Eric Perugini on Krossover’s Secret Sports Analytics Sauce – Bringing Technology to the Youth & College Soccer Market
Krossover is a web-based video breakdown and analytics tool that allows coaches, players, parents, athletes, scouts, and others to upload video to be analyzed by Krossover. Goal Nation sits down with Eric Perugini to understand the magic behind Krossover.
Users simply film their games and upload video to Krossover along with game rosters, from there, Krossover will create searchable clips of every event in the game, and provide game & season statistics.
In addition, Krossover provides data visualization tools, and acts as a complete game exchange service and clips can be emailed or sorted in any order to create a powerful player video for college recruiting. Krossover can be accessed via PC or iOS and android apps.
ADVANCED & AFFORDABLE METRICS IN SOCCER
KROSSOVER provides game-changing stats quickly — giving coaches and players a real competitive edge for more than just in-game strategy and player identification, but for real, smart player development.
The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” has never been more true — coaches spend hours trying to explain to players how they can improve their performance, and nothing is better at supporting this guidance than a quick visual of how the player actually played.
Want to improve the number of key passes to help put players in the position to score? Looking for qualitative information on the success rate of players? Evaluating the execution of set pieces? Advanced metrics can make all the difference on taking the game to the next level.
What do we think? The top European youth soccer academies have utilized this technology for a decade. It is time America’s top players have the same advantage and while the market place is gaining players, Krossover has distinct advantages and actively working in the youth landscape to provide make advanced data visualization easy and affordable.
One of our favorite features is Create Reel — Simply select the shots you want to watch and click “Create Reel” to save them to a playlist for later viewing.
Here is our exclusive interview with Eric Perugini, VP of Business Development at Crossover on how Krossover is a game changer.
Diane Scavuzzo: When did you become involved with the Krossover?
Eric Perugini: I began with Krossover in February 2013 when we had 10 employees and 400 users!
My job is to help formulate the strategy for the company and increase revenue. My role involves working with internal teams — the sales team, marketing, ops — and key strategic partnerships with brands like Nike, IMG, NLL and among others.
Diane Scavuzzo: How large is Krossover?
Eric Perugini: Krossover has a customer base of 10k+ teams and athletes using our product and we have a staff of around 80 full-time people.
Krossover’s tools are easy to use and designed for everyone.
Analytics in soccer fall significantly short of analytics in other sports like baseball and basketball due in part to the nature of the game, but also to the many athletes, coaches and organizations who are reluctant to try and quantify the Beautiful Game.
However, more and more, clubs and programs are learning that stats and data will not take anything away from the game, but instead improve the quality of play at all levels.
Diane Scavuzzo: Is this affordable for non-professional clubs – such as amateur leagues, youth soccer clubs, and organizations?
Eric Perugini: Yes, absolutely! While the analytics are robust enough for a professional organization, the majority of our users are amateur teams in High School or club teams.
It is simple – WE DO THE CLIPPING AND TAGGING FOR YOU
Diane Scavuzzo: And youth soccer clubs? How much does this cost?
Eric Perugini: The cost for a season can range from FREE film exchange to a basic $400 breakdown product. Of course, there are other packages available for upgrade. All package include unlimited video storage and access for the full roster of players and coaches to use!
Diane Scavuzzo: How long does it take to have the video of a game tagged?
Eric Perugini: Krossover video breakdown and analysis is returned to a user in as little as 12-24 hours.
Diane Scavuzzo: How does Krossover differ from the competition?
Eric Perugini: Krossover’s tools are easy to use and designed for everyone, not just the professional video coordinator — which is a key differentiator for us compared to the market.
Every Krossover account comes standard with a ‘self-editor’ tool that allows users to clip their own plays.
Diane Scavuzzo: Who do you believe is your company’s biggest rival?
Eric Perugini: Krossover’s product, price, and features are truly unmatched in the amateur space. We don’t require a hardware investment or installation, don’t require any microchip to be placed in shoes or a ball — Krossover costs under $1,000 per season on average for all features, unlimited video with unlimited users, including the use of all mobile apps, and we do the breakdown for the user.
Diane Scavuzzo: How long have the professional soccer teams been using stats like this?
Eric Perugini: Soccer teams have been tracking detailed statistics manually for decades. However, doing so takes a relatively significant amount of time and resources. Also, once all of the data is compiled, there traditionally hasn’t been much done with it.
Diane Scavuzzo: What is the value of stats like these? Can you slice up the stats/footage so you can send a player a 30-second clip of all his goals or all the shots on goal that missed? What are the streamlined sharing tools?
Eric Perugini: Yes – easily. Videos in Krossover can be shared within Krossover — to other account holders — or outside of Krossover to anyone with internet access.
It’s that simple!
Diane Scavuzzo: Can you use the tagged footage to help assemble a college video?
Eric Perugini: Yes, absolutely.
Once the video is clipped by Krossover, users can compile unlimited amounts of playlists with an unlimited amount of plays to share with college coaches, recruiters or scouts.
Diane Scavuzzo: What is the greatest challenge?
Eric Perugini: The biggest challenge Krossover faces is awareness – we are bringing quality game analytics to the market.
We work diligently to expose our product to coaches across the country.
Once they see it, they are instantly impressed with the features, ease of use, and the amount of time that it saves them with a limited staff and budget!
Diane Scavuzzo: What are your goals, beyond 2017?
Eric Perugini: We are always looking to expand products features for our users, that that’s no different beyond 2017. You’ll continue to see Krossover innovate to add more data visualization tools and features to our soccer product.
You’ll continue to see Krossover innovate to add more data visualization tools and features to our soccer product.
Diane Scavuzzo: How important is it for Krossover to work with youth soccer clubs?
Eric Perugini: It’s extremely important for Krossover to work with youth clubs.
As a product that prides ourselves in helping coaches, developing athletes, and using video and stats as a learning tool, there’s no better product in the youth soccer space than Krossover.
Our mission — from the beginning — is to work with youth and amateur athletes; it’s our passion!
Diane Scavuzzo: What inspires you?
Eric Perugini: To be honest, I’m inspired by the people that I work with, and the customers we serve. It sounds cliche, but the people at Krossover are talented, dedicated, intelligent and care about a product that helps raise the level of competition in sports.
We’ve all come to Krossover for a common goal of building a best-in-class product.
Diane Scavuzzo: What is the one moment/experience/decision you would like to turn back the clock and change?
Eric Perugini: This is a good question. I generally live my personal and professional life with the motto of “no regrets”, so my list isn’t too long.
If I had to pick one instance, I suppose it would be not going to live abroad for a year during college. It’s never too late though … maybe I’ll open a Krossover international office one day!
Diane Scavuzzo: Have there been any significant changes since Blue Star Sports acquired Krossover?
Eric Perugini: It is exciting to be part of the Blue Star Sports family.
Krossover was acquired by Blue Star Sports less than 5 months ago — we’ve focused our attention on learning the full suite of products in the Blue Star Sports family — and how we can integrate a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for the soccer market. In the coming months, we expect to make some cool announcements about integrating with other platforms.
