International Sportstech News

Leading sports data and technology company Genius Sports has been appointed as the English Premier League’s Semi-Automated Officiating supplier. The semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) is powered by GeniusIQ, Genius Sports’ next-generation AI and data platform. This first-of-a-kind system has been built on the key principles of speed and precision to minimise breaks in the game and deliver accuracy. This proprietary Genius Sports computer vision system will be installed in every Premier League stadium. 

Exos has announced its official involvement as a venture partner of LEAD ONE, the new pre-seed sports tech investment fund. Areas of particular interest include neuromodulation, female physiology, recovery monitoring and optimization, speed/power assessment and development, injury rehabilitation, and load tracking. This strategic partnership between Exos and LEAD ONE is designed to accelerate innovation in sports and health technology by pairing LEAD’s industry investment expertise with Exos’ leadership in pioneering the field of human performance.

FloSports and the Lone Star Conference (LSC), one of the largest NCAA Division II conferences in the USA, have entered into an exclusive five-year, media rights agreement beginning this fall. FloSports will represent the LSC and its 17 member institutions, providing a global platform to live stream events and support the teams, universities, and student-athletes. The LSC’s addition to FloSports represents the 12th conference to join the launch of the new FloCollege platform debuting this October. In total, the conferences represent more than 1,000 teams across men’s and women’s athletics from nearly 100 schools, delivering close to 12,000 live games.

Hudl, one of the world’s leading provider of cloud-based technology connecting video and data for the sports industry, has completed the acquisition of StatsBomb. Having started as an analytics blog, StatsBomb initially progressed to consulting on data-driven recruitment and player evaluation for professional soccer teams. In 2022, StatsBomb expanded into American Football, leveraging its expertise in football to develop a new industry standard for NFL and College data. Hudl empowers more than 230,000 teams globally providing a suite of video and data products for coaches and teams at every level of sport.

Purdue Athletics announced a significant investment for hundreds of its student-athletes, implementing a home recovery system beginning with the 2024-25 season. Boilermaker student-athletes can now utilize recovery technology from Hyperice, a global high-performance wellness brand, and are able to take home products such as Normatec dynamic air compression boots, Hypervolt percussion massage guns, and Hypersphere vibrating massage tools, from athletic facilities for personal use. More than 1,000 devices have been acquired for the program.

Sony has become an official partner of the National Football League (NFL) with the pair set to work together to improve in-game technologies and help engage the next generation of NFL fans. Sony and the NFL will be working collaboratively with coaches, players, teams, and leadership across the organization to transform the future of football, the electronics giant said. This includes an expansion of Sony’s sports technology through Hawk-Eye Innovations to support officiating and the development of on-field and sideline technologies including a new coach’s sideline headset that will debut in the 2025 season.

Wellhub, the corporate wellness platform that gives employees all-in-one subscriptions to the best partners for fitness, mindfulness, therapy, nutrition, and sleep, today announced it has reached a major growth milestone: 500 million check-ins and three million employee subscribers since its founding in 2012. More than 8,000 new wellness partners, including gyms, studios and apps joined the Wellhub Network in 2024.

After four years of development DANU has announced that their flagship product, DANU, is now live. DANU is the breakthrough system designed for real-world analysis that provides users with seamless data collection across gait, balance, and plyometrics. Its application is in sports, clinical practice, and research. DANU is engineered to bridge the gap between lab precision and real-world analysis. Already DANU has captured 8+ billion data points and 40,000 measurement activities from athletes including Olympians.

BreakAway Data are launching an athlete Electronic Medical Record (EMR) app in basketball next month, with something similar in football shortly. It's the first time that players can access their entire medical records history (notes, treatments, x-rays, etc) on their phone, choosing to share specific files with private consultants, personal trainers and agents.

CORE, maker of the only non-invasive core body temperature monitor used by over 65% of the UCI WorldTour has launched its most significant app feature yet. Core’s new Heat Adaptation Score shows athletes how their bodies are adapting to thermal stress in real-time, with a rating that compiles the results of the Heat Strain Index and Heat Zones. This new feature from CORE will enable all athletes to capitalize on the performance gains of heat training and adaptation.

Genius Sports, the official data, technology, and commercial partner that powers the global ecosystem connecting sports, betting, and media, announces today the extension of its exclusive official data partnership with Football DataCo through 2029. Since 2019, Genius Sports has been DataCo’s exclusive supplier of official low latency data from in-stadia to the sports betting industry, capturing, and distributing live data for over 4,000 games per season to hundreds of licensed sportsbooks across the globe in under a second. With the extension, Genius Sports will continue to deliver fast, accurate, and reliable data feed to power in-play betting products and innovations from some of the most valuable betting content in the world.

Cosm, a leading immersive technology, media, and entertainment company recently announced the successful raise of over $US 250 million in funding to drive long-term growth of its “Shared Reality” venues and its technology and media business units. With the recent opening of its first venue in Los Angeles at Hollywood Park, Cosm will use the new capital to scale operational excellence, grow its robust technology and media business units, and accelerate the development of additional venues globally. At Cosm, fans feel like they are sitting courtside, inside the octagon, standing on the sidelines, or cheering from the front row at the most sought-after events from around the globe.

Manchester United has introduced the next level of digital collectibles for the 2024/25 season, with the combined launch of Player Trading Cards and Fantasy United. Supporters can now begin collecting the trading cards, which feature all first-team players from the men’s squad in Classic, Rare, and Ultra-Rare editions. In addition, those cards can be used to build a five-man squad to earn points in our brand-new Web3 fantasy football game, the first of its kind to be created for a Premier League club using the Tezos Blockchain.

Intuit Dome, the new home of the LA Clippers, will officially open August 15, 2024. The Clippers will kick off the 2024-2025 season in this new arena in Inglewood, California. This cutting-edge arena features 17,000 PixMob NOVA Armrests, a permanent LED installation integrated directly into each seat. The NOVA Armrest turns each seat into an interactive pixel of light, transforming the entire arena into a vibrant canvas of live effects. This technology synchronizes with music, game highlights, and on-court action, making fans active participants in the event.

NBCUniversal introduces “OLI,” an AI-powered logic system that helps viewers find when, where and how to watch their favorite live events and programming throughout NBCU’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Developed in partnership with Huge, a design and technology company, users navigating NBCU’s websites in the United States can ask questions to OLI to seamlessly find up-to-date information on Paris Olympics programming.

Saudi Arabia is set to make history with ambitious plans for new stadiums aimed at hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2034. These state-of-the-art venues promise to redefine sports and entertainment experiences across the kingdom. This will include five 45,000+ seat stadiums including King Salman Stadium, located in northern Riyadh. King Salman Stadium will serve as the headquarters for the Saudi national football team and host major events. Designed to meet FIFA standards and scheduled for completion in late 2029, it will feature a seating capacity of 92,000. The stadium will include a royal box, hospitality suites, VIP seating, and sustainable cooling systems.

From training to broadcasting, artificial intelligence will have an imprint on this year’s event for the first time. Some of the technologies will include the Athlete365 app for the 10,000 athletes which will incorporate an AthleteGPT chatbot. The chatbot is a large language model (LLM) built using an AI developed by Paris-based company Mistral AI and Intel’s Gaudi processors.  The International Olympics Committee (IOC) is embracing the technology. In April, it rolled out its AI agenda — an effort to streamline the explosive growth of AI research in sport and to strategize its use in the Olympics. 

LEAD Sports and Health Tech Partners (LEAD), a globally recognized venture corporation in the sports and health tech sectors, has announced the launch of LEAD ONE, a new direct investment vehicle focused on pre-seed companies. This initiative marks a strategic evolution from LEAD’s previous accelerator model, tailored to meet the dynamic needs of the global early-stage venture market. With an annual allocation of $US 1 million, LEAD ONE aims to invest in 10 companies each year.

Skip, a wearable tech startup that began as a secretive project inside Alphabet, exited stealth this week to announce a partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Arc’teryx. The deal is the first to bring Skip’s technology to market: “powered pants” that utilize a soft exoskeleton. The tech, called MO/GO, short for “mountain goat,” is a hybrid soft/rigid system designed to assist wearer mobility and boost the wearer while walking. Rather than actually walking for a person, it provides a 40% energy assistance to the quadricep and hamstring, while offloading work from the knees.

AC Milan has joined with the Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) in a partnership that will see the Italian club utilise a data-first approach to evolve its consumer understanding. It is hoped that the collaboration will allow the AC Milan to better know and engage with fans to ultimately unlock new revenue streams. KAGR, a world-renowned leader in data and advanced analytics.

Panathinaikos BC AKTOR, in collaboration with Globalsat, is set to redefine the EuroLeague experience with the installation of the ASB GlassFloor, the Full-LED video sports surface officially endorsed by the EuroLeague. This groundbreaking flooring will make Panathinaikos the first team to regularly host EuroLeague games on this cutting-edge court, marking a significant milestone in basketball history.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the renewal of its partnership with The Walt Disney Company and new agreements with NBCUniversal (NBCU) and Amazon under which ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video will telecast NBA games beginning with the 2025-26 season and running through the 2035-36 season. The NBA App will be a universal access point – seamlessly directing fans to every national game on Disney, NBCU and Amazon platforms.

The Women’s Super League (WSL) has moved from OTT platform, The FA Player to YouTube for streaming live, free-to-access matches. The UK broadcast rights for the bulk of WSL matches are currently owned by Sky Sports and the BBC, with Sky showing 44 live games and the BBC airing an additional 22 games each season. All other games (66 matches in total) were previously streamed live on The FA Player. These games will now be shown on WSL’s YouTube channel instead of The FA Player. 

Q Bio Inc., a pioneer in medical imaging technology secures $27M in strategic funding to propel its innovative Mark I full-body scanner towards market launch. Founded in 2015 by Jeff Kaditz, Dr. Michael Snyder, and Dr. Garry Choy, Q Bio is dedicated to revolutionizing medical imaging with innovative technologies like the Mark I scanner. Mark I eliminates the need for multiple scans by capturing extensive quantitative anatomical data in a single session. This data fuels the creation of “digital twins” and large biological models, offering unparalleled insights into human health.

Reddit has announced a new partnership program to enhance the fan experience. This program taps major sports leagues and aims to bring more  content to Reddit’s communities while also creating opportunities for advertisers to align with this content via video ads, AMAs (ask me anything), and other formats. Reddit’s first program partners include NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA TOUR, and NASCAR. Sports are one of Reddit’s most popular and fastest-growing (at +26% YOY) interest groups, bringing together highly engaged fans across over 1000 communities.

With applications ranging from athlete safeguarding to enhanced broadcast experiences and efficient energy management, artificial intelligence (AI) and technology innovations are set to transform some aspects of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, paving the way for future editions

The NBA and WNBA reached an agreement with Disney, NBC and Amazon on a new round of TV deals worth $US 76 billion over 11 years, and the WNBA will earn $US 2.2 billion over the life of the deal—or $US 200 million a year, according to someone familiar with the agreement—which represents a 6x gain compared to its prior ESPN deal. The WNBA commanded only 1% of the prior TV deal but nearly 3% of the current one. The two leagues negotiated their TV rights together, but they have different term sheets. 

Bandit has released The Program, a free iOS app offering a comprehensive, AI-assisted marathon training experience. The Program generates a personalized 16-week training plan based on your selected race, goal finish time, and preferred weekly mileage (or the amount of time you have available to train each week).In addition to this, The Program offers an AI-Assistant Coach, which provides instant answers to training questions, expert guidance on running, strength, nutrition, sports psychology, and recovery and discounts on ASICS and Hyperice products.

ATP, Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) and Sportradar have teamed up to launch Safe Sport, a new service to address online abuse targeting professional tennis players. The collaboration breaks new ground by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) moderation, education and investigation into a single service to protect athletes. The new service will be made available to the Top 250 ATP singles players and the Top 50-ranked doubles players, on a free and opt-in basis, starting this month. It combines AI technologies from Sportradar and its partner, Arwen AI, to scan players’ social media channels for toxic and abusive comments, spam and bots across 29 languages. 

Cricket South Africa (CSA) today announced IMG ARENA, OpenBet’s sports data and streaming products arm, as its exclusive official Cricket South Africa Data Supplier and Betting Live Streaming Partner. IMG ARENA, in partnership with CricViz, will collect detailed data, both live and in-venue, for CSA’s domestic and international matches spanning a wide array of competitions, from bilateral series to domestic leagues.

Eventbrite has become the latest ticket business to partner with TikTok, allowing event creators promote their events and sell tickets. Eventbrite creators and TikTok users can add Eventbrite links directly to their TikTok videos thanks to a new integration. These links will help users discover event details and purchase tickets without leaving the app. It also allows event creators to promote multiple events simultaneously. 

Fanatics has announced the launch of Fanatics Collect, a new collectibles marketplace that will connect buyers and sellers of trading cards and memorabilia through fixed-price listings and auctions. Fanatics Collect launches with a comprehensive range of services for collectors. The Buy Now marketplace has been designed to make it quicker and easier for collectors to buy and sell cards at fixed prices. In addition to the Buy Now marketplace, collectors will be able to buy and sell through weekly and monthly auctions.

Freeletics, the leading provider of AI-based fitness and lifestyle coaching announces the launch of Coach+ Pilot, a pioneering, generative AI model to simulate an authentic, true-to-life personal training experience. The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI will emulate a lifelike personal training experience with personalised dialogues for guidance, feedback, and motivation. The company has become the world’s leading provider of AI-based fitness and lifestyle coaching, with 57+ million users in over 175 countries.

Leading smart ring company Oura has released an AI health advisor through Oura Labs, the brand's in-app platform that allows Oura members to test experimental features. The advisor gives personalized insights, recommendations, and encouragement to get members on track to achieve their health goals. This includes customizable coaching intensity and focus areas, and a forum to chat with your coach, ask questions, share progress, and get recommendations based on your daily health data.

Audiences will be immersed in the Olympic Games like never before this summer as a new collaboration between Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and YouTube is set to bring Paris 2024 to a diverse set of fans, further expanding the reach of Eurosport’s live coverage. The new content partnership will base a group of YouTube creators in the heart of the city to produce fresh and exciting new content, expanding the reach of the Olympics and its fandoms across Europe. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it has partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This groundbreaking step follows the IOC’s recent announcement that the IOC Executive Board (EB) has established Olympic Esports Games. 

DECATHLON has launched DECATHLON PULSE, an investment arm and start up studio, designed to pioneer new growth engines and accelerate our purpose of 'moving people through the wonders of sport'. DECATHLON PULSE will build, invest in and acquire forward-thinking companies that are transforming the world of sport. Looking outward to identify additional markets and new business models. From product and sport to wellness and the circular economy. 

Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of the new Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra. These new additions to the wearables portfolio are central to Samsung’s vision for Galaxy AI to enhance digital health, delivering personalized insights and tailored health experiences. Galaxy Ring delivers a straight-forward approach to wellness, offering health monitoring, tracking and personalized insights while worn comfortably on a finger, even while asleep.

WHOOP, the human performance company, announced a new body composition and weight trends feature that has been designed for seamless integration with WITHINGS, which is also a world leader in connected health and inventor of the first smart scale. The new feature gives members the opportunity to measure and manage advanced body composition and weight metrics, addressing the requests from nearly a quarter of WHOOP members who have cited weight management as a top motivator for their health journey.

According to reports, the NBA has agreed to terms on its new media deals, a record 11-years worth $76 billion.  A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that the networks have the terms sheets, with the next step being for the league's board of governors to approve the contracts. The deals, which set NBA records for both length and total value, go into effect for the 2025-26 season. Games will continue being aired on ESPN and ABC, and now some will be going to NBC and Amazon Prime.