Menlo Park, Calif., April 21, 2016 – Kitman Labs, Silicon Valley’s leading sports science technology company, today announced that The South African Rugby Union (SARU), the governing body for rugby in South Africa has partnered with Kitman Labs to use its cloud-based data collection and analytics tools to turn data into real-time actionable insights to reduce player injuries and optimize athlete performance.

South Africa, one of the world’s most successful rugby nations and known for its advances in sports medicine and science. Following the successful introduction of the BokSmart Rugby Safety program, SARU is now turning to sports technology powerhouse Kitman Labs to provide analytics to reduce injury incidence and promote performance. SARU will roll out [ Intelligence Platform (iP)™ ] to the World Cup winning national team, the Springboks, as well as a host of other elite teams including the Men’s Sevens, Women’s Sevens, Under 20s, and Elite Player Development.

This is the second governing body in rugby in as many years that have chosen to adopt the Kitman suite of products across their organization. In 2015, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) rolled out the Kitman platform across all teams from sub academies and provincial franchises through to the Senior National side in 2015. This is the beginning of an evolution of governing bodies investing in technologies to help promote athlete welfare and reduce the impact of injuries on performance.

“Kitman Labs will provide us with an easy-to-use tool to collect and store all the workload data from across the organization in one central depository,” said Willie Maree, Technical Support Manager with the SARU.  “We are able to collect data from each of our athletes before they even come into camp, then put it to work immediately by looking at the injury information reporting and injury audits.  In addition, we can share key learnings and data between departments and teams.”

Given the wealth of data now available in sports, the need for a dynamic, cutting-edge product has become an essential need for top level sports teams. This type of second generation solution utilizing machine learning enables teams to determine the true causes of injury then work with their athletes to reach peak performance. The unique capabilities of Kitman Labs’ product Capture, provide coaches with tools to identify and understand the subtle degenerative signs that occur prior to injury and react to reduce these risks and keep their athletes performing at the highest level every day.

“This is the second time a governing body has adopted our entire product suite across multiple teams,” said Stephen Smith, CEO and Founder of Kitman Labs. “Last year we established a similar partnership with the IRFU and feedback has been fantastic. Rugby is a tough, physical, sport and reducing athlete injuries has been shown increase a team’s chance of winning. SARU recognizes the need for a quick and simple way to look at and analyze all of of their athletes data in one place. We look forward to working with SARU and helping them to remain one of the most advanced and innovative sporting bodies in the world.”

Kitman Labs has agreements around the world with; Bath Rugby, Gloucester Rugby, NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the Barclay’s Premier League’s Norwich City and Everton, the MLS’ Seattle Sounders and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.

About Kitman Labs:

Kitman Labs is the world’s leading sports science and performance analytics company. Our athlete management software platform is used by top teams and organizations across a variety of sports and military organizations to optimize athlete and service member performance, reduce injury risk, and enhance overall wellness. Kitman Labs is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Dublin and Manchester.

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