ASTN Member News

Rugby Australia (RA) is pleased to announce PTP has renewed their partnership as official supplier for the Wallabies, Wallaroos, and Men’s and Women’s Sevens teams through to 2025. PTP joined forces with RA in 2020 to offer the latest fitness accessories and education, becoming an integral part of the organisation's High-Performance Program and encompassing everything from prehabilitation to rehabilitation and strength training.

PlaySpark recently announced a partnership with Oceania Pro Wrestling (OPW). OPW have launched their OPW Nation fan engagement platform for their upcoming StarrCast Downunder event in April. OPW Nation will be a key innovation piece that will help OPW drive excitement and value for fans in the lead up to the event, create a sense of fan community amongst their audience through fun games and challenges, whilst giving them the chance to earn great prizes for their interactions. 

Sportradar and Oddin.gg, an award-winning B2B betting-solutions provider for esports, today announced they have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership to offer audiovisual streaming of Oddin’s exclusive esports content to Sportradar’s betting operator clients around the world. The deal will support Oddin.gg’s growth ambitions in the expanding global esports market, whose betting turnover was estimated to be €83 billion in 2023. It will extend the reach of Oddin.gg’s official competition content by leveraging Sportradar’s market leading position as an AV betting provider.

GameDay, the leading online sports portal solution provider has announced a partnership with Downball Australia, the national governing body for the widely beloved sport of downball. Starting from the upcoming season, Downball Australia will leverage GameDay’s comprehensive suite of services, including national membership registration, competition management systems, officials management, and product-led training programs. Additionally, the collaboration will introduce advanced business intelligence capabilities through GameDay View and integrations with popular apps and voucher systems to further engage the downball community.

Club Ducks has announced a partnership with the SANFL Eagles FC. The Club Ducks sponsorship management solutions are designed to help clubs like the Eagles streamline their operations and enhance their partner relationships. Andy Hood, Commercial Manager at the Eagles, shared the news: "The platform is brilliant. It will make us more effective and, most importantly, give us the ability to service our partners well. We have been searching for a platform that is both affordable and tailored to our needs, and we have found it with Club Ducks.".

 XV Capital and Stadia Ventures have formalized a partnership to offer ‘Innovation as a Service’ to Australian and New Zealand sports organizations and live events. Stadia brings its wealth of experience in advising global sports entities. In collaboration with XV, Stadia are extending this expertise to Australasia through our 'IaaS' offering. This initiative is strategically designed to support sports organizations in regions where resources are limited, ensuring they can effectively consider, plan and execute sustainable and effective long-term strategies.

PMY shares their expertise and explores the emerging trends in sports stadium tech - key trends include, frictionless tech becoming the norm, sports-anchored mixed-use development districts, mixed reality & immersive experiences and AI data insights and crowd intelligence.

Kronos services a wide range of national and international sporting events. Being at the center of sports technology, it understands the importance of cloud-based technology. Kronos had a goal of making its products and offerings available and easily achievable by many sporting and non-sporting organizations. To do that, it had to integrate 28 different sporting software systems into one cloud-based platform. To build a solution that will satisfy international sporting events like the Special Olympics World Games Berlin, Kronos turned to Microsoft, joining Microsoft for Startups and the Founders Hub program. Kronos did this not only for its longstanding partnership with Microsoft, but for the scalability and security of a cloud platform like Microsoft Azure.

Next Level Racing® are pleased to announce its exciting new partnership with Karting Australia, the nation’s governing body for kart racing. This collaboration will see the entities join forces to enhance the karting experience for enthusiasts across Australia. One of the key objectives of the partnership is providing attendees with a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge simulator technology while gaining an appreciation for the sport of kart racing.

THE AFL will trial ball-tracking technology in the VFL and VFLW on Friday with a view to possibly introducing it to its elite competitions. The League has developed and tested the 'Smart Ball' over the past 18 months in conjunction with ball manufacturer Sherrin, technology company Sportable, graphics partner Intaneous, and Victoria University and will test the technology in a game for the first time this week.

GHD Digital, the digital transformation business of global professional services firm GHD, has partnered with PAM to redefine digital wayfinding, aiming to empower precinct owners and operators worldwide. This collaboration merges GHD Digital’s proven digital transformation expertise with PAM’s advanced navigation prowess. Their joint focus centers on digital transformation initiatives within key industry verticals like mining, health, transport, construction, event facilities, campuses, and smart cities.

Sportradar and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced the launch of enhanced betting-related functionality within NBA League Pass, powered by emBET, Sportradar’s over-the-top (OTT) solution. Sports betting content, such as point spreads, over-unders, and money lines, will be seamlessly integrated into the NBA’s live streaming platform, elevating the in-play betting experience. Where sports betting is legal, users can opt-in to have the convenience of viewing and selecting bets directly on NBA League Pass. When ready to place a bet, they are directed to FanDuel or DraftKings, the NBA’s official betting partners, through a seamlessly embedded link.

TwinLabs.ai, a leader in creating next-generation digital twin plaforms for venues, live events and beyond, today won the Confluent Data Streaming Startup Challenge. Back in September 2023, Confluent, leaders in data streaming technology, launched the Data Streaming Startup Challenge to identify innovative early stage startups that are using data streaming to solve real world challenges. They backed this up with a $1M prize pool for the finalists!  In January TwinLabs.ai reached the top 10 semi-finalists, in February the final 3, and today TwinLabs.ai were announced as the winners of the Confluent Data StreamingStartup Challenge along with a $500,000 investment from Confluent. Over the past few weeks, each of the 3 finalists presented pitches to a judging panel including senior executives from Confluent, but also some of the industries leading venture capital firms such as Sequioa Capital, BenchmarkCapital, and Index Ventures.

THE AFL has launched an all-new set of free resources designed to help coaches of youth-aged Australian rules footballers. There are around 10,000 registered coaches of youth football teams with players in the 13-18 age range across Australia and the new Youth Coaching Curriculum will help to provide comprehensive support for these coaches who will in turn be able to give their young footballers the best-possible experience. It aligns the digital coaching platform, Rookie Me Coach, to the AFL coaching curriculum, and help coaches save time and improve their training sessions through an easy-to-use digital platform,

Cape Bionics has launched the new Cape custom-fit Therapy range, with specific garments for rehabilitation, joint stability, exercise recovery and activity for different muscle groups.  New programs of multiple garments and regimes have been developed for optimum Grade 2 and 3 rehabilitation, such as ACL surgery. Using an iPad and our own Cape app, health professionals can 3D scan their clients and offer medical-grade compression.

Tiparra will be working with the Basketball ACT team to deliver an exciting new fan engagement app for Canberra Gunners and Nationals fans for the 2024 NBL1 East season! Fans will enjoy a new digital game day experience that covers both teams, with game day information, voting, polls, and interactive elements available for both home and away fixtures.  The Basketball ACT app will become a central hub for fans, linking game day with news, ticketing, playing squads, player stats and much more.

The integration between ‘USATF Connect’, powered by Sport:80, and etrainu’s e-learning platform provides the USATF's members with direct access to online learning materials and certifications. The seamless integration uses the power of Single Sign-On (SSO) to allow USATF members to easily access both systems. The systems then share user credentials to create personalised experiences based on the information stored within USATF Connect, and serve up relevant education opportunities.

Sportradar Integrity Services, a unit of Sportradar, today published its annual report, ‘Betting Corruption and Match-fixing in 2023’ , detailing the company’s findings into suspicious betting on global sport. Based on the monitoring of approximately 850,000 events and matches across 70 sports, the report highlights a total of 1,329 suspicious matches in 2023, occurring in 11 sports in 105 countries. Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted in detecting almost three quarters (73% or 977 instances) of all suspicious matches in 2023, representing a 123% increase when compared to 2022. 

Artificial intelligence [AI] has the potential to transform sport, yet as technology continues to advance so too does the need for guidelines on how to implement it safely and responsibly. Addressing these concerns was the focus of a recent workshop held at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra. Hosted alongside CSIRO’s Data61 specialists, the event brought together leading minds in research and innovation from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), Sport Integrity Australia and the National Sports Tribunal, with the aim of developing a unified stance on the ethical and responsible use of AI in the sport sector.

The Australian Trade & Investment Commission, in collaboration with State Government Trade & Investment partners and the Australian Sports Technologies Network are hosting a half-day invite-only program in New York on 4th March. Some of the Australian sportstech companies in participating in the program include EngageRM, Playbk Sports, PlaySpark, Smart Entry Technologies, VueMotion, MyVenue, Rosterfy, Vailo, Fivecast and neo eX. 

The Centre for Data Science (CDS), the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) are leading a consortium of government and industry organisations in sports, sports and biomedical technology, CSIRO and 4 universities to develop pioneering sports data science capability in the ‘green & gold’ lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The consortium have announced that CSIRO has awarded two grants to our Centre under its Next Generation Graduates Program (NGGP) for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging Technologies (ET) for the program, Sports Data Science & AI Consortium: Growing the Skillsets, Toolsets & Mindsets for Transformation & Innovation in Trajectory 2032.

Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has teamed up with etrainu, the leaders in community education solutions, to announce that enrolments are officially opened for the first program in its new ‘SportsTech Startup Series’. The on-demand ASTN pre-accelerator eLearning modules are open to Australia’s emerging sportstech entrepreneurs – allowing them to tap into a rich ecosystem of world-class industry backed and endorsed content, from anywhere at any time. The first course ‘Early-Stage Commercialisation’ offers pre-accelerator eLearning modules for early-stage startups in the idea/concept phase, initial testing phase, or first MVP phase.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII), Checkmate.live and Abu Dhabi-based VADR Media have joined forces on a new research and development initiative aimed at combatting cheating in online chess. This collaboration follows VADR Media’s recent acquisition of Szuperchess, a company known for developing disruptive computer vision anti-cheat technology that’s used by Checkmate.live, a next-gen chess and broadcast and tournament platform. Checkmate, a member of the Esports Integrity Commission, has also secured an exclusive partnership with the Asian Chess Federation and Arab Esports Federation, which have designated Checkmate as their exclusive tournament platform, data and broadcast partner.

GameDay, powered by Stack Sports, are delighted to announce that we have extended our working relationship with Basketball New Zealand for a further three years. Basketball NZ use GameDay’s market-leading product suite at a national level, providing it to all of their 35 affiliated associations. They are also able to adopt GameDay technology for a number of processes, including database registration, competition and event management.

Five months ago, Confluent announced the Data Streaming Startup Challenge. This exciting new initiative aims to recognize and reward early-stage startups that are building innovative applications and redefining industries with data streaming and Confluent. ASTN member, TwinLabs.ai has been announced as one of three finalists in this inaugural challenge. TwinLabs.ai is a real-time SaaS digital twin platform that makes digital twins easy using AI. The TwinLabs.ai platform is initially focused on the sports and entertainment industry and can be used to monitor events and venues in real time, from venue asset utilization, festival crowds and race vehicle management to environmental impact.

EngageRM has announced an agreement with the Miami HEAT. The HEAT will leverage EngageRM's full suite of CRM modules, spanning premium sales and ticketing, partnerships sales and management, event management, and customer services management. 

ECAL has announced its partnership with World Athletics, the governing body for track and field worldwide, to deliver a sophisticated digital calendar experience aimed at engaging fans and participants across the globe, as one part of a larger digital transformation strategy. This new partnership with World Athletics reinforces ECAL’s digital calendar marketing solution as a ‘must have’ piece of the broader digital transformation puzzle, for leading sports federations wanting to implement a modernised digital solution stack to deliver an improved online and mobile experience, with greater engagement, enhanced communications, personalisation, user data and insights.

Australian sportstech company, EngageRM, has just released its Ticketing Whitepaper focused on the sports & entertainment industry. The Whitepaper explores the implications of having access to real-time customer data during an event, which takes personalization to a whole new level, generating new revenue streams and optimizing the fan experience.

Tiparra has announced a collaboration with the ACT Brumbies, providing a new and improved Brumbies App for the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season. The upcoming 2024 Brumbies App will feature a host of enhancements designed to deepen fan connection and engagement, ensuring supporters have the best possible access to their team. 

iReel, an Australian technology company at the forefront of revolutionising the sport and health industries through the power of generative AI and VR/AR, has announced that it has been accepted into Austrade's US Export Acceleration Bootcamp. The Bootcamp which runs from 15-26 May will equip iReel with foundations to expand its journey into the US.

The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) as announced a new partnership with Cape Bionics, a pioneering leader in compression technology. Cape compression garments are sized to an individual athlete based on a 3D body scan, meaning each garment is completely custom fitted and unique to each limb. Each Cape garment is a Class 1 medical device. Cape have developed optimum compression regimes for travel, recovery, performance and rehabilitation

Australia’s Rosterfy is managing the 5,000+ volunteers at this year’s Super Bowl – for the eighth year in a row. The Aussie company is behind some of the world’s largest events, including South by Southwest (SXSW) and the London Marathon. Rosterfy’s cloud-based volunteer engagement platform automates the volunteer recruitment, screening, training and scheduling process. In 2019, Rosterfy launched in the US and UK. Today, the company is managing 3 million volunteers in 26 countries.

ASTN member Gerford AI has been chosen as one of 10 global startups to present new technologies and potential solutions at the annual ICE365 Conference in London this week. Details of the selected startups are at: https://www.icegaming.com/features/fast-forward

A new world-first protective armour, designed for women, is set to be a "game changer" for female contact sports – hopefully prolonging careers and minimising injuries. The prototype works like an airbag, absorbing energy and using viscoelastic memory foam to push the impact back away from the player. Bond University players will test out the new armour in a three-stage clinical trial and a global retail roll-out will take place.

Next Level Racing has announced a new chapter in their collaboration with Microsoft Flight Simulator, as they launch the inaugural community fly-in event. This online gaming event is set to unite flight simulation enthusiasts from across the MSFS and Next Level Racing communities, as they embark on a virtual flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast. The event is scheduled to take flight on February 8th at 0200Z for two hours, offering participants the chance to navigate the iconic route, famed for its breathtaking scenery and challenging flight paths. 

Google Cloud and PMY Group (PMY) today announced a new, multi-year partnership in which Google Cloud will serve as PMY’s technology partner for selected sports, events, and venue customers. Under the partnership, Google Cloud and PMY are excited to announce a new multi-year agreement for Google to  serve as the Technology Partner of LIV Golf, while Google and PMY will also be working on projects with several major sports and lifestyle brands, helping to transform fan experiences through generative AI. 

HITIQ today announces it has executed a strategic partnership with the Australian Football League (AFL) to supply both its Nexus head impact sensor technology and concussion management platform to the AFL and AFLW competitions for season 2024.

The AIS will today launch the ‘Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement 2024’ and the ‘Australian Concussion Guidelines for Youth and Community Sport’. The guidelines were developed in a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Sport, Sports Medicine Australia, the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, and the Australian Physiotherapy Association. The AIS return to sport protocol for community and youth sport includes a minimum period of 21 days until the resumption of competitive contact/collision sport. 

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Griffith University has partnered with Sports Tech College to develop and deliver a suite of executive education programs designed specifically for sport executives and senior administrators within sport. The programs will focus on inspiring, sharing and discussing cutting-edge advancements, and collaboratively discussing the road-map for blending technology with sports.

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.