International Sportstech News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

AllTrails, the world's largest and most trusted outdoor platform, was awarded iPhone App of the Year by Apple, celebrating its outstanding approach to helping people explore the outdoors. The 2023 App Store Awards spotlight app and game developers who are providing users with meaningful experiences and inspiring cultural change. Out of nearly two million apps in the App Store, AllTrails is recognized as the iPhone App of the Year for its innovative experience, user-friendly design, and, according to Apple, "for helping the world find their way outside."

The world of sports and entertainment is about to witness a remarkable event, Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL) presented by JetSynthesys. GEPL will be streamed on JioCinema and Sports18, reaching millions of viewers daily. GEPL opens doors to cricket, video gaming and e-sports enthusiasts, offering a magnificent prize pool of INR 2.51 crore (US $300k).

Diamond Kinetics and Marucci Sports have launched the The CATX Smart baseball bat. It's the first-ever fully-integrated Smart Bat approved by USSSA for in-game use. It features a Diamond Kinetics Gen-4 bat sensor built into the knob, that does not require charging. The CATX Smart seamlessly connects to the DK app on an iOS device via Bluetooth, providing hitters with real-time data on every swing - in-game or in the cage.

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services and solutions, announced it has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a sports cloud platform. The offering focuses on building next-generation digital capabilities for sports organizations, and delivering immersive and personalized experiences to sporting enthusiasts worldwide. 

The team behind runna, the world’s #1 rated personalised running coaching app that launched in 2021, has closed its latest venture capital round having raised £5 million. The coaching app uses advanced technology combined with real-world running and strength and conditioning plans and workouts from top running coaches to personalise every user’s experience based on their ability, goals and schedule.

Strava is introducing a new feature called Flyover, which allows users to replay their activities via a 3D video map. Flyover is powered by Fatmap, a 3D mapping platform that Strava acquired earlier this year.

The Collective® – the women-focused practice within Wasserman, a global leader in sports, music, entertainment and culture – released today a new study substantiating the growing media representation and cultural impact of women’s sports in the context of the larger sports media ecosystem. A key figure revealed that women’s sports comprise on average 15% of total sports media coverage, with increased content notably driven by the growth of streaming and social media.

SportBusiness’ newly published Global Media Report 2023 reveals the combined worldwide media rights value of all sports properties has climbed to $US 55.986bn over the last 12 months, up 2.4 per cent from $US 54.698bn in 2022. The value is expected to pass $60bn for the first time in 2024 as the return of the Olympic Games and Uefa European Championship add weight to the total.

Emerging from the collaboration of Dorilton Capital and Williams Racing, FanCapital plans to partner with premier athletes and teams to build the largest sports vertical audience and incremental monetization platform. FanCapital has announced that Formula 1 driver, Alex Albon, has joined as client #2 and will play a pivotal role on the company's advisory board.

The NFL today announced the HealthTECH Challenge I, a crowd-sourced challenge to accelerate innovations that can help make playing surfaces more consistent and safer for players. HealthTECH Challenge I will provide up to $100,000 to entrants with ideas that further improve the safety and consistency of playing surfaces. Submissions close 20 February 2024.

The NCAA's Big Ten Conference and Big Ten Network today announced a groundbreaking partnership with Greenfly, the leading platform for short-from content capture, organization, and distribution, to power the flow of digital media assets for thousands of Big Ten student-athletes. The multi-year partnership will allow the conference to provide student-athletes across 14 member institutions sophisticated access to tailored content they can leverage to build their brands.

The Global Wellness Institute has valued the Physical Activity market at $US976 billion, and is expected to grow to $US1.4 trillion by 2027. Beyond gyms, the Global Wellness Institute breaks the industry into six sectors: fitness, mindful movement, recreational sports, tech, apparel, and equipment. Fitness tech (including wearables and workout apps) has grown most rapidly, becoming a $US64 billion market in its own right. Right behind, apparel/footwear and equipment have surpassed pre-pandemic values, worth $US372 billion and $US 137.5 billion, respectively.

Ahead CES 2024, NASDAQ-listed Vuzix, a supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology announced the expansion of its Ultralite OEM Platform with its new Ultralite S AR smart glasses aimed at sports and fitness users. The Vuzix Ultralite S, has been named a CES® 2024 Innovation Awards winner in the Wearable Technologies and Sports & Fitness categories.

For the first time at the UEFA European Football Championship, the Official Match Ball will feature adidas Connected Ball Technology - which sends precise ball data to video match officials in real time. Combining player position data with AI, the innovation contributes to UEFA’s semi-automated offside technology and will be key to supporting faster in match decisions.

New York City FC is planning on building the first fully electric stadium in Major League Soccer (MLS), with a number of sustainability features to be integrated into the design of the 25,000-seat venue. As well as becoming the first fully electric stadium in MLS, the facility would be the first fully electric professional sports stadium in New York City.

Genius Sports today announced an expanded agreement with FanDuel to deliver its transformative BetVision streaming solution. FanDuel, America’s #1 sportsbook will unveil BetVision as part of its premium NFL offering through Genius Sports. As the exclusive distributor of NFL Official League Data, Genius Sports will continue to provide FanDuel with access to the league’s proprietary Next Gen Stats (“NGS”) data as well as the official sports betting data feed. BetVision will allow FanDuel customers on mobile and tablet devices to take their live NFL viewing experience to the next level in the FanDuel sportsbook app.

China National Sports Group and Singapore’s White Group signed a strategic cooperation deal in Beijing focusing on acquiring the intellectual property of international sports events and establishing global or Asia-Pacific commercial rights. The agreement outlines cooperation in sports event investment, venue construction, sports technology, international sports funds, and sports derivatives. The agreement includes plans to build a China-Singapore International Sports City in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The NBA Future Analytics Stars Program (FAS) is designed to attract, develop, and pipeline top talent of future leaders in basketball, business, and marketing analytics. This virtual program provides participants with access to mentorship, networking, and development opportunities. The program will connect current executives in these fields with the next generation of leaders in data and analytics and is expected to run for approximately five months beginning in January 2024. Current undergraduate juniors, undergraduate seniors, graduate students, or those early in their careers in similar fields are encouraged to apply.

ESPN will today launch its sports betting brand ESPNBet. EPSN is the largest sports media brand in the US, with over 100 million unique monthly digital visitors. Its social media presence tops 370 million followers, as well as boasting 25 million subscribers to its ESPN+ streaming service. ESPN is also the biggest brand on TikTok with more than 40 million followers worldwide.

The brand rolled out across 17 states. As well as heavyweights New Jersey and Pennsylvania, this will total every major US market (aside from New York).

Techstars New York City Accelerator is pleased to announce the 12 remarkable companies that have been selected for the Winter Class of 2023. On Demo Day, February 15th, 2024 the founders will present their companies and progress to the NYC tech ecosystem in person and virtually to VCs around the world.

Bhout, a Portuguese connected boxing startup, has raised an impressive €10 million ($10.7 million) in seed funding for its AI-powered gamified boxing bag, scalable studio concept model and omnichannel approach.  Dubbed the “boxing bag with a brain” by Bhout founder Mauro Frota, the innovative fitness startup opened a boxing club in Lisbon, Portugal, in the summer of 2021 and was crowned the 2023 Startup Spotlight award winner at The Fitness Technology Summit in Washington, D.C.

2023 has been a rough year for SportsTech startups looking for funding, with amounts invested at a 5 year low. However M&A deal flow has been at an all-time high. So it’s not that there’s no capital, it’s just being deployed in a different way. It’s been most interesting to see the sheer number of funds coming into the space over the last 12 months - both from new investors and existing investors with follow-on funds. 31 Funds with at least $4b+ of announced capital over the last 12 months. Yes some of that has already been deployed but most of it is yet to hit the market.