Pictured: from left to right Marcus Walfridson, owner of Audigr Group and Ola Lidmark Eriksson, founder of PlaymakerAI. Photo courtesy of The Sarasota Paradise.

These days athletes are always looking for the best edge. Science and sabermetrics have all but replaced the fabled “eye test”, in an age where mere civilians routinely track heart rate, calories burned and sleep efficiency, the advent of modern science has completely changed the way athletes train and perform. It’s made sense then, that the teams these athletes play for would also want in on the action.

The Sarasota Paradise, Sarasota’s premier pre-professional team that plays in United Soccer League Two (USL2), have joined the tech party. Coming off of just their second season, the Paradise have leveraged their recent success into becoming a bigger brand in 2024-25 than ever before. Last year, the Paradise took the USL2 by storm, posting a 8-1-3 record en route to capturing the South Florida Division title and securing their first postseason berth in franchise history.

Although the Paradise lost in the first round to Brave SC, their season was a resounding success. The team grew their fan base exponentially, routinely packing the house at Sarasota High School, where they call home. They attracted some of the best amateur talent in the nation, like striker Seth Mahlmiester, who helped steer the team to success. They even attracted new investors, when the Papanicholas family of the construction and development firm Nicholas & Associates, purchased an interest in the team. “The long term goal with this project will always be to have a professional team in Sarasota,” says founder Marcus Walfridson, who owns and operates the Paradise's controlling company, Audigr Group Inc.

This past week, the Paradise took another step towards their professional goals by investing in the artificial intelligence platform, Playmaker AI. The software, founded in 2016, is the latest and greatest technology to come to the soccer industry. Part of what Playmaker AI does is create individualized scouting reports for players, allowing Walfridson and his team to review a wider swath of potential players with more detail in a shorter period of time than they usually would. “This incredible software will play a pivotal role in the team’s future in that it will enable us to adopt cutting-edge technology for scouting and recruiting top-tier talent as we grow,” says Marcus Walfridson. “We are so impressed by it that we’ve invested in its expansion.”

Pictured: from left to right Marcus Walfridson, owner of Audigr Group and Ola Lidmark Eriksson, founder of PlaymakerAI. Photo courtesy of The Sarasota Paradise.

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