BARCELONA, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona has launched its first technological product, the ‘Barça Tracker’, in collaboration with OLIVER Sports and which, being a device to improve the performance of footballers, was managed from its Innovation department and the first startup in which the blaugrana club
The Barça Innovation Hub and OLIVER Sports presented the club’s first technological product at the Sports Tomorrow Congress, an innovative wearable device that has the utility of enhancing the performance of all types of soccer players in an easy and entertaining way and is being used in the club’s quarry.
It is a device that is placed on the player’s stocking, measures performance in each match and training session, and integrates artificial intelligence to suggest improvements in a personalized way within a mobile application.
“It is not only about obtaining the data from each match and training session, but also knowing what to do with it, here comes Artificial Intelligence that understands the improvement aspects of each player and shows them a video with exercises on how to improve,” José highlighted. Gonzalez Ruzo, CEO of OLIVER Sports.
“The Barça Tracker represents a new era in sports technology, combining the values, methodology and legacy of FC Barcelona with the innovation of OLIVER Sports,” he added. Its interactive and gamified interface motivates players to adopt changes, encouraging them to give their best in every training session and match.
The device, in addition to measuring athletic issues such as speeds, distances and accelerations, offers a wide range of metrics related to interaction with the ball such as kicking force, passing or driving speed. This is achieved thanks to its placement on the leg, exceeding the capabilities from other available GPS devices that are placed on breastplates.
“We began to use the product in the Barça Clinics and achieved a first internal success story. Then they also chose it in La Masia and the club’s scientists began to give suggestions for improvement that were quickly applied by OLIVER, thus achieving total integration with the methodology. Barça,” commented Albert Mundet, Director of the Barça Innovation Hub.
The Barça Tracker also helps prevent muscle injuries. A large percentage of these injuries occur due to overload in training and matches. Being able to measure these loads, the platform provides injury risk indices, taking care of the sporting health of each player. All of these metrics ultimately allow players to know all the details of their game and enhance their performance while having fun, learning, improving and connecting with other players.
Social Impact in the Community The mobile application, to which users connect to see their metrics, also encourages socialization and friendly competition between players in the community. With challenges, rankings and other integrated features, young footballers can join the culé community, share experiences and motivate each other. This is, without a doubt, something never before seen in the field of GPS technology focused on football.
The launch held at #SportsTomorrowCongress2024 announced a pre-sale that began on Tuesday, February 27 and will end on March 31, or when the stock of 100 units at a promotional price runs out. The Barça GPS Tracker can be purchased at ‘shop.oliversports.ai/barca-tracker’.