ASTN Member News

Following the success of the inaugural watchalong in 2025, the AFL expanded the concept into a two-match creator series in 2026, partnering with Dan Does Footy and supported by broadcast partners 7plus and Kayo SPORTS. The series launched with Fremantle v Sydney, streamed live across 7plus, AFL YouTube and Kayo SPORTS, before returning for North Melbourne v Melbourne, available on AFL YouTube and Kayo SPORTS. Across the two broadcasts, the series attracted more than 250,000 live viewers across 7plus, AFL YouTube, Kayo SPORTS and Foxtel as well as generating over ten million social video views. 

Austrade South Asia | Australian Trade and Investment Commission has a partnered with the Trade Diversification Network and ASTN to deliver a South Asia export strategy workshops. The workshop will be hosted on 3rd August in Adelaide and 6th August in Melbourne, and is also supported by the South Asia Business Exchange (SABX) and Accessing New Markets Initiative (ANMI). The session will provide practical insights on market opportunities, entry strategies and growth pathways in one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets.

Sportslink Travel has been a valued partner of Victorian softball for many years, providing outstanding support in coordinating travel arrangements for Victorian State Teams under the former One Softball model. Softball Victoria are delighted to continue this relationship under Softball Victoria's new federated operating model. Sportslink works closely with our staff and volunteers to coordinate flights, accommodation and travel logistics, ensuring our athletes, coaches and officials can focus on preparing for competition.

Apple is creating a clearer route for neurotech companies to plug into its product ecosystem. Its BCI input standard allows brain interfaces to register as native controls across iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro, with Synchron and Control Bionics among the first companies building on it. The model extends across Apple’s health stack. External companies develop the sensors, clinical devices, and algorithms, while Apple provides standardised interfaces and access to a consumer hardware ecosystem operating at far greater scale.

Queenslanders working and volunteering in community sport are set to access free training, with new CQUniversity pathways to level up game day, development and club operations. Delivered online and available across Queensland, the micro-credentials will improve capabilities and capacity across: Volunteer Leadership and Club Governance, Inclusive and Child Safe Sport Practices, Digital and AI Skills for Sports amd Disability Inclusion and Adaptive Sport Competency. 

Wrestling Australia has announced a new partnership with Playbk Sports to strengthen how the sport develops coaches and officials, using digital learning to support wrestling’s growth in schools and communities across Australia. Through the partnership, Wrestling Australia will develop its own digital learning in sport platform, offering introductory coaching and officiating courses for teachers, schools, volunteers and club communities.

The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia’s sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in FY2025 to 16% in FY2026, reaching $AUD 7.11 billion. Industry employment also expanded by approximately 6% to 20,604 employees, reflecting strong sector growth and rising demand for talent. The Fifth Edition of ASTN’s annual report provides a comprehensive census of Australia’s sports innovation sector, identifying 924 businesses nationwide. 

Melbourne startup Bodd has opened its new headquarters in Prahran. The facility has research labs and workspaces to continue to improve the company’s innovative technology. The company’s 3D scanner captures personalised body measurements. The groundbreaking technology captures more data in 60 seconds than any other product globally. This helps tackle waste caused by alterations and returns on ill-fitting clothes. This is highly valuable to Bodd’s customers including the Australian Institute of Sport, Australian Defence Apparel, the New Zealand Defence Force and uniform manufacturer Stewart & Heaton.

Listed ASX company Control Bionics has announced details of a $AUD 10 million capital raising. The announcement is designed to bolster the neurotechnology group's balance sheet and accelerator its commercialisation plans across assistive communication, rehabilitation and sports performance markets.

Australian research-led education company SHUNT has launched a new eLearning platform that transforms its digital communications insights into practical learning resources for clubs, sporting organisations and commercial partners. At the heart of the platform is a dataset that monitors how Australian sport is using social media. Tracking more than 30,000 sporting organisation profiles, this provides a unique view of how clubs, leagues and governing bodies communicate, engage their communities and create commercial value.

Victorian sports technology company HITIQ is expanding its advanced manufacturing facility in South Melbourne, strengthening local capability in product development, manufacturing and research and development as it scales its globally recognised concussion technology. Over the past decade, HITIQ has invested more than $30 million in research and development to bring the technology to market. Its products have been developed with and used by major sporting organisations including the AFL, AFLW, NRL and the English Premier League.

Marvel Stadium is excited to officially unveil Marvel Stadium 365, a new attractions hub. Developed in partnership with global experience leaders and agencies including Imagineear, FutureLabs, and District Agency, Marvel Stadium 365 Tours will elevate the traditional stadium tour utilising cutting edge technology including through AI driven moments.

The NUAXION team won the Outstanding Poster Award at the 2026 EdMedia + Innovate Learning Conference held at the University of Edinburgh. Led by founder and startup entrepreneur Ann Stevens, the NUAXION team was recognized for their presentations and research on WEAVR-AI, a breakthrough framework for Extended Reality (XR) training development.

Special Olympics International has officially finalised a technology consulting agreement with global venue and major events technical firm PMY Group. The partnership installs PMY as the primary specialist advisory partner to deliver comprehensive games technology consulting services as the international governing body prepares for the 2027 Special Olympics World Games in Santiago, Chile.

3D Measure Me has announced a partnership with FITREC which will help fitness professionals track and visualise client progress using a smartphone. FITREC is dedicated to elevating the fitness profession by supporting trainers, coaches, instructors, and exercise professionals throughout their careers. 3D Measure Me is a smartphone-based body measurement platform that enables fitness professionals and their clients to accurately track body composition and physical changes through advanced image analysis technology.

The Queensland Government has secured another major event for Queensland, with a blockbuster Brazil match to mark the Socceroos World Cup homecoming.  Football powerhouse Brazil will play two matches in Brisbane and Townsville, with local club engagement programs, in a major boost for regional tourism. The Government’s plan to become Australia’s events capital is gathering momentum, with the blockbuster international fixture secured as part of its Destination 2045 tourism plan.

ASTN has once again represented Australia’s sports technology ecosystem in Taiwan through a long-standing partnership with the IAPS NYCU Accelerator. With a record-breaking 87 applications from 27 countries, competition was stronger than ever. Three ASTN member companies have been selected for the final accelerator cohort, highlighting the quality and global competitiveness of Australian sportstech innovation. This includes Minimis, SportsBox and Aircast. ASTN COO Amy Crosland joined international industry leaders in Taipei for the ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator Batch 3 Kickoff Bootcamp.

PMY Group will be supporting the New York Mets as they map fan movement and behavior across Citi Field and its surrounding precinct. With a multi-billion-dollar transformation taking shape around the Ballpark, understanding how fans navigate the venue and broader area has never been more critical. PMY's real-time intelligence platform, Optic, will guide the Mets with visibility into fan flow, mode share, communication effectiveness, and arrival and departure patterns across every event at the Ballpark.

According to Drake Star's Q1 2026 Report a total of $US 130 billion sportstech-related deals were complete across 239 transactions in the first 3 months of 2026. This included $US115 billion in mergers and acquisitions, $US 2.9 billion in private financing and $US 4 billion-plus in new sports-focused fund formation. The themes shaping the next wave of activity include prediction markets, wearables & performance tech, youth sports infrastructure, and next-gen fan engagement formats.  

ASTN members TidyHQ, Clubland, Coachbetter, SportsCloud Australia and Spawtz will be part of the ' Transforming Sport Through Technology' stream at the 2026 National Sports Convention (NSC). Focused on “The Next Generation”, the stream will explore how technology, AI and digital innovation are rapidly reshaping sport, from participation and fan engagement through to performance, facility planning, governance and commercial growth.

Independent integrated marketing and communications agency Bastion has partnered with digital risk and online reputation management platform Social Protect to launch a new solution designed to make creator-led marketing safer, more sustainable and more effective for brands and talent alike. The new partnership responds to growing industry concerns around brand safety, toxic comment environments, reputational risk and creator burnout as investment in influencer and creator marketing continues to surge.

ASTN member CoachMate presented in front of the National Football Associations of Europe at the UEFA Champions Innovate showcase in Hungary, in the lead-up to the Champions League final recently. Throughout the 2025/26 season, UEFA, the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ), UEFA grassroots partner EA SPORTS FC and four start-up companies (including CoachMate) have worked together to enhance grassroots football environments across Hungary, with the shared goal of scaling successful initiatives across Europe.

The German Football Association (DFB) is acquiring a stake in Coachbetter and becoming a strategic shareholder. With this investment, the world's largest sports federation – with more than eight million members and over 24,000 clubs – is partnering with Coachbetter to expand the digital infrastructure for amateur football. Coachbetter is the leading platform for club and team management in football.

The Global Institute of Sport recently hosted a masterclass on Fan Engagement and Marketing, bringing together two industry leaders to tackle the field’s most pressing issues. The Global Institute of Sport (GIS), which offers a Master’s in Sports Business and Sports Analytics through the University of Newcastle, regularly holds masterclasses with industry leaders as part of its curriculum. The latest focused on fan engagement and marketing, covering two key themes: the growing tension between live sport and online streaming, and the role of data in shaping the fan experience.

Coachbetter, a Switzerland-based sports technology company, has secured $US 8.2 million in pre-Series A funding. Coachbetter is a SaaS platform focused on modernizing the operational infrastructure of amateur and youth soccer clubs. The company will use the funding to expand its engineering and product teams, enhance platform functionality, strengthen collaborations with professional soccer organizations, and scale into new international markets and club structures. 

The Darwin and Districts Cricket Competition has partnered with MyClubtap to launch a free fantasy cricket competition for the upcoming season, with separate leagues for the A-Grade Men's and Div-1 Women's competitions. The DDCC Fantasy competition is supported by RNS Australia, a premium cricket gear brand looking to expand its footprint in the Northern Territory.

Basketball New Zealand has re-signed with CoachMate, the sports education platform that transforms volunteer-led coaching and team management into insightful, easy, and fun experiences. The renewed partnership marks an exciting next step for both organisations as they continue working together to support coaches, volunteers, clubs, associations, schools, and communities across Aotearoa with practical digital tools and quality coaching resources.

The Australian Football League (AFL) and clubs have renewed and expanded their partnership with Tradable Bits, selecting the company's fan data platform to power digital fan engagement across both the AFL and AFLW. Following a competitive RFP process, Tradable Bits was selected to continue as the league's fan engagement partner, reinforcing a long-standing relationship that began in 2019.

Australian sports broadcasting solutions company, Layercake, has recently won the Pitch Perfect Innovation Contest at SPORTEL Singapore. The win validated two key things for Layercake - first, that the industry recognises the fragmentation problem across sports distribution, and second, that there’s real appetite for infrastructure that simplifies it. With a focus on Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Layercake is witnessing a clear shift from rigid, long-term distribution models to more flexible, event-driven and audience-first strategies.

EngageRM has announced a new partnership with the Everett Silvertips, bringing their platform to one of North America’s leading junior hockey organisations. By bringing memberships, partnerships and fan engagement into one system, EngageRM are helping the Silvertips simplify day-to-day operations, unlock new commercial opportunities and strengthen the connection with their fanbase.

Queensland-based female protective wear company, Fempro Armour, has featured as part of News Corp's 'Back Australia' series. The campaign focuses on backing Australian companies that design and manufacturer in Australia. The campaign showcases Fempro Armour's work in creating female-specific cricket body armour. Fempro's upcoming Vanguard Cricket System has been developed specifically for female cricketers, combining impact protection with integrated apparel to improve comfort, stability, and confidence in play.

Aircast has been named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2026 Golfweek Tech Lab, recognised at the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club for innovation that is redefining how live sport is delivered to fans. The Golfweek Tech Lab brought together a curated field of the most forward-looking startups in the business of golf, evaluated by a panel of industry judges and event attendees across categories spanning broadcast, fan engagement, performance, and operations. The platform delivers live video at 0.3 second latency over shared and wireless networks. Fans can switch camera angles, pull up alternate feeds, and follow the action across a sprawling course in real time, without the lag that has defined "second-screen".

ASTN Members InSquare, Minimis, SportsBox and Aircast have been selected for the first stage of the new ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator in Taiwan. Supported by the Ministry of Sports, this year's applications reached a record-breaking high, with 86 sport-tech startups from 27 countries joining us from Taiwan and around the world. 

TwinLabs.ai helped Total Fitness use AI-powered digital twin technology to analyse how members actually used gym spaces and equipment. The insights revealed stronger-than-expected demand for strength and functional training areas, leading Total Fitness to redesign layouts, optimise equipment allocation, and improve member experience. The success of the pilot has prompted a broader rollout across its gym network.

Greater Sum Ventures (GSV) has announced a majority investment in Tapin2, a leading provider of self-service, suite catering, and mobile ordering technology for sports and entertainment venues. The transaction marks GSV’s second major investment in the live venue technology space, following its majority investment in MyVenue, the cloud-native point-of-sale platform, one year ago.

Foxtel Media has announced a landmark expansion into the metaverse, launching the Kayo SPORTS Stadium on Roblox. The initiative marks a first-of-its-kind joint venture between Foxtel Media and gaming marketing leader Livewire, with development handled by Gamefam. In a commercial move, the AFL, Cricket Australia, and Supercars have all signed on as inaugural partners. Kayo SPORTS Stadium allows fans to interact with their favourite sports through dedicated zones, each featuring two bespoke mini-games.

Broadcast coverage of the NBA is regarded as being among the most innovative in the live sports industry. The league’s national domestic broadcast partners – NBC, ESPN/ABC, and Amazon Prime Video – have all introduced a range of new on-air graphics, different camera angles, and unprecedented positions for commentators and analysts during the 2025-26 season. Through a multi-year partnership NBC Sports Regional Networks is utilising Sportradar’s GameFrame technology to enhance live coverage of the NBA. GameFrame uses AI to turn player-tracking data into on-air graphics and statistics, alongside animated replays, shot maps, and other customised digital features.

TidyHQ, a leading compliance and governance platform for sports organisations, has announced a partnership with the Ovens & Murray Football Netball League (OMFNL). The majority of OMFNL clubs already run their day-to-day operations on TidyHQ. However, OMFNL has now implemented TidyConnect, a solution that links the league and its clubs together on the same platform - the same source of truth.

Fencing Singapore has signed a five-year agreement with revolutioniseSPORT to support the next phase of growth and digital transformation for fencing in Singapore. As the national body for a growing community of more than 5,000 fencers, Fencing Singapore continues to invest in systems and structures that can scale with participation while maintaining strong governance and operational efficiency.

Griffith University and Swimming Australia have entered a bold new partnership to ensure the Gold Coast’s Para athletes have access to the world’s best training environment in the lead up to Brisbane 2032 and beyond. The tailored three-year program supports and elevates para athletes and aims to reduce barriers for participation and talent identification and enhance performance pathways for para athletes.