Interview with Gregory Gettinger, CEO of VR Motion Learning

Today sees Novak Djokovic play Italy’s Lorenzo Moretti for the chance to play in the Olympic Men’s Tennis Final. Iga Swiatek will be hoping to win a Bronze in the Women’s tournament. And, somewhere, people will be engaging in their own virtual tennis matches thanks to Tennis Esports. It’s the brainchild of Gregory Gettinger, Founder and CEO of VR Motion Learning, and we’re delighted to interview him here.

As Gregory is keen to point out, Tennis Esports relies on experts across many subjects. Think computer vision, machine learning, VR technologies, full-body motion tracking and real-time data analysis. Plus vital input from tennis professionals and sports biomechanics engineers. It helps that he lives in Vienna, home to a staggering 23 universities.

Gregory himself is a dual US and Austrian citizen, with a PhD in Marketing & Technology and extensive background in growing, managing and financing startups. But most of all – and this is something that screams through this interview louder than Maria Sharapova in her prime – he loves tennis.

Tell us your elevator pitch

The Ultimate VR Tennis Experience! Tennis Esports is a Virtual Reality Tennis Application. Play and learn tennis with your friends virtually anywhere, anytime! If you love tennis, you’ll love Tennis Esports.

If you are good at Tennis Esports, you will be good at Tennis.

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

For years I have enjoyed playing tennis, especially with my son, Arthur. Now a teenager, he loves to play games at home, shooting aliens with the push of a button, but also laughing and chatting to his friends. I was determined to find a modern solution to keep Arthur active and having fun.

From there I had the idea to bring tennis into the digital world – but not as a video or arcade game. I wanted the real thing: real tennis, real swings with realistic ball physics. The solution had to be VR, and the solution had to be for everyone to enjoy. I reduced that down to a few bullet points:

For kids, instead of pushing buttons, to move like on a real court
For people with disabilities to lose their handicap playing in a virtual world
For tennis coaches to teach their students from home
For tennis pros to make a good living even if they are not in the top 100
For everyone, like you and me, to learn and enjoy tennis without needing to book, drive,or to buy racquets and balls

My first challenge was to convince my family, then my friends, and finally the public to start the real project. I found a capable team to research and develop the complexity of programming tennis ball physics, biomechanics and VR. Four years of development and hard work have followed!

Since 2019, more than 100,000 downloads have helped to shape the app we have today, and we have won the most prestigious awards in VR technology along the way.

We are now merging esports with traditional tennis, including our very own Tour with over 30,000 players.

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Do you consider esports as part of your remit? If so, why?

Yes, esports is a crucial part of our remit at Tennis Esports. We utilise this as an effective marketing tool to encourage trials of VR Tennis, as many have never even tried VR before. In general, it is also great to enhance the overall experience of our platform without requiring further development. Live match play is already coded, and so Esports tournaments simply bring in a new dimension of competition on top of our arcade games and provide an opportunity for sponsors to engage with our users and audience

Firstly, Esports has rapidly evolved into a mainstream form of entertainment, attracting a massive 550-million-plus global audience of enthusiasts and competitive gamers. What is interesting about Esports currently is that the majority (70%) both play and watch their games. By incorporating esports elements into VR Tennis, we tap into this growing market, offering players the opportunity to compete on a global scale and showcase their skills in virtual tournaments.

Our competitive Tour, which has already attracted more than 30,000 players, demonstrates the immense potential of esports within VR Tennis Esports. We’ve also hosted prestigious events like the Olympic Tennis Esports tournaments and have been featured multiple times at the US Open, alongside major companies in the tennis industry.

Esports tournaments and events offer valuable sponsorship opportunities, driving revenue and increasing brand visibility for our platform and partners.

How do you stay up to date on the latest technology developments in sports?

I actively follow industry leaders, sports tech companies and thought leaders on LinkedIn. That way I stay informed about the latest trends, innovations and news in the sports gaming sector. It’s a valuable platform for engaging with like-minded professionals.

I also speak and attend conferences and meetups to connect with other professionals in the immersive technology, gaming and sports space. Networking events like AWE or CES provide opportunities to meet people in person and show them Tennis Esports first hand, which helps partnerships immensely. From here we exchange ideas on how to collaborate, and I also discover new technologies and innovations shaping the industry.

We partner with the Technical University of Vienna and have cooperated with universities all over the world who are interested in learning about our project from an engineering, software development, business and even marketing perspective. From NYIT to IIT and others, this network then allows me to regularly review research papers, studies and publications from universities and research institutions that focus on sports technology, AI applications and gaming. University networks often produce cutting-edge research and insights that can inform my understanding of emerging trends and technologies.

Finally, I keep an eye on startups and innovation hubs that are harnessing the potential of AI and other technologies within sports gaming. Whether it be on the news or podcasts, these startups often pioneer new ideas, products, and solutions that our team can leverage to move faster or plan our development for the future.

Related reading: Dr Patrick Lucey, Chief Scientist at Stats Perform: “The value of generative AI is that it essentially unlocks the full value of the sports data we collect”