SBJ Tech: Giving college athletes and coaches new mental health tools

Athlete mental wellness continues to gain traction, both in the guidelines being established by leagues/governing bodies (such as the NFL and NBA efforts at the dawn of the decade) and the companies pitching in to support schools and franchises, as seen with  Peak AI.

Outside of just being the right thing to do, there’s a straight line from holistic support of athletes and business success. Well-being begats better performance, which begats results, greater fan interest and, ultimately, a product fans will pay for.

Last year, the NCAA released the latest version of its mental health best practices, outlining obligations for all member schools (regardless of division) to create a healthy environment for athletes. Components of that plan included support via resources and connections to mental-health professionals, as well as a screening tool to monitor athlete wellness.

The NCAA required D-I members to provide this by last August. And this November will be the first deadline for schools to prove they’re doing so. With that mile-marker approaching, The Zone is gearing up to test a new feature in its athlete-wellness platform: the Mental Readiness Score. The metric will provide insight into an athlete’s mental state.

Knowing the score

In a walkthrough with SBJ, The Zone CEO and co-founder Ivan Tchatchouwo showed a series of check-in questions that help create the score. Prompts focused on physical essentials like hydration and sleep but also considered ratings for categories such as confidence and energy level. The quick series produces a score (scaled from 0-100) that a coach can see for each player, while the individual student view will show tiered descriptors (such as “Fully Ready” or “Needs Attention”) to take away the pressure of potentially seeing a poor numerical score.

Tchatchouwo said the feature, which The Zone will pilot with select schools as part of its premium platform offering before a future rollout, came as an idea from numerous conversations on different campuses since the company was founded in 2021.

The Zone has a client base of roughly 200 teams at various levels of the NCAA, offering three tiers of its platform: basic, premium and enterprise.

“The biggest thing, and we’re seeing this in all sets of industries and technology in college sports, is how do you harmonize this data to drive value for the athlete but also to drive value for the administration?” Tchatchouwo said.

Coaches will be able to see Mental Readiness Scores for each athlete and a collective score for a team, allowing for responses at the individual and group levels in their teaching and preparation. The Zone’s athlete experience also offers support via breathing and visualization exercises that cater to the user’s preference.

One of The Zone’s biggest triumphs of 2024 came through validation from its own data and research. Tchatchouwo said that athletes who used The Zone 15 times saw their moods “significantly” improve, and that was especially true for women who used The Zone’s platforms. He also added that client schools see up to 3X more access to their athletes via The Zone platform, meaning an increased understanding in what their athletes are collectively experiencing on the mental side.

“What we’re seeing is the athletes that are stigmatized, that don’t talk about it, are getting help from The Zone,” Tchatchouwo said. 

Periodically, SBJ Tech will feature a content series called Leadership Look-In, where C-suiters in sports tech offer thoughts on their companies, experiences and personnel management. Want to be considered for a future installment? Email me at ejoyce@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

Ryan Bott has a resume that mixes large-scale sports industry and startup hustle experiences. His time features six years at Sodexo, where he rose to Group SVP/revenue with international responsibilities. There’s also a peppering of sales/revenue positions with software development firms that have created, as he describes, a scalable leadership style. “It’s a beautiful thing when you can get a leader who has both experience at small companies and experience at big companies,” Bott told SBJ.

His latest challenge is leading Ordr, a payment-tech company geared toward the live events space. He took over as CEO last month, joining a company of approximately 50 employees, and has already helped Ordr move its HQ to the U.S. from Canada.

Along with the hiring of Bott, who spent more than a year on Ordr’s board before taking over the company, Ordr secured its first two clients in a major North American league with the Golden Knights and Penguins.

Bott spoke with me earlier this month about his vision, experience and the technology that will set Ordr apart as it tries to expand its sports footprint.

On the immediate vision for Ordr: “We want to expand the client base. We want more teams to see and experience what we’re building. So that’s clearly an initiative to grow and yes, take away from existing competitors that we don’t think are doing as good of a job. You have a latent vendor pool that has, in some sense, gotten lazy and in some sense have built contracts that they hang onto. And the innovation hasn’t been as good. So we are going to out-innovate using what we call the ‘payment data layer.’”

On the payment-data layer: “You look a year ahead, what I believe is the next game changer is the ability to look at all of the consumer interactions ... and being able to extract the data using the payment system. And it’s totally possible. Integrations plus consumer data on the payment layer allows you to reduce a lot of spend to get what we call the fan behavior, the fan experience.”

On adding the Penguins and Golden Knights as clients: “They want a different level of partnership. They want a different level of reporting and visibility on that payment-data layer. They love the idea of using AI. We haven’t launched that yet. We’re right in the middle, and you’ll see this soon -- we'll begin to launch those AI pieces. But they’re very excited about that, and ultimately, they’ve transitioned from static payment partnerships to now something more dynamic, something that allows them to grow.”

On the benefit of being on the board before taking over as CEO: “You see a company maturing in real time. You don’t get that when you interview. When you interview for any role, it’s a facade. You’re going in, and you’re dancing, and they’re dancing, and everybody’s with their arms folded, and the poor candidate gets 30 minutes to try and impress a bunch of people who have already predetermined exactly what they want. ... When you don’t have to go through that dance, you have a completely different perspective. You get to see a company grow up, watching it and being part of it.”

On his past experience with Sodexo: “I learned how to focus on people. People are what makes a business. They have great leadership. They focused on how to maximize the potential of everyone around them, and that's something I'll take with me forever.”

• In his Forum this week, my boss Abe Madkour recounted his visit to the College Football Hall of Fame, where he tested out "Game On!" It's the hall's new AI visitor experience. "Upon arrival, attendees get a few photos and face scans and then fill out a brief, but specific, questionnaire about background, interests and favorite team. You can experience 14 AI touchpoints that create personalized images and captions specific to you. You’ll get a bunch of laughs as you see yourself in the stands, wearing your team’s colors, or as a fictitious coach on the sideline, or as a player in the weight room. The effort was a collaboration between the Hall, Georgia’s Creative Principals, New Zealand tech startup HyperCinema and The Producers Group from L.A. In a day where all halls of fame must drive attendance, this type of tech offering was great fun, leading to a much more personalized and unique experience."

• Fan data platform Tradable Bits has a new strategic partnership with El Míster, a Latin American research consultancy and content platform. The collaboration's goal is to produce multiple reports to break down fan habits and preferences, as well as trends around soccer and baseball. El Míster will use Tradable Bits’ platform to determine fan satisfaction around sports venues.

• Tech service firm Next League named Shripal Shah as its first chief digital officer. He will help the company expand its focus on emerging technology, martech and AI. He spent six years in the same role at loyalty platform Shop Your Way. He also spent nine years with the Commanders as SVP/chief strategy officer.

• Springbok Analytics closed an oversubscribed $5 million Series A led by Transition Equity Partners, with participation from the NBA and Cartan Capital, a sports tech venture firm led by former pro tennis player CiCi Bellis. My SBJ colleague Joe Lemire covers the firm's expansion in sports -- and its plans for the new funding -- in this week's magazine.

• A turning point in Sunday’s AFC Championship game occurred in the fourth quarter when Bills QB Josh Allen tried a sneak on fourth-and-1, but a review ruled that he didn't get the first down, though video replays on CBS implied he did. The NFL is testing down-and-distance measurement technology, but what’s in development with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations wouldn’t solve for this use case -- at least, not soon, reports Lemire.

• AI-powered racquet sports technique analysis platform SportAI raised $805,000 in funding through grants administered by Innovation Norway and Eurostars, which will be funneled into technical development, writes my SBJ colleague Rob Schaefer.

• My SBJ colleague Mike Mazzeo details the role Justin Friedman is playing with the Mets, whom the team hired 18 months ago as its SVP/strategy and analytics to overhaul everything from start times to promotional giveaways.