Recent announcements
The new CEO, Will Lopes, looks to be a good appointment. The announcement points out his overseeing the growth of audible , and his experience within Amazon. He left ahead of culture issues highlighted after an investigation into workplace harassment. I would assume it to be a career killer to have any further allegation made against him whilst at Catapult. I would also assume that that would develop a good understanding of corporate culture since he left Audible.
Likewise Hayden Stockdale as CFO is also credible. Catapult have gone through about 4 CFO’s since listing, I’ve thought about the issues they face. Catapult is muli headed beast. It has R&D offices across 3 continents. It is also has sales teams and support everywhere in the world. It has products in several tiers, and in different columns. Each of the areas has different needs in terms of R&D, sales and marketing. Juggling the development costs and returns while emphasising growth, then having to rein in costs is a recipe for hair loss at a minimum. Let’s hope the new CFO can keep on top of it all.
The replacement of Calvin Ng with Michelle Guthrie likely signals that there should be no more capital raisings. Adir Shiffman has been emphasising free cash flow, which does not preclude buying other companies. Guthries appointment should help with an area that has not performed to expectations, media use of player’s data. Her expertise in this area should get a better return on the media partnerships Catapult is looking for.
Bull Case
Growth in the elite sector looks to be in line with previous years. Catapult hasn’t released an earnings forecast due to a new CEO , however I would expect that it will be similar to last year
One of the recurring themes of Catapult has been investment, and re investment. It has developed its products better than its rivals, and should not need any further capital raisings to develop new products. It has increased sales of its Vision and added Vector to its product line. It should be investing in purchasing some of the smaller start-ups such as collison detection and emerging VR
Prosumer category has been underwhelming. I believe this is due to the lack of marketing expertise in the company, and hubris that selling to consumers will happen solely die the ‘Halo effect’ of athletes already using Catapult’s devices. In reality, experienced social marketers that have experience in online marketing and selling are required, regardless of the product. I believe that Play sales suffers from a lack of a mailing list of potential users. A purchase of a company such as Sports TG would give Catapult access to large list of grass roots potential users., or a purchase of an app such as Mykicks. The executive team and board look have a lack of experience in selling directly to consumers. I would hope that this is rectified if they wish to pursue Playr.
Next things for a Catapult re rate
1. Purchasing companies and adding technology to its stack , such as Shot tracker
2. Extending its reach into the grass roots sports via a company such as Sports TG
3. Re signing league wide deals that expire over the next 2 years.
4. Getting potential clients to move to Catapult from existing suppliers such as Stat Sports due to better technology
5. New technology developed in house.
