Sportstech & Member News

Australian sport is entering a defining moment. As AI and digital transformation accelerate globally, many of the models that have guided the sector are reaching their limits. Sports investment and advisory firm XV Capital explores how sports organisations can embrace change, strengthen leadership, and build the digital foundations needed for long-term success — with Brisbane 2032 as the catalyst.

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.

The National Football League and Front Office Sports (FOS), a leading multiplatform media and news organization covering the business of sports, have announced a new content partnership. The relationship will bring fans closer to the business stories that dominate mainstream conversation through access-driven and behind-the-scenes content from key NFL moments. FOS will collaborate on creative development and execution of projects tied to major NFL tentpole events, including NFL International Games, the Super Bowl, and the NFL Draft. 

Serena Williams has set her sights on new playing court: basketball. The retired tennis star has invested in the women's 3-on-3 basketball league, Unrivaled, now valued at $US 340 million. The Unrivaled league claims to offer players the highest average salary in professional women's sports league history. It began as a way for WNBA players to earn money in the offseason, without having to play abroad. Its second season tips off in January 2026. Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital firm, led the Series B investment round. 

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.

Adelaide-based sportstech company SportMatch has launched version 2 of their solution in the Apple App Store. SportMatch is playing an important role in talent identification for organisations such as the South Australian Sports Institute as well as supporting education for schools all over the State. SportMatch has engaged with more than 10,000 students / athletes to data, and enhanced student engagement in assisting them in successfully completing assessments relating to Health and PE. SportMatch are looking to work with Schools, Universities, Institutes and any other organisations who want to innovate their TalentID and PE curriculum.

BlackRock- and Goldman Sachs-backed media startup Minute Media, which owns properties like Sports Illustrated, The Players’ Tribune, and 90 Minutes, announced Monday that it is acquiring VideoVerse, an Indian AI startup that lets broadcasters extract highlights and create content from sports footage. VideoVerse’s clients include the Indian Premier League and Women’s Premier League (cricket) tournaments, FIFA+, and broadcasters Nippon TV and Clubber TV. While Minute Media or VideoVerse didn’t provide a valuation for the deal, sources told TechCrunch that VideoVerse was valued between $US 200 million and $US 250 million during its last round in 2023, and Minute Media’s deal was in a similar range.

Wingfield, a leader in AI-powered performance analysis for racket sports, and The Picklr, the world's fastest-growing pickleball franchise, are partnering with DUPR Coach and DUPR to launch the sport’s first end-to-end, AI-powered pathway for player development. By combining AI-driven player assessments with automated DUPR match submissions, The Picklr becomes the first club network to leverage AI for both evaluating skill level and competitive play.

StubHub is targeting a valuation of up to $US 9.2 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, the ticket reseller said, becoming the latest company to resume listing plans delayed in April due to tariff uncertainty. The New York-based firm is seeking up to $US 851 million.

The City of Gold Coast formally opened the Expressions of Interest process on 28 August for its Gold Coast Arena project – a 12,000-plus capacity entertainment and sports venue that has already been confirmed as a Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games venue. The project will seek proposals from major Australian and international consortia to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the landmark venue. 

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.

Liveheats and Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) have signed a new deal that will see SLSA adopt our competition registration and payment solution. For the past three years, SLSA events have run on Liveheats’ event management and scoring tools. With this expanded two-year deal, surf lifesaving athletes and clubs nationwide will enjoy a seamless experience - from registration and payment, right through to heat draws, scoring, and results, all on one platform.

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.

ATP and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) have unveiled ATP Tennis IQ Powered by PIF, an enhanced performance analytics platform delivering richer data insights to all singles players across the PIF ATP Rankings. The platform delivers richer data and analytics in real time, in the form of advanced scouting, video analysis and wearables insights. The platform will empower around 2,000 players across the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour.

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.

LiveLike, a global leader in fan engagement and loyalty solutions, has partnered with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and Futureverse to launch PFL Rewards — a next-generation global fan loyalty experience. PFL Rewards blends physical and digital incentives, transforming passive viewing into active participation. Fans can earn points for everyday interactions — downloading the official PFL app, streaming live fights, submitting predictions, or watching highlights — and redeem them for exclusive rewards including merchandise, event tickets, and VIP access.

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.

DAZN today announced it has acquired live rights to a wide range of U.S. college football and basketball content through a multi-year sublicensing agreement with ESPN. From the 2025 season, fans across selected territories in Europe and the MENA region* will be able to enjoy up to 25 college football games per week during the regular season only on DAZN. Significantly expanding its U.S. basketball offering, DAZN will broadcast approximately 20 games per week across men’s and women’s basketball, as well as 63 March Madness games.

IDA Sports, a woman founded and led company that designs cleats exclusively for women athletes, has been named a 2025 Most Innovative Brand by Front Office Sports. The Most Innovative Awards, in partnership with Sports Innovation Lab, recognizes trailblazing brands transforming how athletes and fans experience, embrace, and advance sports culture worldwide. DA cleats are built around the unique foot morphologies of female athletes, backed by extensive research and design that includes foot scanning, data collection and real-life feedback from professional and amateur athletes.

SportVot Australia has announced a partnership with Volleyball Victoria to deliver live broadcast coverage of the Victorian Volleyball League Finals.  Volleyball is now the tenth sport that SportVot has covered since launching in Australia less than 6 months ago. All Victorian Volleyball League Finals broadcasts will be remotely produced from Mumbai, India.

AmpThink, a leader in the deployment of complex technology systems in stadiums and arenas, have released details on what stadium owners spend the most on in technology. Large format display account for 41% of spend, followed by audiovisual at 25%, broadcast at 19% and base technology (such as networks, wifi and telephony) at 15%. These numbers tell an important value story. Real business value is often defined less by technical sophistication or advanced engineering and more by the problems solved and the revenue unlocked.

Reclink Australia has announced a partnership into STWS Conference to share insights on Game Changers Games sports social inclusion program. Reclink Australia provides evidence-based sport and art social inclusion programs to disadvantaged Australians that create socially inclusive, life-changing opportunities. An innovation and extension for these programs is Game Changer Games, a social event with purpose where teams compete in various sports, promoting physical activity, social connection, and mental well-being to solve inactivity and loneliness. Dave Wells, CEO of Reclink Australia, will be delivering a keynote at Australia Sports Tech Conference in Melbourne on Wednesday 29th October 2025 at the MCG on this topic.

Women Sport Australia has entered a partnership with Sports Tech World Series (STWS) for Australia Sports Innovation Week, continuing to lead the change to achieve fairness, inclusivity, and the right for every woman and girl to pursue her passion for sport without judgment, limitations or barriers.

Since 2018 the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and the Australian Army have had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place focused on what elite soldiers, athletes and their teams can learn from each other. This week the ASC CEO, Kieren Perkins, signed a reinvigorated MOU with Chief of Army, LTGEN Simon Stuart in Canberra. Both organisations share interest in emerging research and technology that supports human performance at individual, team and organisational levels.  The MOU also outlines new priorities including transitioning in and out of elite environments, concussion management and resilience. 

In today’s sports and entertainment landscape, fans expect fast, seamless, and personalised engagement across every channel. Yet for many organisations, voice calls, chat, SMS, and social messaging often sit outside core CRM systems—creating gaps in data and missed opportunities to build stronger fan relationships. That changes with the newly announced partnership between EngageRM, a leader in sports and entertainment CRM, and Solgari, the Microsoft-certified customer engagement provider. Together, the two companies are bringing truly native voice and digital engagement directly into Dynamics 365.

Formula 1 announced a partnership with Liberty Media and CAA to host an F1 Business Summit – a sports and entertainment summit that will feature a collection of the most influential minds in sports, entertainment, and business. The F1 Business Summit will be held during race week on Thursday, November 20 at Wynn Las Vegas.

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.

Australia is Fanatics’ fastest-growing market outside the US, with the sports merchandise giant scaling up its local operations and signing more new partners in the region than anywhere else globally. Key moves include, eight new partnerships in two years, spanning AFL, Rugby Australia, NZ Rugby, and more; support for partners at major international events (including the NBA x NBL Melbourne Series and the 2027 Rugby World Cup) and a huge product expansion with Rebel Sport, adding 10,000+ new SKUs from US leagues.

Scrum Ventures and Scrum Studio have announced 11 startups selected to join Hokkaido F Village X (HFX), a global acceleration program designed to foster collaboration between international startups, leading Japanese corporations, and local municipalities in Hokkaido, Japan. The program will focus on implementing cutting-edge technologies in Hokkaido and within the F Village, a mixed-use urban development project and home of the Nippon-Ham Fighters professional baseball team. The goal is to leverage innovative technology to enhance the region's appeal and address local challenges.

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.

Hudl, one of the world’s leading provider of cloud‑based technology connecting video and data for sport, has earned FIFA Basic Certification for its broadcast‑tracking solutions. Until recently, evaluating physical performance required GPS wearables, limiting analysis to a club’s own players. Hudl’s certified broadcast-tracking solution changes that. By converting two-dimensional video into accurate positional data, Hudl’s system generates detailed physical metrics from match footage alone covering more than 100 global competitions, providing insights at scale. 

Manchester City Football Club has launched its first project under City Fan Labs, a fan innovation unit focused on next-gen fan experiences, with a Roblox campaign called StickerBook Challenge. City Fan Labs is focused on Virtual Worlds, Gaming, Web3, AI, and XR, created to experiment with the future of fan engagement and build first-of-its-kind experiences for City Football Group and its partners.

Microsoft Corp. is extending its multiyear strategic partnership with the NFL, ushering in a new era of AI innovation across the league. The NFL’s Sideline Viewing System for every club has been upgraded with more than 2,500 Microsoft Surface Copilot+ PCs to empower 32 clubs, roughly 1,800 players, and more than 1,000 coaches and club football staff with real-time game data and analysis tools. Coaches and players have access to a new feature built with GitHub Copilot to filter plays based on criteria such as down and distance, scoring plays, and penalties to quickly analyze formations, decipher coverages and make more data-driven and strategic decisions.

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.

ESPN in the US has launched its new direct-to-consumer streaming service and a set of new features on an enhanced ESPN App, making ESPN’s full suite of 12 networks and services available directly to fans for the first time ever. The unique combination of ESPN DTC within the updated ESPN App gives fans more choice and unprecedented access to all of ESPN, with an elevated viewing experience that makes watching sports more personalized, dynamic and engaging for fans.

Wicket, a leading facial authentication platform provider, announced that the Geelong Cats are offering expedited entry into GMHBA Stadium through dedicated Express Members Lanes using Wicket facial authentication. This is made possible through Wicket’s integration with Ticketmaster, which allows Geelong Cats Members to easily pair their tickets with a selfie photo – streamlining the ticket redemption process to less than 5 seconds per group.

Success is certainly synonymous with Loughborough University. The university has an unparalleled reputation for sporting excellence, both in terms of student performance and research, and has topped the QS World University Rankings for sports-related subjects nine years in a row. And to ensure that aspiring analysts are fully prepared for demanding elite environments, the University has integrated Hudl Statsbomb and Insight into the curriculum of their performance analysis courses.

The NBA is launching a league-wide biomechanics program with motion capture labs to be installed at the training facilities of all 30 teams within a year. The protocols have been developed in consultation with the NBPA as well as sports medicine and performance experts. Provisions for such a screening program are codified in the current collective bargaining agreement, requiring players to participate in up to four assessments per season. The goal is to have identical setups, with the same technology vendors and the same prescribed athlete motions, to ensure standardized data collection. The four tech companies that won the league's RFP include Qualisys, Theia Markerless, Bertec and BreakAway Data. P3, a performance expert company, will be a consultant to the program.

The National Basketball League (NBL) and ESPN today announced a significant multi-year extension of its media rights deal in Australia and New Zealand.  fans will now be able to stream every NBL game live on Disney+ via the ESPN tile. With Disney+ available in millions of Australian and New Zealand homes, the NBL will be exposed to a broader mainstream audience than ever before. In addition to ESPN on Disney+, ESPN's NBL programming will continue to be included on the ESPN networks available through Foxtel, Kayo Sports, and Fetch TV in Australia, and Sky in New Zealand, with Free-to-Air games continuing on Sunday via a renewed deal with Network 10.

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.

Australian video capture startup Flowstate is barreling into new markets and finding fresh customers for its AI-powered technology, after securing $AUD 600k in fresh debt funding from Tractor Ventures. Flowstate’s video technology allows manmade wave parks to track and film riders, with the resulting footage providing new opportunities for coaching — and impressive social media posts. The startup claims its system has captured and analysed more than 12 million rides since launching in 2022, across wave parks in Australia, the USA, Germany, England, Scotland, and the UAE.

Batbox is launching its first Topgolf-style baseball venue in September, and soon its simulators may be in hotel lobbies and airports too, all connected through one digital network. Think Topgolf, but for baseball. With $US 3 million in new funding from EMERGING, Batbox announced plans to license smaller, self-serve simulators to hotels, airports, and office buildings starting this quarter. The latest funding brings Batbox’s total raised to more than $US 10 million, including a previous $US 7.3 million Series A.

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.