Sportstech & Member News

Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB), an innovative division of the iconic football club FC Barcelona, has set its sights on Asia Pacific, aiming to create a lasting impact on the sports industry across the region. BIHUB looks to collaborate with regional startups whose values align with the club’s mission. The club, whose Asia Pacific office is headquartered in Hong Kong, also plans to open a physical office in Singapore.

After successfully completing two classes, the Minnesota Twins Accelerator by Techstars today announced its third cohort. Pioneering a unique pathway in the sports landscape, this accelerator is the first of its kind in Minnesota sports and just the second to be operated and funded by a Major League Baseball club.

Vald Performance have announced the launch of ForceFrame Max, the new addition to the ForceFrame line (with existing ForceFrame model being rebadged to ForceFrame Fold). ForceFrame Max is the outcome of over six years of feedback from clients who have cumulatively performed over 1.2 million ForceFrame tests on over 200,000 athletes and patients.  

The AFL has today entered a 10-year strategic partnership with global sports and entertainment leader TGI Sport. The AFL and TGI will deliver fans a brand new at match experience via new and innovative LED signage, digital screen and fan engagement offerings at both the MCG and Marvel Stadium.

In 2023, France had the honor of hosting the Rugby World Cup, an event of significance in the world of sports. To take fan engagement and excitement to new heights, organizers turned to the ‘Sync to Calendar’ marketing solution provided by ECAL, a trusted partner of World Rugby.

Coach Welly, a Queensland-based fitness & health tech start-up today announced its recent success in raising pre-seed funding, valuing the company at A$4.25M. The funding round was led by AngelLoop, and included Brisbane Angels and a group of strategic investors in Australia, Singapore and the USA who share Coach Welly's vision for helping millions of people to measurably improve their health and wellness.

A total of 17 of 18 AFL clubs use Tradable Bits for fan engagement, sponsorship, community and data-focused activations. Across these clubs there was nearly a 20% rise in campaign entries in 2023 and a 15% increase in communication subscriptions. The article take a deep dive into case studies from each club on how they engaged with fans, sponsors and the community through online activations.

The Australian Institute of Sport will hold its Sports Technology and Applied Research Symposium (STARS) from 15-17 November under the theme of ‘Driving Innovation in Sport’. Across 14 sessions presenters have been tasked with giving the STARS audience ideas, concepts, and insights into what it will take to ensure that the Australian high performance system is prepared to take advantage of ‘ten years of opportunity’ leading into Brisbane 2032.

STARS will again be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. The Symposium is free to attend for those in the Australian sports system and our industry and university partners.

The Aspen Institute studied the governance models and ecosystem results in 11 peer countries, with a focus on youth sport participation rates and elite performance. The countries studied (which included Australia) vary in population, geography, culture and forms of government, but all have found success in either youth sports or elite sports, or both.

NBA teams are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to get an extra competitive advantage. The Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic are among the first teams to leverage Perch, a cutting-edge AI-powered weight training platform. Developed at MIT, Perch’s technology utilizes 3D cameras and machine learning to quantify weight room performance, with the goal of enhancing player motivation, safety and on-court performance.

A new global search is underway to find the most ambitious and creative sport technology innovators  for the next intake of AO StartUps. Since its launch in 2022, AO StartUps has selected 14 companies to pilot their cutting-edge technology during the Australian summer of tennis and across other areas of Tennis Australia’s business. The most recent intake featured a range of innovative tech companies from across the globe including PAM, Raven, DVOX, Circular, Straffr, Trickshot and Stringr. Early-stage tech companies have until 19 November to apply.

Australian sports nutrition company BODYSCIENCE® has announced the launch of a range of energy and protein water drinks for post-workout boost, a pre workout alternative, or a convenient on-the-go energy option. 

https://www.bodyscience.com.au/collections/bsc-drinks

In 2020, ASTN member Gangi Group was researching germicidal lighting and discovered high quality UV-C and anti-microbial blue light fittings. The company realised the need for automated, sustainable and effective disinfection and set about creating innovative, world-first solutions. And Lindo was born.

Lindo developed and manufactured lighting solutions that can break down the DNA structure of 99.9% of viruses and bacteria (including COVID 19). The lights are so effective it mitigates the need to use toxic cleaning chemicals. Less bleach, less risk, less manual labour, and more sustainable.

Lindo’s primary focus lies in creating, constructing, and producing stationary lighting systems that enhance the overall health and well-being of front-line workers and occupants in industries ranging from defence to healthcare and aviation. 

ECAL has announced a partnership with leading online marketing platform Optimove. ECAL provides Optimove's clients with a proven digital-calendar marketing channel to engage with an audience that is sophisticated and tech savvy. ECAL helps deliver 'in-time' promotions and messaging, enabling deeper personalisation and connection. ECAL's dynamic calendar marketing technology is used by many of the world's very best brands including Premier League, Formula 1, LaLiga, The FA, England Cricket Board, ICC Cricket, NBC Sports, bet365, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona, and many others.

Nike has partnered with Dove to launch Body Confident Sport, a first-of-its-kind, scientifically proven set of coaching tools for coaching 11- to 17-year-old girls that will help build their body confidence and make them feel like sport is a place where they belong. The free open-source tool is available at bodyconfidentsport.com.

ŌURA, known for its Oura Ring, and Cronometer, a nutrition tracking app, have recently announced a collaborative feature for menstrual cycle tracking. This partnership integrates ŌURA’s Cycle Insights into the Cronometer app, aiming to provide a detailed understanding of menstrual health.

adidas has announced a new partnership with Calm, the world’s leading mental health platform with the ambition of progressing sports performance through supporting mental wellbeing. The partnership will kick off as a pilot in the UK and the US with adiClub members being able to redeem points to unlock Calm Premium services. There will also be a specially tailored set of Calm created content available to all global users, curated by adidas and aligned to supporting sports performance.

Australian-based Aircast has developed a next-generation technology that provides both sports fans and broadcast professionals with real-time access to multiviewer video, audio, and data feeds via mobile devices and IPTV at sub-second latency – less than 300ms end-to-end. During the 2023 high-profile women’s world soccer tournament, Aircast recently leveraged Haivision technology for live commentary and monitoring.

Centr, a health and wellness ecosystem founded by Chris Hemsworth, announced an all-new partnership with HYROX, the World Series of Fitness Racing, as its new Official Equipment Provider for all races. The partnership marks Centr’s initial entry into the competitive sports space.

With the commencement of the 2023/24 A-Leagues season, Brisbane Roar has unveiled a collaboration with digital engagement platform Tiparra. The ‘Roar App’ will revolutionise how fans engage with Brisbane Roar, offering an unparalleled interactive game-day experience.  Tiparra, renowned for its innovation in the digital space, specialises in turning passive spectators into active participants. Through the Roar App, fans can engage in real-time, creating an immersive experience through features like live polls, interactive matchday programs, competitions, and exclusive updates – all available at fans’ fingertips.  

As the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League (BBL) seasons are only two months long, the Melbourne Renegades wanted to find a way to engage their fans all year round. Felicity George, Head of Brand, Marketing and Fan Engagement at the Melbourne Renegades discusses how they implemented an online platform for their fans to interact with the team whenever and wherever. The platform, called Renegades Connect, created by SparkUp Studios and launched last December in time for the BBL season was a test to see how fans interacted with it.

BetMGM, a leading sports betting and iGaming operator, today announced the signing of a new deal with Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD) for access to products and services to be powered by official NBA optical tracking data. For the first time, Sportradar will provide BetMGM access to next-generation products and services that leverage NBA optical tracking data, which is provided exclusively by Sportradar through its partnership with the NBA. This will enable BetMGM to grow its prop markets and same-game parlay portfolio, as well as its in-play betting markets.

FORM, the fitness technology company pioneering real-time visual feedback to elevate athletic performance, today announces that under the current rules, World Triathlon has confirmed that FORM Smart Swim Goggles are allowed in all World Triathlon Competition formats after review from the World Triathlon Technical Committee.

In collaboration, Playbk Sports and Gold Coast SUNS are pioneering SUNS Fitness with the support of Health and Wellbeing Queensland / Queensland Government ActiveKIT (Knowledge | Innovation | Technology) with the goal to drive physical activity participation in Queensland.

Sonnant and Podder have joined forces to reshape the future of #audiodata. This partnership combines Sonnant’s pioneering content data with Podder’s cutting-edge demographic analytics, redefining content planning, targeting and the discovery of both exposed and unexposed audiences.

Umbro, the global football apparel, footwear and equipment retailer has teamed up with A.I. Football League, One Future Football. One Future Football is a virtual, A.I.-driven football league featuring 12 clubs based around the world with over 250 players. This exciting will see the Neo Swerve Pro ball used as Official Ball of One Future Football in all league games.

Kitman Labs, the sports technology and analytics company setting the industry standard for how elite sports organisations use data, today announced a new partnership with the Premier League.  The partnership will provide all Premier League and EFL club Academies with a centralised, fully integrated "Football Intelligence Platform" designed to aggregate and mobilise player and staff data across coaching, medical, sports science, operations, player care and education. 

Loughborough University’s twenty-year partnership with global sports brand adidas was announced the winner of the 2023 Royal Academy of Engineering Bhattacharyya Award in recognition of their stellar academia–industry collaboration.

Signos, a comprehensive metabolic health platform that includes a proprietary AI-engine with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to provide real-time data and recommendations for healthy weight management, announced $20 million in Series B funding.

3STEP Sports, the youth sports club and event operator, has partnered with Pixellot, a provider of AI-driven sports video technology, to elevate the production of live sports events for its 185 sport operators and 1.1+ million athletes across the US. 3STEP Sports will be able to deliver over 35,000 high-quality sports events to fans, athletes, and families worldwide, tripling its previous year’s production of game film with 300+ AI-automated Pixellot cameras implemented across all leagues.

World Athletics has launched an online tool that tracks the qualification process for next year's Olympic Games in Paris. "Road to Paris 2024" can be used by athletes, media and fans and provides a real-time view of each event in the qualification period.

F45 Training, a leading global fitness community specializing in innovative, functional group workouts, in collaboration with WHOOP, the human performance company, is delivering a first-of-its-kind F45 Challenge. The Challenge allows participants to track their holistic fitness lifestyle including recovery and sleep, and correlating that to their performance both inside and outside the studio for healthier habits.

Australasia’s Best Sporting Team (ABST) was designed in partnership with GAIN LINE Analytics and Platinum Asset Management to bring an analytical approach to answering questions like whether great historic teams could have survived in today’s competitions, or about which football code is the best of all. In doing so it aims to start a new conversation about greatness. The aim is to reward success, whilst unearthing some hidden gems and most importantly, helping those in need.

LiveHeats, an Australian-based company specialising in live scoring, competition management and rankings platforms for mainstream adventure sports has partnered with the Sweden Ski Association. The Swedish powerhouse has joined our LiveHeats platform to provide sophisticated scoring, integrated national rankings, FIS results, and WSF World Snowboard points. These end-to-end event tools will enhance everyone's season, especially the athlete, fan and organiser experience.

Sports gifting platform PrezentBox has announced that now free for sports & activity providers.

"The vision of PrezentBox has been to help families and friends contribute to the growth of kids through extracurricular activities. And by making the platform complimentary for activity providers, we're making it even easier for communities to rally around their budding stars." said Founder Dan Frkic

Basketball Queensland (BQ) has officially launched a partnership with XP Esports for the 2024 Under 18 State Championships on the Gold Coast. 

XP Esports hosts live, online events, leagues, and major events across multiple esports titles in Queensland and Australia. XP Esports will deliver an esports Championship for Basketball Queensland members at the Under 18 State Championships between January 10 and 12 of January 2024. 

FIFA hosted its annual Quality Programme Conference and Research Symposium which acts as a gathering and information point for stakeholders in the football industry on 18 and 19 October.

The FIFA Quality Programme offered attendees the opportunity to receive updates on the programme and stay informed about the latest standards and developments in football. The Research Symposium focused on sharing the latest football-related research, aiming to enhance the sport by democratizing technology and using it to create a safer environment and make it more accessible to all.

Catapult has announced a multi-year partnership with NASCAR, stepping in as the official supplier of race control systems. The collaboration will commence this season, with Catapult’s groundbreaking RaceWatch ID system taking center stage. 

The move promises to significantly enhance the efficiency of race control and competition officials across NASCAR’s top-tier racing series. RaceWatch ID is designed to empower NASCAR officials to make accurate and swift decisions, facilitating a seamless integration of multi-camera video, race radio, and telemetry data, all synchronized and housed in a single solution. 

Researchers from the Apple Heart and Movement Study share new insights into one of the fastest-growing sports around the world: pickleball. To see how this emerging sport compared against the long-standing game of tennis, and how it impacts overall health, researchers turned to the data.

Genius Sports Limited has expanded its partnership with the National Football League to power NFL+, the NFL’s video streaming subscription service, with data-driven on-screen graphic overlays and visualizations that bring the live action to life in real time. Starting this weekend, Genius Sports will provide two new customized viewing modes for every NFL+ game this season. These alternate streams will utilize the NFL’s Next Gen Stats player-tracking data to display crucial fan insights including ball-carrier speed, yards after catch, closing speed, and time to throw—all in real-time.

Sportradar has been chosen by Tennis Channel to power the launch of the network’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming platform which will include access to Tennis Channel’s 24/7 linear-channel alongside thousands of hours of live and on-demand matches and original programming. Sportradar will develop the new service, expected to be available to all tennis fans in the U.S in early 2024, with a focus on creating a seamless, direct-to-consumer experience incorporating dynamic data integrations and a wide range of user-friendly features.

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.

ACL ruptures are increasingly common in field and court sports and occur 3-6 times more frequently in girls and women than boys and men. Alarmingly, Australia has the highest rates of ACL reconstruction in the world (which are also increasing at about 5% each year) and young females are most susceptible.

HITIQ is pleased to announce that it is conducting a capital raising of up to approximately $3.9 million through a placement to a sophisticated and professional investor. Funds from the raise will be deployed to accelerate the closing of near-term sales opportunities in North America and capitalise on the consumer interest in Australia for the HITIQ Smart Mouthguard.

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.

SportsGrid, sports technology provider and company behind leading sports management platform revolutioniseSPORT, has been selected as a NSW State Finalist at the Telstra Best of Business Awards in two categories; Embracing Innovation and Outstanding Growth.

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.