Professional tennis players travel with a small army. Coaches, analysts, physios, and camera crews track every serve, every footstep, every point pattern, then turn all of it into data that shapes how the pro trains. The club player booking a Saturday court gets none of that. Their feedback comes down to whatever a coach can catch in real time, or a shaky phone video that nobody quite knows how to read. The talent gap between pros and everyone else is real. The information gap is bigger.

Lauren Pedersen is the CEO and Co-Founder of SportAI, an Oslo-based company using computer vision to analyze sports video, taken on anything down to a mobile phone, and turn it into instant, objective feedback on technique and tactics. The platform is focused first on racket sports, covering tennis, padel, and pickleball, with plans to build into other sports over time.

In this episode of Lead with AI, Dr. Tamara Nall speaks with Lauren Pedersen about how the technology works, why one of the world's top coaches took notice, how clubs are turning court cameras into revenue, and why she believes the point of AI in sports is more impact for coaches, not fewer coaches.

A Tennis Life That Crossed Three Continents  

Lauren grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, playing nearly every sport on offer, water polo, taekwondo, and fill-in appearances on her brother's cricket team included. Tennis stuck. It carried her to the United States on a scholarship, where she spent four years playing Division One college tennis in Washington, DC. Her career then ran through some of the world's largest advertising agencies, first in New York, then in London, before she moved to Oslo, Norway, nearly 18 years ago and shifted into tech, helping Scandinavian companies grow internationally.

SportAI sits at the meeting point of those two lives. The mission, in her words, is democratizing access to sports analysis, so a kid growing up in Wellington, Oslo, or North Carolina can get the same quality of data that used to require a professional team.

What Happens When Every Pixel Becomes a Sensor?  

SportAI is camera agnostic. The system takes video off a mobile phone or off the court-mounted cameras now being installed at sports facilities around the world. From there, computer vision goes to work. Lauren describes it as tracking nearly every pixel in the video, so the footage itself functions like a sensor on the player's body.

A player can show up to practice, have a coach film their serve on a phone, and get immediate feedback through SportAI. The system can point to changes that add power, improve consistency, and show how the technique compares to other players. When the video covers the whole court, the analysis goes tactical: where shots are landing, where the player stands between points, and the kind of match statistics fans are used to seeing for the pros.

No wearables. No lab. Just video.

Coaches Finally Get Data Behind the Eye Test  

For most of coaching history, feedback rested on a coach's training and their own eyes. Lauren points to two reactions that told her SportAI was working. The first came at the top of the sport. Oivind Sorvald, a Norwegian who ranks among the best coaches in the world and spent years as Casper Ruud's technical coach, saw how technology could change the way coaches everywhere collect data on players and connect technique changes to results. The second came at the other end of the profession. Junior coaches with limited experience realized they could suddenly ground their feedback in data, making them better coaches faster.

The company built its early business B2B, integrating with camera systems already rolling out at courts, including Save My Play, growing quickly in the US, and MATCHi TV, expanding across Northern Europe. Now SportAI is taking the next step: software that goes directly to players and coaches, currently in a beta phase open for applications at sportai.com.

Consent Comes Before the Camera  

Dr. Nall asks the question most players would: can I use this to scout my opponents? Lauren's answer sets the ethical boundary clearly. Anyone being filmed has to approve it. Users control their own data, choose when they are recorded, and coaches must confirm that players are comfortable before filming. In Lauren's experience, most players say yes quickly because the payoff of better feedback outweighs their concerns.

Broadcast analysis of publicly aired matches could come later, and Lauren says that space may be appropriate for SportAI in time. For now, the tool stays in the hands of the players and coaches it serves.

Clubs Are Sitting on an Untapped Revenue Stream  

The business case extends past the individual player. Clubs, academies, and federations run into the same ceiling: revenue is capped by the number of courts, coaches, and hours in the day. Court cameras change that equation. Lauren notes the hardware has become efficient and inexpensive, and once installed, it opens paid services players actually want, including technique analysis, match statistics, and shareable highlights like the longest rally, the fastest sprint, and the best shots of the day.

Players get content worth sharing after every match. Clubs get income that does not require building another court.

Superpowers Instead of Pink Slips  

A previous Lead with AI guest left a question behind: should companies use AI to run with 10x fewer employees or to give their people 10x greater impact? Lauren does not hesitate. She picks impact, and her answer comes straight out of the coaching relationship. A coach with SportAI on a mobile phone carries what she calls superpowers, immediate data on every player they work with. What the AI cannot replace is the relationship and motivation a coach brings, the human dynamic that makes a player keep showing up.

Her boldest prediction extends the same idea to every level of sport: a future where athletes everywhere can understand their own game, own their own data, and share it, no matter the sport, the court, or the country.

Quick Answers  

What is SportAI? SportAI is an Oslo-based sports technology company that uses computer vision to analyze video of players and deliver instant feedback on technique, tactics, and match statistics. It currently focuses on tennis, padel, and pickleball.

Do you need special cameras to use SportAI? No. The platform is camera agnostic. It works with video off a mobile phone and integrates with court-mounted camera systems, including preferred partners like Save My Play and MATCHi TV.

How can players and coaches try SportAI? SportAI is running a beta for its new player and coach software. Anyone can apply at sportai.com and test the technology directly with a mobile phone.

How do clubs benefit from SportAI? Clubs and facilities that install court cameras can offer analysis, statistics, and shareable video highlights as paid services, creating a revenue stream that does not depend on adding courts or coaching hours.

Who is Lauren Pedersen? Lauren Pedersen is the CEO and Co-Founder of SportAI. Originally out of New Zealand, she played Division One college tennis in Washington, DC, built a career at global ad agencies and Scandinavian tech companies, and now leads SportAI in Oslo.

For players and coaches who want objective feedback on their game, and for club owners looking at the cameras already going up on courts everywhere, SportAI is taking beta applications now at sportai.com.

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