Premier Lacrosse League Partners with SyncThink, Brings Objective Data to Player Brain Health and Performance
Stamford, CT –May 29, 2019–The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), America’s first professional field lacrosse league featuring the top 160 male lacrosse players in the world, announces today its partnership with SyncThink, a world leader in neurotechnology and brain health analytics and creators of the award-winning EYE-SYNC technology, to utilize the novel eye tracking system as part of its player health and safety guidelines. The PLL will utilize the SyncThink platform to perform comprehensive player baseline evaluations pre-season, during in-game assessments to determine the status of players with suspected head injuries, and in the evaluation of return to play. The PLL becomes the first professional sports league to adopt EYE-SYNC league-wide into its concussion management protocol.
“As we prepare to embark on our inaugural season, it’s essential that we prioritize both the health and personal safety of our amazing group of players,” says PLL CEO Mike Rabil. “We are thrilled to partner with SyncThink this year. Their innovative technology will aid our medical teams throughout PLL games and ensure that our players are protected at all costs.”
Founded in 2018 by lacrosse superstar Paul Rabil and his brother Mike, the PLL’s inaugural season is set to debut on June 1, 2019. The league features six teams competing over a 14-week tour schedule taking place in 12 major market cities. A total of 16 games will be televised live by NBC Sports through the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN). Additionally three games will be shown on NBC, all of which will also be streamed via authentication on NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Gold – NBC Sports’ direct-to-consumer live streaming product
As the PLL continues to prepare for its inaugural season, the league has placed a major emphasis on player welfare initiatives like the adoption of EYE-SYNC, in order to create an environment of high performance among the players. This league-wide implementation will give clinicians working with the PLL the ability to collect objective data to make better-informed decisions both on the sidelines during competition and the injury recovery process.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to partner with the PLL in their inaugural season,” said Doug Appleton, SVP Business Development at SyncThink. “They are backing up their ‘We the Player’ motto by bringing cutting edge technology like EYE-SYNC to their sidelines to help their medical staff analyze potential concussions to their players, and most importantly, their safe return to play.”
The EYE-SYNC technology was developed over fifteen years of clinical research in collaboration with the US Department of Defense. The Virtual Reality (VR) based eye tracking system provides a variety of objective assessments that can be rapidly performed to accurately identify visual impairments. Once these impairments have been identified, trained clinicians can use EYE-SYNC’s proprietary metrics to monitor improvement and provide dynamic visual training to improve brain performance. Earlier this year, SyncThink was awarded Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA due to its potential to solve an important unmet need for providing objective measurements to aid in the assessment of concussion.
SyncThink has partnered with numerous sports organizations such as the Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, and Washington Wizards, as well as over twenty collegiate athletic programs, including the Pac-12 Athletic Conference. Top medical centers such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Children’s National Hospital, and Stanford Children’s Hospital also rely on the SyncThink platform to provide advanced patient care.
About PREMIER LACROSSE LEAGUE
The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) brings the sport of lacrosse to a national stage for the first time through a tour-based model, complete with the best players the sport has to offer. Co-founded by lacrosse superstar, philanthropist, and investor Paul Rabil and his brother, serial entrepreneur and investor, Mike Rabil, the Premier Lacrosse League is backed by an investment group comprised of The Raine Group, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the Chernin Group, and Blum Capital. The PLL season will begin in June 2019 with six teams embarking on a 14-week season that concludes with a playoff and PLL Championship Game. The PLL season will be distributed through an exclusive media-rights agreement with NBC Sports Group. For more information, visit www.premierlacrosseleague.com and follow on social media: Instagram (@PLL), Twitter(@PremierLacrosse), Facebook (@PremierLacrosseLeague) and YouTube (YouTube.com/PLL).
About SyncThink
SyncThink is on a mission to provide objective measurements for brain health and empower people to maximize their health and performance. SyncThink develops revolutionary eye-tracking technology and analytics, in a VR environment, that assist medical professionals in assessing brain health, monitoring recovery, and optimizing performance. With more than 30 published peer-reviewed papers and 12 granted patents, the SyncThink platform uses a series of 60-second assessments to objectively measure eye movements to identify impairments and offers multiple modalities to train dynamic vision. FDA-cleared for detecting eye-tracking impairment and used by leading medical centers such as Stanford and Massachusetts General, the U.S. military, and more than 20 top universities, SyncThink is transforming assessment, recovery, and performance for life and sport. www.syncthink.com
