BaseballCloud Acquires Yakkertech, Merging Hardware And Software Solutions

The vision of BaseballCloud just got a bit clearer with the acquisition of Yakkertech.

BaseballCloud, known for offering a suite of software to allow baseball and softball coaches and players to house and analyze data, announced the multi-million-dollar acquisition of optical tracking company Yakkertech. The companies say the changes will enhance products for players and coaches and do so at a competitive price point.

“Over the last four years we ended up spending so much of our time on managing data quality issues,” says Kevin Davidson, BaseballCloud CEO. “The industry is educated now. I feel it is our responsibility to provide the market with what it deserves and what it expects. This transition allows us to do so.”

Davidson says that optical tracking from Yakkertech offers the key to driving down costs, enhancing data quality and increasing data capturing opportunities.

Already serving as the analytics hub for over 100 collegiate programs and providing custom software solutions to MLB organizations, independent leagues, agencies and individual players, BaseballCloud has a strong presence across multiple levels of baseball. Yakkertech already has a heavy influence in MLB organizations.

“Optical tracking is the only viable solution moving forward in the game of baseball and softball,” says Sean Cashman, Yakkertech president. “Now, as part of BaseballCloud, our group can maintain that focus and bring the most user-friendly set of analytics to help coaches coach and players get better.”

Moving forward, users of both products have product improvements on the horizon, BaseballCloud says, whether objective fingerprint tracking for pitcher grips, the integration of a live data feed to give coaches and players the opportunity to make adjustments in real time or the capability to simultaneously capture data and analysis-grade in-game video of the pitcher and hitter.

Both companies were founded in 2017. BaseballCloud started in response to the divide between the quantity of data available in baseball and the quality of available tools used to analyze it. The first product, BCTeam, gave college baseball coaches and players a way to make use of ball flight data. The company has since grown across baseball and softball with multiple visualization tools to help users understand data, create realistic renditions of performance and even customize stadium designs to mimic home-field conditions.

Yakkertech’s goal from the start was to better track ball and player movement and has been in MLB since 2020. The software and camera systems allow for pitching and hitting analysis.

Tim Newcomb covers gear and business for Baseball America. Follow him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb.