Synergy Sports Technology


Synergy Sports Technology is an American company that creates web-based, on-demand video-supported basketball analytics for the purposes of scouting, development and entertainment. Synergy partners with the NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s programs, FIBA and international pro-basketball leagues. It also provides service to a broad range of sports media and marketing companies, including ESPN, ABC Sports, Turner Sports and EA Sports.
Synergy analysts use a proprietary logging system to tag and catalogue every possession of every game. Collected data is synthesized and classified according to an extensive range of indicators, including traditional and advanced statistics, play types, player behaviors and game situations. Subscribed users can access, disaggregate and cross-reference this information through reports, custom query tools, charts and graphs with data points linked to the full archived series of corresponding video clips. Synergy’s cloud-based editing tool also allows users to create and share unique video edits that can be watched on a computer or via Synergy’s mobile app. Video is typically available within 12 to 24 hours after the completion of a game; however, NBA games are typically available 45 minutes after games are played. NBA archives date to the 2004 season.
Coaches and players have praised Synergy’s product for allowing them to efficiently, comprehensively and collaboratively evaluate player and team performance and tendencies, significantly reducing and enhancing research time.

History

Founder/CEO Garrick Barr began developing the technologies that evolved into Synergy Sports Technology in 1992, the year he transitioned from college basketball coach to assistant coach and video coordinator for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Barr first worked with engineers to develop a digital post-production editing system to expedite the onerous task of collecting, cataloguing and editing hundreds of hours of game film used for training. While the resulting technology achieved their goal, it still required teams to compile, edit and tag the footage themselves.
Barr then sought to create technology to instantly produce advanced analytics that would make use of the company’s existing work in video logging and tagging. Along with friend Scott Mossman, Barr founded Quantified Scouting Service in 1998. QSS produced computer-generated reports – accessible by teams through dial-up technology – revealed every player’s offensive tendencies.
In 2004, Barr renamed the company Synergy Sports Technology and brought in computer scientist Nils Lahr. Barr and Lahr developed the breakthrough application software and streaming media technology that allowed loggers to undertake the rapid video-data syncing and upload that laid the foundation for Synergy’s success.
In 2008, Synergy reached multi-year licensing agreement with the National Basketball Association to give NBA.com, NBA.tv, and the NBA’s television partners access to Synergy products and services. The same year, the company also announced a partnership with EA Sports to incorporate Synergy’s data into its NBA Live franchise.