Anders Tånger, CEO of Photon Sports: “What fascinates us the most is when technology goes unnoticed”

Anders Tånger, CEO of Photon Sports, is on a mission: to give every sports team access to sophisticated tools, rather than this being left to the teams that are already successful and rich. In particular, he spotted that in Europe female football players did not have access to the same quality of data as their male counterparts.

“We recognised that while the women’s football market was growing, it lacked the same opportunities as men’s football due to limited budgets,” Anders told us. “This realisation led us to partner with the Swedish Women’s League as our first customer in 2022.”

The technology – which tracks and analyses body movements using 3D images of athletes – is not only affordable, it’s also highly portable. Which means it can be used where the players are training, enabling it to capture authentic movement.

It’s already having an impact, helping coaches and athletes spot areas that can be improved. And now Photon Sports is looking beyond football and at any sport that features explosive movement, from handball to speed skating.

Read the full interview below to find out more.

Related reading: Chen M. Shachar, Co-Founder of PlaySight: “Video technology has become integral to high-performance training”

Tell us your elevator pitch

We have developed a patented technology that revolutionises tracking and analysing body movements, specifically tailored for the football industry. Our mobile technology enables standardised testing for speed, agility and quickness, as well as next-generation tests for agile movement patterns, including decelerations and direction changes. With precise information on complete sprint patterns, our technology provides new insights and answers to previously unaddressed questions. This innovation has quickly gained traction, with over 60 established European football teams and clinics already on board.

Our 3D technology sends out 12 million signals per second, tracking athletes with extreme resolution in three dimensions, and captures 480 picture frames per second. The algorithm presents 60 3D frames per second, translating to an intermediate time every ten centimetres during a sprint. This provides a complete picture of sprint control.

The equipment is small, 100% mobile and takes only one minute to set up. The interface is very user-friendly, allowing almost anyone to conduct reliable, high-quality tests in an authentic environment, whether on the field or in the training room. There’s no need to transport players for testing, and you can integrate tests as part of regular training.

Results are presented in real-time, including auto-generated graphs, player cards and team cards, eliminating the need for data processing. Our goal is to provide actionable insights immediately, enabling you to make informed decisions on the spot.

What is it about sports tech that excites you? What made you get into this sector?

The primary reason Photon Sports was founded was to give women’s football equal access to sports technology and data-driven processes. We recognised that while the women’s football market was growing, it lacked the same opportunities as men’s football due to limited budgets. Current technologies and testing equipment were too complex for many to manage long-term, and few had established reliable baselines on key performance indicators to develop their players optimally.

This realisation led us to partner with the Swedish Women’s League as our first customer in 2022. We believed we could make a genuine difference by supporting these clubs with mobile, easy-to-use and reliable equipment essential for relatively small organisations to stay competitive. With our technology, they could better understand their players’ capabilities and gain concrete, actionable insights.

We also initiated a pilot study on explosive capabilities among elite female footballers. We immediately identified potential discrepancies compared to earlier assumptions based on male data and training protocols. Most major league-level studies have been conducted on male players, making our study pioneering in its focus.

In addition to impacting women’s football, we are passionate about solving everyday problems within the sports industry. Conversations with over 100 stakeholders from the European football industry revealed a gap in testing and insights on key abilities related to speed control, such as deceleration and change of direction. Few had empirical data to act on in these areas. This has been a focus for us, and we are now making a difference. We also found that current test conditions were too complicated and time-consuming for most to manage. Our goal was to develop a one-stop solution for fast and efficient assessments. Top male clubs also emphasised that testing needed to be quick and easy to conduct, or it wouldn’t be sustainable over time.

By addressing these issues, Photon Sports aims to level the playing field for women’s football and provide innovative solutions to common challenges in the sports industry. Our commitment to equality and efficiency drives us to continually improve and expand our services, making a lasting impact on the world of sports.

Recommended: Bob Griswold, Founder and CEO at SwimClips: “Starting in sportstech requires focusing on real, pressing problems and keeping solutions simple”

What sports does your tech apply to? And have you been surprised by its use?

Our technology is versatile and can be applied to most explosive sports, whether they are team or individual sports. When we launched in 2022, we focused on football due to the industry’s high demand for better technologies to test and develop footballers’ physical abilities, and because the sport has become more explosive and fast-paced over the last decades. Football is one of the largest and most well-developed sports globally, providing us with a vast potential customer base from which to learn. Its widespread popularity made it an ideal starting point for our technology, which is why we are not surprised by its widespread adoption.

We also have customers and partners in other sports, such as handball, basketball and ice hockey, and collaborate closely with sports scientists and experts at the forefront of physical development in sports. We are currently preparing to release an ice hockey edition with a test battery adapted to their specific needs.

The most surprising application of our technology so far has been a Dutch clinic testing speed skaters, but it makes sense since speed skating is an explosive sport where acceleration, top speed and curved sprints are important capabilities.

Can you give an example of a complex problem in sports that you – or your company – have been involved in tackling with technology?

Definitely about finding actionable insights regarding deceleration abilities! In the past, sports scientists and physiotherapists have mainly focused on acceleration and top speed, even though many sports are actually deceleration dominant, which has become more recognised in recent years. It’s a kind of forgotten factor partly because there hasn’t been any good method available to measure and benchmark deceleration abilities. Now you get the complete picture of deceleration with ease, including KPIs to identify strengths and weaknesses to address. It’s a game-changer for most.

Additionally, there are two key areas where we have made a significant impact. By tracking players with such high resolution and providing a complete picture of sprint patterns, you can now see exactly where a player gains or loses time — whether during acceleration or deceleration, on the left or right side, on a linear or nonlinear sprint. This clarity provides coaches and players with new insights to work on, often resulting in faster and more agile players within just a few months.

Furthermore, few clubs have had the opportunity to test all their players consistently in the same manner. With our mobile and easy-to-use technology, clubs can now include both women’s and men’s academy teams in their testing protocols. The key, of course, is to work systematically over time, especially during the developmental years.

Related reading: Lode Goossens, Sports Scientist and Founder of Hylyght: “I strongly believe in giving data ownership to athletes”

What is an example of a club or team improving their performance through technology that you find particularly interesting? And why?

We believe there is a lot to gain from knowing rather than guessing. All the hours spent in the gym trying to improve speed, agility and quickness might be worthless if you are not verifying that the tasks you are doing are actually improving your performance on the field. We continuously work on validating key parameters in authentic environments to provide actionable insights for clubs, teams, and players.

Sports tech plays a crucial role in preventing injuries among football players by providing precise data on physical performance. Through monitoring and analysis, coaches can identify early signs of fatigue or strain, adjust training regimens, and tailor recovery protocols, significantly reducing the risk of injuries. ACL injuries on the women’s side are something we are currently working on, and sports tech will likely play a significant role in mitigating them.

Sports tech can significantly enhance our understanding and monitoring of player freshness by tracking various parameters such as fatigue levels, recovery status and overall physical condition. This data enables coaches to make informed decisions about training loads and rest periods, ensuring that players maintain optimal freshness and performance while minimising the risk of overtraining and related injuries.

Technology will contribute much more in the future. Like many others, we have a vast amount of data that AI will help us leverage. This will further enhance our ability to provide deeper insights and more effective solutions for athlete performance and injury prevention. Stay tuned…

Thinking of injury prevention and/or recovery, what are some technology and/or science developments you’ve found particularly fascinating?

What fascinates us the most is when technology goes unnoticed. We believe in people, and when technology provides information seamlessly, it is at its best. We are starting to achieve this now, and there is still much to be done. We focus on developing next-generation tests that are not limited by technology, where data is collected in an authentic environment.

Staying on top of freshness and establishing reliable baselines is key to optimising performance and preventing injuries. Another crucial aspect is the body’s technical execution of specific actions. Using technology to analyse and gain insights into the details of body movements is therefore essential. High-speed cameras and sensors analyse an individual’s movement patterns, identifying biomechanical inefficiencies or abnormal stresses that could lead to injury. These systems provide precise data that allow for personalised corrective strategies, such as adjusting techniques or strengthening specific muscle groups. This helps prevent injuries by ensuring that movements are performed optimally and safely.

We plan to release this as an add-on to our current technology in 2024. With both high-resolution data and video footage for movement analysis, we are confident that our tech will provide a comprehensive solution for our customers.