On this episode, we spoke to Rod Rapson, the Managing Director of PlaySight in Europe. PlaySight is a smart sport technology with artificially intelligent powered cameras. Because PlaySight’s high definition cameras don’t require humans to operate the broadcast, the PlaySight technology allowed them to officially bring sports back by launching the Tennis Point Exhibition in Germany which was covered by CNN, ESPN, The New York Times, and many more.
PlaySight’s technology proved extremely valuable during COVID times in the new normal. In this podcast, Rod spoke about his background as a tennis player and how those experiences helped him lead PlaySight through launching the Tennis Point Exhibition, why it was important to him personally to put the players first and get them back on the court to earn a living, and how the future of sports technology can help clubs better prepare for OTT offerings.
Show Transcript
John Peters: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the sport lifestyle podcast. I’m your host, John Peters. Today our guest is a Managing Director for PlaySight, Rodney Rapson. Rodney, welcome to the show.
Rodney Rapson: [00:00:10] Thanks John. Appreciate you having me on here.
John Peters: [00:00:12] Yeah, no, I appreciate you coming on. You’re super busy, which is, uh, so cool to talk about how you guys brought sports back and we’re going to get to that in a second. Um, but first I think, uh, we should talk a little bit about your background and, um, how you got involved with PlaySight. Uh, can you tell our listeners, uh, that story.
Rodney Rapson: [00:00:32] Yeah, sure. It’s, I’m trying, try and keep it brief. Um, I’m originally from Australia, grew up in Melbourne, um, play tennis as a junior, pretty decent, and then, uh, took a scholarship to go to the United States and played division one college there when I was in the States for five years and then stayed in tennis and moved to London, um, was working in London for six years.
