) & Australia
Website: speculur.com
Research & Innovation
Speculur’s BatSense is embedded with an Intel Curie module to track real-time bat data, along with a wide range of measuring sensors ranging from Accelero meter to Gyro meter and Magnetometer, and a RAM that saves data for at least eight hours of continuous batting. Joining hands with Intel, Speculur also leverages on a huge set of intelligent algorithms and a significant amount of Machine Learning to gather a massive volume of data to produce result-oriented statistics. “Besides helping to gather data, Intel ensures its encryption as well. As an organization, we are compliant with all the data rules & regulations in every country,” asserts Atul.
Enhancing the Coach–Player Feedback Loop
Speculur Bat Sense is powered by the Speculur App (soon) available on Android and iOS platforms. BatSense is the first product of its kind in the cricketing world that allows batsmen and their coaches to view, analyse and annotate, data sets from every ball played. Packed with features like Smart Video and Coaching Tools, players and coaches can now rely on the 3D avatar rendering of each shot played and improve on specific parameters and fine tune their game.
The mobile app is powerful to ascertain the training assistance even without the hardware. Without Bat Sense, the app not only automatically captures the video of every shot played (doesn’t record the walks & talks in between), but also performs a multi tagging of shots, in terms of day, ground,time & type of shot.“Even if you are a gully cricketer, you can savor a lucid & comprehensive self-portrait with this product, and thus improve your self,”adds Atul. He continues,“We have already created a panel of 500 coaches across India, Australia & UK. When we commercially launch on 1st of September 2017, we will also create 800 forums across the world, and conduct the ‘Coach the Coaches’ program to educate coaches (and through them batsmen) about how to use this technology for the better by unlocking the data that they never knew about before”.
The Engine Room
Speculur’s core management team was aware that a product of this caliber demands tremendous R&D efforts and a workforce of experienced experts. This was where Speculur leaned on Raghavendra Patnaik, CEO of the Gaames Group to lend his legal and operational expertise to the Speculur business. A serial entrepreneur and pioneer, Raghav has been a trail-blazer in the Indian Sport & Entertainment industry. An alumnus of the prestigious National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, Raghav holds the distinction of being India’s first Sports lawyer. At Speculur, Raghav lends his legal expertise, business acumen and operational experience in addition to advising on marketing, media relations, distribution, sales and business development.
For a technology company, it is critical to have the right technologists at the helm of research and development and to address this need, Speculur roped in ShriHarsha K (Shark) as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. A veteran of the Tech industry, Shark has a keen sense for emerging technologies and the knack of unleashing their disruptive potential. With long stints at Hewlett Packard & WIPRO and having mentored a number of technology start-ups, Shark brings with him a wealth of experience and exposure.
Having put together an experienced and dynamic team of professionals,Speculur’s pinpoint focus now was on building an organization that breathes innovation. “We have a 24x7 research lab, which includes a cricket pitch & a bowling machine. It’s located on the top floor of our headquarters and hence free from any disturbances,” noted Atul. With a battery of passionate engineers and cricketing experts, within its workforce of 27 strong, humble & well trained people, Speculur has readied itself for a full fledged market launch within the next six months.
Having its research on-the-go round the clock, the company will soon explore the market with its pipe lined products to be released in the next few quarters such as Helmet Sense (sends a real-time message to physiotherapists when a batsman is hit with a ball on his helmet), Ball Sense(provides all the parameters of the ball) & ShoeSense (a smart shoe that dynamically charges without a USB). Additionally, other smart gear like GloveSense & PadSense will be released down the pike.
The Next Generation of Cricket is Here
Speculur additionally plans a revolution in the cricket watching paradigm through its product – Fan Band, which connects to the player’s bat. “Having Fan Bands in the hands of the audience, if the player hits a boundary, the entire gallery will be of a single color. The fans can also choose the color of their team,” Atulproclaims.
Going forward, Speculur plans to concentrate its sports-tech innovation on cricket for the next two years, and then aims to diversify into Badminton, Tennis and Golf. The company has set an ambitious revenue target of $200 million by the end of third year of operations. “We have remained a bootstrapped organization till date, but by the end of 2017, we plan to raise funds to fuel our R&D and thus take our revenue to $600 million in the first five years. We are well focused on the target, because passion and innovation make our company different,” concludes Atul.
Given how this determined band of committed professionals has grabbed the attention of the world, from Silicon Valley to Sydney, it would be unwise to bet against, Speculur meeting its targets and indeed exceeding them. For the lovers of sport and technology, that surely is music to their ears.
Panel
Key Management:
Atul Srivastava, Managing Director
RaghavendraPatnaik, COO
ShriHarsha K, CTO
Offerings:
• BatSense
• HelmetSense
• BallSense
• ShoeSense
• GloveSense
• PadSense
Offices: Bangalore (Headquarter) & Australia
Website: speculur.com
