Portfolio Project
Bolt Sports
Gamifying Hockey Training with IoT
A more than five-year strategic partnership that turned a visionary hockey training concept into a global IoT ecosystem. GBot engineered a high-performance, low-latency mobile platform that powers a suite of training devices, manages complex athlete data, and facilitates a competitive online community.
The Client & Vision
Founded by professional hockey players Eric Eustace and Sam Binnington, Bolt Sports Co. aimed to transform repetitive hockey drills into an immersive, game-like experience. The goal: motivate athletes through competition, feedback, and measurable performance insights.
The Solution: A Feature-Rich IoT Ecosystem
GBot developed a unified mobile application serving as the central hub for Bolt Sports' devices (Snipes, eCones, Dangles).
- BLE Mastery & Near-Zero Latency: Optimized the Flutter BLE layer to handle high-frequency sensor data from multiple devices simultaneously, mitigating interference and ensuring instant responsiveness.
- Advanced Gameplay & Multiplayer: Built a real-time multiplayer engine and Custom Game Creator for configurable drills and difficulty levels.
- Data Visualization & Progress Tracking: Converted raw sensor data into heatmaps, charts, and dashboards, providing actionable insights for athletes.
- User Experience Design: Simplified complex interactions, enabling athletes of all skill levels to engage with the platform intuitively.
- Manufacturing & QC Tools: Developed internal applications supporting factory testing, diagnostics, and quality control for consistent hardware performance.
- Real-World Testing & Optimization: Conducted extensive testing across dozens of mobile devices to ensure stability and professional-grade responsiveness.
The Device Ecosystem
The Bolt Sports platform integrates multiple categories of BLE-enabled devices, each serving a specific training goal:
- Snipes — a real-life video game for improving shooting accuracy
- Dangles — connected bars that turn stickhandling drills into a competitive game
- eCones — electronic pylons designed to enhance speed and agility
The platform features dozens of interactive hockey drills that can be customized, with multiplayer and online features, plus real-time performance tracking and visual feedback to guide athlete improvement. Gamification features include XP systems, milestone badges, leaderboards, and online challenges.
Industry Validation & Global Impact
- Strategic Brand Partnerships: Architecture enabled collaborations with Bauer Hockey, CCM Hockey, Franklin Sports, integrating GBot software into their ecosystems.
- Dragons' Den Feature: Platform showcased successfully, validating technical scalability and commercial potential.
- Evolution into HockeyShot: Platform continues as HockeyShot, maintaining BLE optimizations, unified architecture, and ongoing GBot-led development.
- Global Reach: Thousands of users worldwide, teams in multiple countries, and hundreds of hours of training data collected.
Key Expertise Delivered
- IoT & BLE Integration: Real-time synchronization, device interoperability, and near-zero latency for multiple BLE-enabled hardware devices.
- Scalable Mobile Architecture: Multi-year product evolution, large-scale refactoring, and integration of multiple devices and game modes.
- High-End Gamification: XP systems, milestone badges, leaderboards, online challenges, and competitive multiplayer features.
- Cross-Platform Development: Flutter-based architecture for consistent iOS and Android experiences.
- Data Analytics & Visualization: Translating raw sensor data into actionable performance insights for athletes.
- Manufacturing & QC Software: Internal apps for diagnostics, testing, and quality control of physical devices.
- Long-Term Product Ownership: Multi-year commitment to software maintenance, evolution, and architectural continuity alongside hardware and company vision.