Arccos Names GDO Sports as Exclusive Distributor for Japan

(STAMFORD, Conn.) – Arccos Golf announced the appointment of GDO Sports, a US subsidiary of Golf Digest Online as its distributor for Japan, with exclusive rights to sell Arccos products in the golf market segment.

Founded in 2000, Golf Digest Online is the Japan market leader for digital content, equipment sales, tee time reservations and lessons. Its community includes more than 4 million active golfers and 2,350 courses.

“I've been following the development of Arccos as a business for several years, and I’m excited for Golf Digest Online to offer such an exciting product to Japanese golfers,” says Nobuya Ishizaka, CEO and Founder of Golf Digest Online. “There are substantial synergies between our GOLFTEC business in Japan and Arccos’ ability to automatically capture and analyse on-course data. Both platforms are using advanced analytics to help any golfer make smarter decisions, practice more efficiently and shoot their best scores."

The partnership between Arccos and Golf Digest Online will officially commence in January 2018 with sales launch in Japan.

“Japan is not only the world’s second largest golf market, it’s a society that celebrates and embraces leading-edge technologies like Arccos,” says Sal Syed, CEO and Co-Founder of Arccos. “Formalizing our relationship with Golf Digest Online is a tremendous way to cap a year in which we’ve successfully launched Arccos in more than 45 countries outside North America.”

Recently named “Best Game Analyzer” in the 2017 Golf Digest Editor’s Choice Awards, the Arccos 360 connected golf system automatically records every shot a golfer takes. It then analyzes the data in real time, helping golfers of all skill levels shoot lower scores by making smarter, data-driven decisions on the course. By leveraging these insights, golfers using the Arccos 360 system improved their handicap by an average of 2.77 strokes in 2016, a 36.4x greater rate of improvement than the average golfer with a USGA handicap.

Arccos’ suite of acclaimed products also includes Arccos Caddie, golf’s first artificial intelligence platform. Developed in partnership with Microsoft and powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud, Arccos Caddie shows a golfer their optimal strategy on any hole in the world, regardless of whether he or she has previously played the course. It leverages the golf industry’s richest data set – over 120 million shots hit by the Arccos community, as well as precise elevation data and 368 million geotagged data points on more than 40,000 courses – while also accounting for weather conditions like wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, temperature and more.

For more information, visit: www.arccosgolf.com.