ASTN Member News

Layercake, a global leader in media workflow automation, has announced the integration of Ant Media Server into its Streamcake platform. This marks a significant step forward in intelligent streaming technology. The collaboration brings together sub-second real-time video delivery with automated scheduling and orchestration capabilities, enabling robust, scalable and adaptive media workflows for both live and on-demand experiences.

The ASTN and Sports Tech World Series (STWS) have launched the 2025 edition of the Australia & New Zealand Sports Technology Awards. The Award presentation will be held in the Sports Innovation Week in Melbourne on 28th October. Entries are now open across the following eight categories - Stadium & Venue Tech, Sports Management & Ops Tech, Media & Broadcast, Fan Engagement, Esports, Fantasy and Gamification, Fitness & Wellness, Data Analytics and Equipment & Apparel. Applications close 12 October 2025.

The Governor has hosted the investiture ceremonies for recipients of awards in the Order of Australia in the 2025 King's Birthday honours. ASTN Co-founder and inaugural chair, James Demetriou received this Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in the King’s Birthday Honours, at the ceremony for his service to sport, to education, and to business.

ASTN has opened applications for Australian growth SMEs to participate in the 16th cohort of the ASTN Accelerator Program. The ASTN Accelerator Program provides free guidance & advisory for selected startups including access to a broad pool of ASTN experts, up to 20 hours free advisory as well as a number of themed workshops. More than 90 Australian sportstech companies have participated in the program over 8 years. These companies have raised more thank $AUD 85 million since participating in the program, and have generated more than 350 jobs. Applications close 21 September 2025. The program is supported by Queensland Investment Corporation and Meshpoints (a Spacecubed Foundation initiative) supported by Lotterywest.

Flinders University has announced that it will host the 32nd annual Sports Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference from 2-4 December 2026 in Adelaide. Adelaide is one of Australia’s premier sporting hubs, home to unique events such as the AFL Gather Round, LIV Golf Adelaide, the Tour Down Under and world-class cricket.

Netball Australia is the driving force behind one of the nation’s most beloved sports, leading the game from grassroots to the global stage –  home to the world’s best netball league, Suncorp Super Netball. Netball Australia’s fan survey aimed to gain a deeper read on who their audience is, and was conducted as part of their marketing plan to reach new audiences and grow commercial outcomes. With over 4,000 fans responding to the survey Netball Australia were able to get deeper insight on their fans. This included Engagement Level - casual viewers vs core fans; Platform preferences  - where fans are, and where to spend ad dollars and Lifestyle insights - to fuel content and sponsorship ideas.

Smart glasses company Minimis has been selected as the first-ever Aussie startup for The Pitch Show Season 14 in the US. Started in 2015 and part of the Vox Media Network, The Pitch Show is like Shark Tank. The Pitch Show digs deep with authenticity into founders’ stories and real pitches, following up with featured startups even after they’ve secured funding.

ASTN has opened expressions-of-interest to participate in cohort 10 of the ASTN-GSIC (powered by Microsoft) Pre-Accelerator Program. The 10 week 20 session program is designed to help fast-track the knowledge of early-stage sportstech startups. More than 200 early-stage entrepreneurs, including researchers, athletes, sports administrators and practitioners, have participated in the program over the last 5 years. The program addresses three critical areas that often receive limited attention during the initial phases of development: Customer Discovery, Market & Competitor Analysis and Business Model Development. Application are now open with priority access for founders from Queensland and Western Australia. Applications close 19th September 2025.

c51 Consulting have announced the official launch of Skillcourt in Australia and New Zealand, bringing the cognitive-movement training system to sports, rehabilitation, education, and fitness organisations across the region. Skillcourt combines neuroscience, cutting-edge hardware, and interactive software to create measurable improvements in reaction time, decision-making, coordination, and recovery outcomes.

ECAL, the world’s leading calendar marketing and fan engagement platform, has officially launched in Saudi Arabia, marking a major strategic expansion with The Saudi Pro League (SPL)as its first major client. Introduced through Global Victoria’s trade mission in November 2024, this move cements ECAL’s position as a truly global pioneer in sports engagement solutions. ECAL empowers fans with the latest match information, personalised ticket alerts for home games, fantasy game updates, man-of-the-match voting, post-match scores and highlights, all delivered in the user’s preferred language, including Arabic, directly via their personal calendars.

Champion Data's Head of Machine Learning and AI, Dr Stuart Morgan, joined Dr Claire Naughtin on the latest episode of ABC's Download This Show. The episode explored how AI’s accuracy can work alongside human experience to build trust, the role of technology in injury prevention and athlete well-being as well as how fan confidence and experiences are being shaped as AI becomes embedded in sport.

Leading British sports executive Nick Pink has been announced to guide TidyHQ's UK expansion. Nick has led at the highest levels of British sport - former CEO of England and Great Britain Hockey and England Golf, Chair of Safe Sport UK, and trusted voice in the NGB CEO Forum. TidyHQ works along side registration, competition and learning management systems to track governance and safeguarding, improve communications and operations and strengthen volunteer and workforce engagement.

ECAL, one of the world’s leading calendar marketing solution, announced its official launch into the Japanese market, partnering with the celebrated J.League club, Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The landmark partnership will introduce ECAL’s powerful ‘sync to calendar’ technology to Japanese sports fans for the first time, delivering a new era of dynamic, real-time digital communications for the club’s passionate supporters.

LIV Golf, the global golf league have announced a landmark partnership with Fever, a leading discovery platform for culture and live entertainment. Fever will become the official global ticketing and demand generation partner for LIV Golf, powering ticketing operations and enhancing fan engagement across the league’s rapidly expanding international schedule. The partnership launches ahead of the 2026 LIV Golf League season, with Fever serving as the central destination for ticketing and demand generation across all 14 international events. 

Sports lighting innovator CME has won South Australian Premier's Business Award Family Business of the Year. The 40 year old business is a leader in integrated electrical solutions in the sports lighting, sustainable energy, construction, and facility servicing sectors. CME has worked on over 400 sports fields globally.

Basketball WA has announced a partnership with Edith Cowan University (ECU) through a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding. This collaboration will see Basketball WA work closely with ECU to explore opportunities in evidence-based education and knowledge translation, research in long-term athlete development, performance, and injury prevention and joint projects that align with both organisations’ strategic priorities.

Layercake has announced a new strategic partnership with Broadcast Solutions, one of Europe’s largest media systems integration groups. Broadcast Solutions will integrate and resell Layercake’s Streamcake platform, offering advanced automation and cloud-enabled production capabilities to media organisations globally. This marks an important step in streamlining complex broadcast workflows through hybrid and cloud-native tools for broadcasters and content owners.

Queensland University of Technology researchers have created a powerful new tool that could predict when an athlete is at risk of suffering another injury when returning to play from a previous injury. It uses data from wearable sensors capturing how the athlete moves in training or gameplay, along with data about the preceding injury and contextual information to quantify the risk. The system was developed by Associate Professor Paul Wu, Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen and Yu Yi Yu from the QUT School of Mathematical Sciences and Centre for Data Science, alongside an interdisciplinary team comprising performance health researchers from the Australian Institute of Sport, statisticians from UNSW and informed potential users. Their hope is that it could help coaches, medical staff and athletes spot danger signs early, avoid costly injuries and keep players performing at their peak.

Frogbox has announced a continuation of their partnership with every Premier Grade Cricket competition across Australia following 8 partnership renewals throughout 2025 bringing more than 2,000 matches to fans each season. Every week over 100 men's and women's Premier Cricket clubs across Australia set up their Frogbox streaming kits, use the technology to help clubs and leagues promote the game, unlock commercial value and create shortform content for social media.

SANFL is pleased to announce a new partnership with CME to illuminate football ovals across the State with cutting-edge lighting solutions. A national leader in sports and stadium lighting, CME will be the official preferred sports lighting supplier for football in South Australia. CME most recently delivered oval lights at Football Park oval, West Lakes, on behalf of SANFL and Adelaide Football Club and are also working with the Adelaide Football Club at its new Thebarton development.

Champion Data has entered into a new collaboration with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) to support the continued development of Pipelines — a modular deep learning platform initially developed at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) under the leadership of Dr Stuart Morgan, who has since joined Champion Data, as Head of Machine Learning and AI. Pipelines is a flexible AI framework that allows users to build complex deep learning systems by connecting pre-built modules, enabling rapid, real-time development and deployment without the need for writing task-specific code.

Bundesliga International is strengthening its longstanding agreement with Sportradar to further enhance the viewing experience, accelerate innovation through new exclusive data, and deliver next-generation digital experiences for the betting and gaming market. Utilising the 3.6 million data points from every Bundesliga match, a suite of new products have been launched ahead of the start of the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, and available to Sportradar’s global client base. The Live Player Markets product will leverage Bundesliga tracking data and Sportradar’s advanced AI capabilities in real-time will create approximately 240 additional opportunities to bet per match.

C51 Consulting have launched PRO MODE, a mobile fan-engagement game platform designed for brands ready to move beyond passive advertising. C51's bespoke fan games turn customers and fans into active participants, where they compete, win rewards, and interact with brands in real time.

Coachbetter has announced Dr. Suresh Letchmanan, Managing Director of Borussia Dortmund Asia Pacific, as an investor and growth advisor. Over the past 4 years, Coachbetter have built a strong partnership with Borussia Dortmund, serving as their global coaching education and operating system. With his extensive network and experience growing one of Europe’s top clubs in international markets, Suresh will play a key role in accelerating Coachbetter's expansion across Asia.

Snow ski helmet manufacturer Anti Ordinary selected as finalist in Premier of Queensland’s Export Awards. Anti Ordinary helmets have been sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. Anti Ordinary has been selected in the Emerging Exporter category. The awards are supported by Trade & Investment Queensland.

ECAL has announced that it is now the official calendar solution for the MotoGP. MotoGP has a fan base of hundreds of millions, and ECAL has supported its recently released 2026 calendar featuring 22 Grand Prix across 5 continents. The solution is much more than just a calendar reminder. It is fans personal gateway to the heart of the sport, delivered straight to their personal calendar of choice. ECAL has a proven expertise in working with the world’s most popular international sports and entertainment organisations to serve huge global audiences with rich, localised, and actionable events content.

Sports Insight Media has announced a partnership with MyClubtap, Australia’s first fantasy sports platform purpose-built for grassroots clubs and leagues. Founded in Melbourne, MyClubtap has reimagined what local sport can look like, allowing clubs to run their own branded fantasy games, driven by real club players. With over 95 fantasy leagues, 3,000+ users, and clubs across six states, the MyClubTap platform is creating new ways for communities to connect, engage, and grow. Sports Insight Media will support MyClubTap's expansion plans through smart media, brand storytelling, and scalable content systems powered by technology and AI.

Smart sunglasses startup Minimis has announced a partnership with ElectroKare, an electrolyte monitoring platform. ElectroKare turns your fitness tracker into a personal performance coach generating real-time electrolyte monitoring, AI training insights, and recovery guidance - all without blood tests. Minimis and ElectroKare are building an application which will allow customers to see their electrolyte levels in their sunglasses whilst they workout.

iReel has announced a partnership with TrackBox, pioneers in tracking technology that delivers advanced insights into player performance and movement. By combining TrackBox’s tracking algorithms with iReel’s generative AI platform, the companies are exploring how the fusion of tracking data and AI-driven insights can transform tactical and physical decision-making for coaches, players, clubs, and leagues.

Alissa Wilkinson founder of Pursuit Labs announced as a finalist in two categories at the Ausmumpreneur awards for 2025 - Digital Innovation and Health Business Award. Pursuit Labs is a fitness and wellness platform helping people to be proactive in achieving their health and fitness outcomes.

Queensland University of Technology has hosted the second year of its Sport Innovation ProtoComp. The challenge was facilitated in partnership with Innovation Central Brisbane, and provides the opportunity for multi-disciplinary students to connect with government, sport, industry and academia. Students took on real-world challenges in sport, health, and recreation, with the top four teams receiving seed funding and showcasing their solutions. One of the leading teams created a sport wheelchair simulator prototype with VR integration to improve accessibility and engagement in sport, health, and medical sector

Saara Jamieson, Cool Beans Underwear finalist in the Best New Founder category at the Startup Daily Awards. The winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on September 25. Cool Beans Underwear is redefining men's underwear, starting with fertility.

In elite sport, availability is everything. Yet in the AFL, leg-related injuries continue to rob clubs of their most valuable resource: player time. A six-year study of one AFL club revealed match-loss injuries and illnesses cost the club over $AUD 13 million in player salaries, with a striking 75% of that bill attributed to injuries below the waist. These are the findings of a joint study conducted by the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE). 

ASTN member Kusal Goonewardena, director of Elite Akademy Sports Medicine was recently interviewed by the ABC on the Essendon Football Club injury crisis. He explains how strength and conditioning make up just a small part of an elite athlete's health status. Goonewardena uses his "K-Theorem", which offers a visual explanation of how various elements come together to impact an athlete's body.

Summernats is one of Australia’s most iconic car festivals. With a loyal fanbase and a rapidly growing audience, leading event management agency Out There Group (OTG) saw the opportunity to increase its digital engagement with fans. Together, Sports Cloud Australia and OTG built a smarter, scalable marketing engine with a 360 customer view, personalised fan experiences, automated customer journeys and optimised paid media. This platform helped increase its fanbase by 86%, email click-rate up 63% and record-breaking ticket sales. 

Anti Ordinary is a startup helmet brand out of Australia. It’s different because it’s not a hard-shelled polycarbonate ski helmet like you’re used to wearing. The brand’s new A2 Beanie Helmet is made from dynamic PU foam that feels soft but hardens on impact, combined with traditional EPS foam. The foam is covered by a frame made from a blend of durable polycarbonate, carbon fibre, and a polymer called ABS. You can press on the shell and it’ll bend and give, like a firm mattress. Lastly, it comes with a merino wool beanie that fits over the helmet and comes in different color options, so it looks like you’re wearing a hat that’s smuggling a helmet underneath.

Coachbetter has announced Paul Lambert, a former Premier League manager and UEFA Champions League winner, as an investor and partner. With over 40 years in professional football Paul brings expertise and a clear vision for the future of coaching to Coachbetter. The platform features such as match-day planning to player development with key data and statistics and video analysis. Coachbetter supports thousands of football clubs in the USA, UK and German speaking markets with lighthouse customers such as Borussia Dortmund, Miami Rush and the Austrian Football Federation.

World-leading sports calendar platform ECAL has presented at the Google Cloud Summit in Sydney this week. ECAL shared their startup journey and the reasons behind the strategic decision to partner with Google Cloud. From what began as a need to meet future data sovereignty laws and cost optimisation, has moved to a strategic product and business partnership, with a shared plan for a bold 10x growth vision for the future.

Recognising 12 months of incredible growth, MyVenue has been named a finalist in four categories of the upcoming South Australian Premier’s Business and Export Awards. In the past year, MyVenue doubled its customer base, growing to over 200 venues and expanding across markets in the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia.

Leading sports media technology company Layercake has showcased its latest video technology innovations at METexpo 2025 in Sydney, highlighting advancements in streaming and broadcast solutions. Layercake’s cloud-based platform is transforming broadcast and media workflow automation, content distribution and monetisation, helping broadcasters and OTT platforms launch faster, scale smarter, and operate more efficiently. Layercake's partnership with Enveu give media companies the tools to future‑proof their video pipelines and adapt quickly to evolving audience demands.