Sportstech & Member News

Fastbreak.ai has announced the NBA as their latest customer and NBA Equity as a seed round investor as part of a long-term agreement. The NBA will incorporate Fastbreak.ai's solution into their scheduling process. As part of this agreement the NBA will also leverage Fastbreak.ai for scheduling the WNBA, G League, and the NBA2K League.

Teamworks has announced the acquisition of Kairos, a communication and messaging software for professional sports. Teamworks currently works with 200 pro organizations around the globe, having entered the market more than a decade ago. In the past three years, Kairos has built an extensive customer roster of over 100 organizations, primarily in global football and rugby.

Leading global sportstech investor, APEX (which invests with 100+ elite athletes), has announced their inaugural investments as part of their Impact Program, a key component of the firm’s Elite Performance VC Fund.

Following the programme, APEX has invested in three companies: Hexis, a personalised nutrition platform; VRTL, a virtual fan engagement platform, and ASTN Accelerator-alumni, Traits Insights, an athlete profiling solution.

See Traits Insights Press Release at https://www.traitsinsights.com/articles/traits-insights-apex-partnership

See the ASTN Case Study on Traits Insights at https://www.astn.com.au/case-study/traits-insights-translating-complex-sports-data-into-meaningful-player-insights.

The partnership, which officially launched as of January 2024, will see the ESFA’s international teams trial the i-Brain technology and provide schools across the country the opportunity to learn more about how the technology can support their pupils in their schools’ football endeavours. The i-Brain system unlocks new frontiers in brain analytics, providing unparalleled insights for progress tracking and talent identification.

Sportradar today announced the launch of Sportradar FanID, a unique, end-to-end first-party marketing solution combining the first data clean room for the sports industry with the company’s proprietary marketing activation technology, to offer rightsholders and brands personalized fan engagement in a post-third-party cookie world.

Sportway has unveiled a landmark collaboration with Hockey Australia, solidifying its role as the exclusive broadcast production partner for National Championships for the next three years. This alliance will introduce cutting-edge technology and AI-driven cameras to create an unparalleled LiveHockey.com.au experience for fans nationwide.

Fans can experience BatFast’s new dynamic tennis simulator at #AO2024 with the innovative technology showcased as part of the AO StartUps program.

The UK startup uses data, augmented reality technology, machine learning and robotics to re-engineer how sports are played, helping drive participation and access to sport globally.
 

Nearly 28 million total viewers watched the first-ever exclusively streamed NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins on Peacock. Viewers flocked to Peacock, setting records for the most-streamed live event in U.S. history and driving the Internet to its largest U.S. usage ever on a single day and the largest Internet event ever, consuming 30 percent of Internet traffic during the game.

More details have emerged on Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium, a new multi-purpose venue that will form part of Qiddiya, one of Saudi Arabia’s ‘giga-projects’ under its Vision 2030 masterplan. The stadium features an immersive design and “unique” technological features that will seek to enhance the fan experience. Global architectural firm Populous has designed the stadium, which Qiddiya claims will be the world’s first fully integrated venue with a combined retractable roof, pitch and LED wall.

Fans attending the Australian Open 2024 will for the first time have access to intuitive digital navigation on the official AO mobile app and website. Fans will be able to find all the matches, attractions, amenities, and events during the tournament thanks to PAM's Smart Navigation Platform. PAM is a company in the 2024 cohort of AO Startups.

GolfForever, an at-home training system for amateurs and professional golfers, recently announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by Clerisy, a consumer growth equity fund.

Also part of the raise are world No. 1 and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler and three-time PGA Tour winner Tom Kim, who join as equity investors as well as GolfForever ambassadors.

Major League Soccer (MLS) today announced the launch of MLS Innovation Lab, a program designed to shape the future of sports through the identification of cutting-edge startups and advanced technologies to help develop the next generation of athletes, enhance the fan experience and drive continued growth for the League and its Clubs.

Plans for the southern hemisphere’s largest tennis academy to be built 25km southwest of Geelong have been unvailed. CORA’s ambition is to be the southern hemisphere’s ground-breaking venue where the latest innovations in elite sports training, health and wellness are enhanced by a unique and sustainable environment of natural beauty, arts, culture and food (www.cora.net.au).

Amer Sports owner of brands like ARC'TERYX, PeakPerformance, Salomon and Wilson has filed to go public in the United States. Amer's brand Wilson includes high-performance sports equipment, apparel, footwear and accessories for sports like Tennis, Volleyball, Basketball and American Football.

QUT will host Australia’s first national championships for cycling esports during the Brisbane Cycling Festival in March. As part of a partnership with AusCycling, the 2024 AusCycling Esports National Championships will be held at The Cube on the QUT Gardens Point campus in March 2024.

After partnering with A-League team Brisbane Roar towards the end of last year, high-tech water bottle company has annouced a second partnership with Adelaide United FC. The Victorian-based sportstech company provides a high-tech water bottle integrated with UV sanitation, drink reminders and real-time tracking for optimal hydration.

Several fitness and wellness deals, partnerships and funding rounds made headlines in 2023. According to a summary, these could impact the industry for years to come.

Teamworks, who in 2023 acquired Australina-born Smartabase, has announced the acquisition of Front Rush TRAC, an inventory management software. The new acquisition adds to Teamworks' Operating System for Sports.

Match officials at the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ will be able to enhance their decision-making process with the Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) system, which will be implemented at all 51 matches of the tournament. The introduction of the technology at Asia’s crown jewel, to be played between 12 January and 10 February, 2024 in Qatar, complements the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.

The global sportstech industry generated US$10.1 billion worth of deals during the third quarter of 2023, according to research from Drake Star Partners, which recorded 317 transactions during the three-month period.

Sports Business Journal’s second annual list of the 10 Most Innovative Sportstech Companies was determined based on the companies creating a technology deployment that changed how people view technology and/or shifts how the industry operates.

Futureverse, a metaverse technology and content company, will spearhead Reebok's efforts to broaden the ways consumers can interact with its products across its entire ecosystem from footwear to apparel.

PlaySpark recently annouced a partnership with the Taranaki Airs a pioneering basketball team in the NBL New Zealand league. The Airs are looking to create a more inclusive and immersive experience for their fans, locally and abroad. By implementing their platform, they will now be able to reward fans for their interactions like playing games, attending matches and interacting with other fun content.

As the countdown to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 continues, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has collaborated with interactive indoor training app Kinomap to offer runners, cyclists and rowers around the world the chance to tackle the Olympic courses remotely ahead of next year’s Games.

Playbk Sports and AusCycling announce a partnership to take the AusBike Digital program into classrooms across Australia.

FIBA, the world governing body of basketball, has expanded its long-term partnership with Genius Sports Limited ("Genius Sports") (NYSE:GENI) to deliver its revolutionary computer vision technology and AI-powered capabilities to Leagues and National Federations around the world from 2025 to 2035.

Basketball South Australia is committed to the growth and governance of basketball in the state and is excited to announce a new partnership with TidyHQ's Tidy Connect, known for its innovative solutions in scaling governance, compliance, and risk in sports. This partnership marks an important stride in fostering sports integrity and highlighting the importance of good governance practices and advanced technology in the sports sector.

QUT has been awarded two grants, worth a total of $2.27 million, to train a cohort of sports data scientists to tackle new challenges faced by Australia’s sportstech industry.

Springbok Analytics, a leading healthcare technology company, recently announced its new full body muscle analysis capabilities, initially for research purposes. Springbok's AI-based technology analyses MRI data and produces personalised 3D visualisations and metrics of muscle health, enhancing the assessment, treatment monitoring, research and diagnostic value of advanced imaging.

The We Got Game Academy has engaged Lumin Sports to help monitor and support the wellbeing of its members. The academy provides talent pathways and education opportunities for female footballers in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

In recent years, extreme and adventure sports have become increasingly popular with the general public. The inventor of Snowtunnel®, Darren Visser, himself a passionate winter sports enthusiast, shares this vision and has been working for over 20 years on a new product that will give snowboarders and skiers the chance to enjoy their beloved sport all year round. The current version of the Snowtunnel is a rotating tube with a diameter of ten meters. The rotating action of the tube is said to let snowboarding feel like a mixture of snowboarding, surfing and skating

Saudi Arabia NEOM Investment Fund (NIF) will hold 6% of Technogym share capital after an 111-million-euro ($120.83 million) investment and intends to be a long-term minority shareholder in the Italian fitness-equipment maker.

Omni Biotech has today announced its investment from Skalata Ventures. Skalata has joined forces with the team led by founders Zac Farrow and Willem Poot to improve global health outcomes with immediate, actionable health metrics on devices they already own. Starting with a world-first hydration metric Omni is bringing elite-level monitoring into the mainstream.

Digital workout app Ladder closed a $US 12m Series A round led by Tapestry VC and LivWell Ventures. To date, the company’s focus on personalized, progressive strength training programs has helped it differentiate from general fitness or cardio-centric apps, reaching 50K+ paying members.

Sportable has announced that it has a raised $US 15m investment round from investors including South African-based venture firm HAVAIC, US-based Ryan Ventures and Australian fund XV Capital led by Stirling Mortlock and James Godfrey. Sportable deploys Micro-Tracking (MT) technology to enhance data collection and analysis in ball and contact sports, particularly rugby, soccer, and American football. 

Brisbane Roar have partnered with AQUAME to provide A-League Men and A-League Women high-tech water bottles, delivering them the best day-to-day hydration as professional footballers. AQUAME is a tech-integrated water bottle, offering UVC sanitation, drink reminders, and real-time tracking, all guided by an AI-enhanced app for optimal hydration.  

Teamworks has announce its latest partnership in the National Rugby League (NRL) with the Melbourne Storm signing a multi-year Hub & Smartabase agreement. Identifying Teamworks as an integral partner to continue delivering sustained success, Hub & Smartabase will allow the Storm to streamline operations and centralize medical data in one tech stack.

The sports industry in general has strong tailwinds with new capital coming in from multiple directions: Increased VC / PE activity, Big Tech, Sovereign nations / Family office wealth. The overall cautious investor sentiment has manifested itself in an interesting way for SportsTech startups. 2023 was the lowest year for Sportstech investment hat we’ve seen since 2015, will top out around $US2 billion. But it's been the highest year for M&A dealflow that we’ve ever seen, projected to cross $US11 billion.

KORE has announced that they have partnered with with Tennis Australia and the flagship Australian Open. Tennis Australia will use KORE's AI-powered Evaluate Social tool which will be pivotal in optimizing their social media impact, enabling smarter content decisions, and quantifying the value of owned and earned posts across the Summer of Tennis.

ProtectedSeas Navigator, the world’s most comprehensive database of marine life protections and their boundaries, has announced a new partnership with Deckee to make its environmental information freely available to boaters in an easy-to-use mobile app for the first time. Used by over a quarter of a million boaters so far, Deckee helps deliver the best possible boating experience by providing every boater – whether beginner or experienced – with the tools, insights and products they need to be smarter, safer, and enjoy themselves on the water.  

Endeavor Streaming, a global leader in premium video distribution and monetization across sports, entertainment, media, and lifestyle, has partnered with LiveLike, a leading audience engagement suite, to bring new fan engagement features to EuroLeague TV. The partnership includes an interactive experience within The Players’ View content that will enable viewers to feel closer to the action and engage with the commentators through a suite of features such as quizzes, polls, cheer meters and more.

The Premier League sold four years of UK broadcast rights for £6.7 billion, mostly to its biggest existing partners Sky Sports and TNT Sports, in a deal that cements its position as Europe’s most lucrative sports franchise. The price amounts to a 4% increase from the previous cycle, just for the live events, according to the league. The rights run from the 2025 to 2028 seasons.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Prime Video today announced a four-year deal to provide exclusive live broadcast rights in Australia for ICC cricket, which will be available on Prime Video Australia. The partnership will see Prime Video Australia exclusively stream all men’s and women’s events, including the Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, U19s and the World Test Championship Final. The deal includes streaming rights in Australia for 448 live games from 2024 to 2027.

Bond University has partnered with Fempro Armour a Queensland company to develop cutting-edge protective body armour designed specifically for the female body. Fempro Armour uses patented impact absorption technology to reduce the force of contact to vulnerable areas identified in extensive research into common injuries to female athletes.

One of one of Australia’s fastest-growing sports tech startups, PlayHQ, is excited to announce a new partnership with New Zealand Cricket. The move follows a successful partnership between PlayHQ and Cricket Australia, and sees NZC join a raft of major sports across Australia and New Zealand who have turned to PlayHQ to streamline their community competition and program management.

Racing and Sports is pleased to announce it has signed a multi-year contract with Playbook Engineering to supply pre-race data and pricing services across Playbook’s platform brands. The three-year contract is to be the exclusive supplier of RAS’s best-in-class wagering technology solution, racing data and editorial content.

Guy Bracher is leaving the Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) after working with Australia’s sportstech startups and scaleups in the early ASTN days and again for the last two years.

The founders of real-time gym analytics platform, Barbell Mate, have just launched an affordable timing gate platform called Timing Mate for the high performance sports market.

Sport tech enterprise Crionet has acquired a majority stake in LIGR, a company offering cloud-based graphics, streaming and highlights solutions for sports at all levels. Founded in 2016 in Sydney, Australia, LIGR is renowned for providing cloud-based live graphics solutions for sports broadcasts. The company already delivers solutions across a diverse spectrum of sports around the world, including American football, soccer, rugby, basketball and tennis.

Hang Media has completed a $9.2 million Series A funding round. HANG will use the proceeds to accelerate product development and audience growth, expanding its leadership position in the direct-to-consumer sports media category. HANG enables fans to mingle with their heroes on livestreams across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch.