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Oracle and Universal Tennis Team Up to Fuel Growth of UTRSAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Tennis and Oracle announced a strategic partnership to further develop and grow Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), the leading algorithm-based, big-data rating system and digital platform for tennis players.
Under the agreement, Universal Tennis will leverage Oracle's industry-leading cloud technology to enhance UTR and further improve and unify the tennis experience for all players. Oracle will partner with Universal Tennis on strategic marketing initiatives and support UTR Powered Events around the world. "We're thrilled to partner with Oracle as we continue to develop UTR to provide tennis players across age, geography, gender and economics with a common language and standard," said Universal Tennis Chairman and CEO, Mark Leschly. "Oracle has already made a big impact on sports with its innovative drive and technology, and we can't think of a better partner as we continue our mission to unify tennis." UTR uses big data to assign a specific rating to every tennis player whose results are included in its system. UTR's proprietary technology gathers data from matches played across the globe and uses sophisticated algorithms to gauge a player's ability depending upon the quality of opponents and scores of matches played. The precision of a player's rating improves as more matches are played and analyzed. Just as every golfer carries a handicap that's applicable on any course, any tennis player now can now sign up for free at www.MyUTR.com and see how their level of play compares to others. "UTR is already changing the experience for tennis players worldwide by providing a unifying digital platform for the sport," said Oracle CEO Mrk Hurd. "We're excited to partner with Universal Tennis to take this to the next level, investing our technology and marketing resources, while also featuring UTR Powered by Oracle in events and tournaments worldwide." Today, UTR leverages data from over 6.5 million match results, providing accurate, real-time ratings for 700,000 players from over 200 countries. UTR has ratings for players as experienced as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to novices just beginning to learn the game. UTR has experienced rapid grassroots adoption across collegiate and junior tennis levels. For example, UTR Powered by Oracle will be used to determine player selection and seeding in marquee Oracle collegiate tennis events, including the Oracle ITA Masters, Oracle ITA Fall National Championships, and the Oracle Collegiate Tennis Challenge at the BNP Paribas Open. Universal Tennis plans to significantly expand the use of UTR and technology for all tennis players and help them improve their tennis experience. "We are working on innovative data driven technology to enhance and grow the sport for everyone while making it more accessible, enjoyable and cost effective to play," said Leschly. "We want to broaden the value of UTR beyond tournament and competitive players and we will soon be launching new features that will allow all tennis players to post scores, find new hitting partners, join new groups, play more events with people at their level and much more." Universal Tennis also plans to develop new marquee events based off the UTR algorithm, with Oracle as its event and marketing partner. In January 2018, Universal Tennis announced that it had been acquired by a new ownership group led by Leschly, Founder and Managing Partner of Iconica Partners, a principal investment firm operating at the intersection of technology, sports and media. Universal Tennis also recently unveiled a long term strategic partnership with Tennis Channel, making the UTR Power Index a part of on-air broadcasts. About Universal Tennis: Universal Tennis is the company behind UTR Powered by Oracle, a revolutionary system that provides a single, unifying language and standard for tennis players across ages, geographies and gender. The Company's vision is to unify tennis for everyone by bringing cutting edge analytics and community based technology to players worldwide independent of level. UTR is a unique, algorithm based system for tennis that allows anyone to measure, identify and track their level relative to other players, while also providing tools for coaches and organizers to run UTR Powered Events that are level based rather than age or gender driven. Today the UTR powered by Oracle system is gathering data from over 6.5 million match results, across 700 thousand players in over 200 countries. The Company has a long term strategic partnership with Tennis Channel and is owned by Iconica Partners and other seasoned investors, advisors and operators in tennis, sports, technology and media. To sign up for UTR Powered by Oracle, please visit www.MyUTR.com. About Oracle: The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com. Media Contact Erica Annon 860-798-5966
SOURCE Universal Tennis 
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