Crowdsourced Caddies and the Sports Tech Future of Golf
Has golf peaked or is sports tech to the rescue of a fun and rewarding sport that requires patience, passion and a skill set unlike any other sport that takes on average 4.5 hour to complete the golfer experience. Tiger Woods is back chasing the 18 professional majors won by Jack Nicklaus, tablet tech is showing up on courses, and the First Tee is shining a light to help American kids understand how golf and life are seamless opportunities to “rise up” as they say here in Atlanta.
Several sports technology products gaining popularity are Digital Caddies, Caddio, and the Garmin golf watch. Social media is another tool helping golf regain its swagger with the public, both young and old, especially the support Rory McIIroy received after winning the 2014 British Open Championship, while leading up to the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Course that began today. These new digital technologies are layering sophisticated analytics and insights over the green, changing the way golf is played and helping the providers and end users maximum efficiency with performance, marketing and business. All while using technology to bring golf to a younger generation and make it more accessible.
Golf Sports Tech
The era of getting caught by an unexpected water hazard or sand trap may soon be behind us, as golfers begin to harness the wisdom of crowds to gain a competitive advantage on the golf course. Caddio uses crowdsourcing to provide detailing knowledge, descriptions, and expert-to-amateur tips from other golfers to give players expertise on every hole for 30,000 courses around the world.
On the operator’s side, golf courses are now introducing new table based platforms, like Digital Caddies, that connect golfers to the Web to enhance experience, build loyalty, and reduce operating costs. These digitally supported golf outings are becoming a popular option, and it may soon to unthinkable to hit the links without a tablet device as part of the experience. Digital tools like these help course managers cater to specific audiences while combating higher maintenance costs resulting from changing global weather resulting in more floods, super storms and soaring temperatures.
Golf Data
The question all golfers, fans and sponsors want to know is whether the sport in on the decline or is it “great” as Donald Trump said in a Golf.com interview. “Golf is an amazing place for business,” said Trump.
According to MRI Doublebase 2013, the affluent decision maker’s audience are 141x more likely to be a techno-enthusiast. They are 22x more likely to make a personal purchase with a credit card and 78x more likely to do so for business purchases. Their data indicated 25 percent of all $1 million dollar plus business decision were made by golfers. Finally, these active golfers are 51x more likely to spend more than $50k on a car, and 42x more likely to own a luxury car.
Crowdsourced Caddies and the Sports Tech Future of Golf – Sports Techie blog
Digital Caddies
Once the affluent decision maker leaves the office, they are happy, relaxed and ready to spend on new equipment, at resort restaurants and Pro Shops. Digital Caddies audience index includes executives in financial, investment and alcohol, and business and vacation travel, who are serviced by the app as their caddie, concierge and course marshal. Golfer relevant content displayed on HD tablet screens promotes interaction amongst golfers and the mobile device used during rounds allows golf course operators and marketers to engage directly with their targeted audience.
Digital Caddies was founded in 2003, and is a publicly traded company: CADY. They created a low cost, easy-to-implement and use GPS golf system in the fast-growing, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Industry. The sports tech company provides their free GPS technology solution to customers and qualifying course. It provides wireless connectivity and tablet technology installed on golf carts to hundreds of links across the country. Their GPS-based course navigation system also provides aerial fairway and green views while offering precise yardage. They can be used at more than 7,500 interactive screens installed on over 100 golf courses, in major markets nationwide.
Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC shared last year that Sprint is the exclusive data provider and Samsung will supply the Galaxy Tab® 2 10.1 for the Digital Caddies Player’s Network. Digital Caddies installed The Player’s Network last summer on proactive courses in Arizona, California and Florida who are now wirelessly connected to the Web via Sprint’s nationwide 3G network. Digital Caddies #theplayersnetwork content is showcased on the tablet’s 10.1-inch touchscreen display which is powered by am Intel 1.5GHz dual-core processor.
“Sprint is delighted to support this innovative value proposition from Digital Caddies,” said Kimberly Green-Kerr, regional vice president, Sprint. “By extending the connected vehicle to golf, they’re adding yet another dimension to how we work and how we play. The Player’s Network brings many of the same mobile features to the fairways that Sprint enables in automobiles and commercial fleets on the roadways.”
They also signed deals with top golf management companies Troon Golf Management, OB Sports and National Golf Management who together manage 250+ courses. The company recently announced becoming a member of the digital media industry’s leading trade association, DPAA. The association consists of the largest digital out of home networks.
Providing video and graphics interaction with carts, at all times, from an Internet enabled device, both desktops or tablets, is a novel approach Digital Caddies has of reaching the end user in a new way. I especially like the feature that allows management the ability to define geo-boundaries to help protect sensitive areas of your course. You can use their proprietary course management tools to breakdown the identify of every golf cart in real time which opens up new data sets and resulting analytics about car inventory, cart travel, and rider patterns, plus enabling a more efficient management of pace of play and maintenance planning. New business opportunities are now available to drive clubhouse merchandise and concession sales using real-time promotions, all helping to increase guest loyalty. Digital Caddies can save resorts upwards of $75,000 annually while catering to an audience that is 74% male, 25-64 years old and has high net worth.
- Accurate GPS Distance measuring
Food and Beverage Ordering
Promotional Sales offers
Contest Participation
Digital Scorecard
Cart-to-cart Messaging
OTC: CADY
15210 N Scottsdale Rd
Suite 250
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
480.626.2423
Copyright © 2011-2012 Digital Caddies Inc. All Rights Reserved *** - New CEO a/o 3/26/13 - ***
Mike Loustalot 
In his 28-year career, Loustalot has been involved in nearly every facet of the golf business, including marketing technology, golf shop operations and course development. Prior to joining Golf Channel, Loustalot was executive vice president of sales for Cypress Golf Solutions, which provides management and marketing services to course owners and operators, marketing partners and affiliates, golfers and advertisers. Previously, Loustalot was founder and president of Spectrum Golf, a service bureau that provided private label, inbound call-center services for golf courses, hotels and golf vacation businesses.
Since joining Golf Channel in 2008, Loustalot has been instrumental in the growth and influence of GolfNow.com. With more than 4,000 participating courses, GolfNow is the Internet's largest online reservations and revenue management platform. In 2010 more than 1 million golfers used the GolfNow.com service to book nearly five million rounds at participating courses.
Read More - http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeloustalot 
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Sprint (NYSE:S) & Digital Caddies, Inc. (OTC:CADY) Offer Innovative Technology Solution for Golf Courses OVERLAND PARK, Kan., & SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 07, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Sprint (NYSE: S +0.14%) a leader in the burgeoning field of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology, and Digital Caddies, Inc. (OTCPK:CADY), a 10-year-old, golf technology pioneer based in Scottsdale, today announced a venture where Sprint will provide wireless coverage and Android tablet hardware for the new Digital Caddies "Players Network" tablet-based technology platform. Read full PR, here.