International Sportstech News

Zelus Analytics announced today that it has successfully completed the first tranche of its Series A. The round includes participation from Teamworthy Ventures, Gametime Capital, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman's 35V, Billy Beane, and others, who join existing investor RedBird Capital. Zelus Analytics is known for its advanced data and analytics platform that evaluates, predicts, and improves player and team performance. The company's world-class data science and engineering staff drives success for team partners across six sports, including baseball, basketball, hockey, football, cricket, and soccer. 

Peloton, the exercise bike company known for its streamed fitness classes, announced a new partnership with the National Basketball Association and the Women's National Basketball Association for the upcoming NBA season. Peloton users will have access to NBA-influenced classes, and those who also have a subscription to NBA League Pass will be able to stream games on the attached screen while they're working out.

Populous today announced a strategic minority investment from Providence Equity Partners, a premier private equity firm specializing in growth-oriented investments in media, communications, education and technology companies. Populous and Providence anticipate the investment will support Populous’ continued growth and allow the company to pursue opportunities to expand its service offerings and geographic presence for the benefit of clients, partners and its workforce around the globe.

Netflix has announced its first live sport event, the Netflix Cup. The competition will see F1 drivers and professional golfers from its behind-the-scenes docuseries Drive To Survive and Full Swing compete in a match play golf tournament at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, teeing off at 11pm GMT on 14 November. This is the same week as the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The apparel giant debuted Nike Strength, a line of premium strength training equipment. Nike is all-in on fitness and wellness, with equipment joining a growing list of developments. In August, the company announced Nike Studios, planning to open its own boutique fitness studios. Now, in addition to outfitting its gyms with custom-branded equipment, Nike Strength  becomes a standalone business.

As the WNBA continues to expand and evolve, an increasing number of its franchises are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance fan experiences and cater to the rising demands of their supporters. The defending champion Aces, for instance, have partnered with ON, formerly known as GameON Technology, to leverage an AI chat system through the company’s enterprise-grade platform.

B1 SmartTV GmbH today proudly unveiled an extensive multi-year partnership between its pioneering Smart TV and Smartphone sports streaming platform, Sportworld, and Stats Perform, the global leader in sports data, content and analytics.

Sports tech startup Playermaker recently raised a growth funding round as it looks to expand the use of its shoe-mounted wearables in the U.S. ADvantage led the round and was joined by Ryan Sports Ventures, an investment vehicle founded by Patrick Ryan, whose family owns stakes in the Chicago Bears and AFC Bournemouth. Financial details of the funding have not been announced. Former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger previously invested in the company. Since being founded in 2014, Playermaker has raised more than $50 million.

Based on remarks by its President at 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is exploring plans for the creation of Olympic Esports Games.

At this weekend’s Chicago Marathon, Kelvin Kiptum broke the men’s marathon record in an astonishing time of 2:00:35. The 23-year-old raced in a pair of the new Nike Dev 163 prototype shoes, which are legal under World Athletics rules. And, on Tuesday, Nike confirmed these shoes are in fact the Alphafly 3, on sale in January 2024.

World Rugby will advance the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) by introducing in-game alerts from smart mouthguard technology to show if a player has experienced a high level of acceleration which could lead to an injury.

With the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and biometric data, the realm of personalized fitness is entering a new frontier. WHOOP, a key player in performance optimization, has collaborated with OpenAI to venture into Generative AI, creating a revolutionary in-app chatbot.

Cricket fans across the world will be able to experience and engage with the game like never before through new digital activities, placing fans at the centre of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and AT&T introduce the 5G Connected Football Helmet to enable and enhance communication between coaches and deaf or hearing impared student players. Previously having to rely on eye contact between the player on the field and the coach on the sideline, the technology uses augmented reality to receive communication from coaches.