Sports technology company Slinger, known for the Slinger Bag, reported a net loss for the third quarter ended Jan. 31 that widened 84 percent to $2.37 million from $1.29 million on a 2 percent increase in revenue to $4.20 million from $4.12 million. Slinger sold more than 7,200 tennis ball launchers in the quarter, although a $700,000 shortfall skewed sales figures in the prior year. Gross margin increased 170 percentage points to 23.0 percent, while operating expenses increased 121 percent, growing from 45 percent of revenue to 98 percent from recent acquisitions.
Business highlights in the third quarter included an exclusive four-year partnership agreement with Dunlop for tennis balls, an extended Asia distribution agreement with Tennis Bot in the Philippines and Indonesia, expanded distribution into Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Romania, and the expansion into Poland through Slinger’s U.K. distributor, Framework Sports.
In the coming weeks, the next phase of the company’s “Watch, Play, Learn” strategy is expected to be launched with the beta release of the Slinger app powered by the Gameface.ai artificial intelligence engine. It provides AI-based player analytics for Slinger Bag users. Both free and paid subscription versions are expected to be available when the full version is released. The company also plans to officially launch the Slinger Bag for the pickleball and padel markets in the fall, after these products are already in global markets for final consumer testing.
