Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani has signed a multiyear endorsement deal with Rapsodo, which makes tracking devices used for baseball, softball and golf. Rapsodo has done NIL deals with college baseball players, but this is its first brand ambassador deal with an MLB player.
“I wish these tools were available to me earlier,” Ohtani said in a statement. “I think to myself, ‘If I had something like this during my Little League years, how much better could I have been now?’”
Ohtani started using Rapsodo’s products in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels. The brand’s technology is used by all 30 teams to track hitting and pitching metrics using cameras and radar technology. Two years ago, the company launched its first product that combined pitching and hitting in the same unit.
“We actually call it the ultimate two-way player, and there isn’t anybody on the planet more fitting than Shohei,” Scott Siebers, head of Diamond Sports for Rapsodo, said in a video interview.
Rapsodo started talking to Ohtani and his representatives at CAA about 18 months ago, and during that window Ohtani won a second American League MVP Award and signed a historic $700 million free agent contract with the Dodgers.
The start of Ohtani’s Dodgers career has been marred by the betting scandal of his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. The Justice Department charged Mizuhara with bank fraud for wiring millions of dollars from Ohtani’s bank account without Ohtani’s knowledge.
Yet, the Shohei business continues to flourish with several new endorsement deals, including Rapsodo, signed since the start of the season. Sportico estimates his off-field earnings will hit $65 million this year, or nearly 10 times what Bryce Harper earns as the second-ranked endorser in the sport. Ohtani has nearly 20 endorsements deals, and a sponsor profile more akin to global stars in basketball (Lebron James, Stephen Curry) and soccer (Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi) than anyone in baseball.
Rapsodo was founded by its current CEO Batuhan Okur in 2010 in Singapore. The focus was golf with launch monitors and the data around the trajectory of the ball. Golf remains the largest segment of the now 300-person company, but baseball was a natural evolution as the data and analytics revolution swept through the sport. Rapsodo data is delivered in real-time to an app, where coaches and players can analyze metrics during a pitching or hitting session.
The company’s U.S. headquarters are in St. Louis, and it also has an office in Japan. Ohtani will be the face of the brand used globally in Rapsodo’s marketing efforts.
Rapsodo is launching a new product this week that is much more accessible to high schools, and the company doesn’t shy away from the conversation around injuries to pitchers in the sport right now. Siebers says the Rapsodo tech can help players get more out of their practice and “be very intentional,” with a focus on quality over quantity with “an instant scoreboard for every single rep.”
For pitchers, Rapsodo tracks velocity, spin components, horizontal and vertical break, arm angles and more, while hitters can measure exit velocity, launch angles, direction, distance and spin.
Ohtani isn’t expected to pitch in 2024, as he recovers from his October elbow surgery. He says he has been using Rapsodo in his rehab from surgery as he works to get back on the mound.
“As for pitching, I check if my pitching data matches the intention that I am throwing it with,” Ohtani said. “Being able to check the data helps smooth out my rehab process.”
