Sportstech & Member News

Platinum Asset Management and GAIN LINE Analytics have announced Penrith Panthers NRL team as the winner of Australasia’s (Australia and New Zealand) Best Sporting Team (ABST) 2023. The Panthers have won 3 NRL premierships in a row  and is widely credited with having one of the outstanding talent development and retention programs in the country, which is reflected in their outcomes. ABST evolved from Platinum and GAIN LINE working together and brings an analytical approach to understanding how relationships within teams (‘cohesion’) impact outcomes. The analysis covers 21 competitions, including 10 women’s leagues, and unisex esports, including over 8,400 individual matches.

CORE, maker of the only non-invasive core body temperature monitor used by over 65% of the UCI WorldTour has launched its most significant app feature yet. Core’s new Heat Adaptation Score shows athletes how their bodies are adapting to thermal stress in real-time, with a rating that compiles the results of the Heat Strain Index and Heat Zones. This new feature from CORE will enable all athletes to capitalize on the performance gains of heat training and adaptation.

Genius Sports, the official data, technology, and commercial partner that powers the global ecosystem connecting sports, betting, and media, announces today the extension of its exclusive official data partnership with Football DataCo through 2029. Since 2019, Genius Sports has been DataCo’s exclusive supplier of official low latency data from in-stadia to the sports betting industry, capturing, and distributing live data for over 4,000 games per season to hundreds of licensed sportsbooks across the globe in under a second. With the extension, Genius Sports will continue to deliver fast, accurate, and reliable data feed to power in-play betting products and innovations from some of the most valuable betting content in the world.

Cosm, a leading immersive technology, media, and entertainment company recently announced the successful raise of over $US 250 million in funding to drive long-term growth of its “Shared Reality” venues and its technology and media business units. With the recent opening of its first venue in Los Angeles at Hollywood Park, Cosm will use the new capital to scale operational excellence, grow its robust technology and media business units, and accelerate the development of additional venues globally. At Cosm, fans feel like they are sitting courtside, inside the octagon, standing on the sidelines, or cheering from the front row at the most sought-after events from around the globe.

AUSactive have announced the National Fitness Industry Awards finalist across 3 categories (Industry Innovation, Most Innovative Supplier and Best Technology Integration).Supplier category finalists include Australian fitness technology industry leaders including Evolt360, Coach Welly and Hapana. The Awards winners will be announced on 11th October.

From custom-built technology to performance support and training camps, the AIS has played an important role in helping athletes maintain a competitive edge during their events. This includes the incredible Jess Fox whose gold medal performances in both the K1 and C1 events make her the first Australian athlete in Olympics history to win six medals in individual events. In the lead-up to Paris, the AIS Engineering team worked with Paddle Australia to develop custom pieces for Fox’s boats, including a 3D-printed knee cup for her canoe with a novel installation system and lightweight aluminium alloy footpegs for her kayak.

Australian golfer Karrie Webb, Olympic basketballer Matthew Dellavedova, Australian cricket star Mitchell Starc and Athletic Ventures have invested in electric golf buggy maker MGI, co-investing alongside mid-market private equity firm Anacacia Capital.

There has been an exciting new chapter in sports broadcast storytelling unfold last weekend at LIV Golf UK. Champion Data’s Smart GGi, in partnership with Kaze Aerial Production, introduced a fresh era of drone graphics. LIV Golf debuted the elevation graphic, powered by Pixotope and Vizrt, showcasing innovation and taking fan immersion and engagement to the next level.

Manchester United has introduced the next level of digital collectibles for the 2024/25 season, with the combined launch of Player Trading Cards and Fantasy United. Supporters can now begin collecting the trading cards, which feature all first-team players from the men’s squad in Classic, Rare, and Ultra-Rare editions. In addition, those cards can be used to build a five-man squad to earn points in our brand-new Web3 fantasy football game, the first of its kind to be created for a Premier League club using the Tezos Blockchain.

Intuit Dome, the new home of the LA Clippers, will officially open August 15, 2024. The Clippers will kick off the 2024-2025 season in this new arena in Inglewood, California. This cutting-edge arena features 17,000 PixMob NOVA Armrests, a permanent LED installation integrated directly into each seat. The NOVA Armrest turns each seat into an interactive pixel of light, transforming the entire arena into a vibrant canvas of live effects. This technology synchronizes with music, game highlights, and on-court action, making fans active participants in the event.

NBCUniversal introduces “OLI,” an AI-powered logic system that helps viewers find when, where and how to watch their favorite live events and programming throughout NBCU’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Developed in partnership with Huge, a design and technology company, users navigating NBCU’s websites in the United States can ask questions to OLI to seamlessly find up-to-date information on Paris Olympics programming.

The San Diego Seals are leaving no stone unturned ahead of the 2024-25 National Lacrosse League (NLL) season. Performance Director, Tyler Voas, and his team will use Australian sports-technology platform Lumin Sports to track and consolidate athletic data, medical monitoring, and strength & conditioning programming. The Seals become the second NLL team to embed Lumin Sports in their program, but the first to use Lumin Strength as it’s ‘go-to’ strength and conditioning platform.

Saudi Arabia is set to make history with ambitious plans for new stadiums aimed at hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2034. These state-of-the-art venues promise to redefine sports and entertainment experiences across the kingdom. This will include five 45,000+ seat stadiums including King Salman Stadium, located in northern Riyadh. King Salman Stadium will serve as the headquarters for the Saudi national football team and host major events. Designed to meet FIFA standards and scheduled for completion in late 2029, it will feature a seating capacity of 92,000. The stadium will include a royal box, hospitality suites, VIP seating, and sustainable cooling systems.

Artificial intelligence sports technology, created by Australian firm VueMotion Labs, could prove the tool that helps the Kiwi sprinter Zoe Hobbs onto the podium. VueMotion’s app captures granular data on Hobbs’ running mechanics – step length, frequency, ground contact time, forces, horizontal movement, speed, split times and more. It generates a visual “kinogram” that her coach can view, instantly seeing areas to improve like foot strike or hip rotation.

Queensland's Department of Tourism and Sport has launched Sports Venues Connect, a dedicated platform showcasing the finest sporting venues in Queensland. This innovative and detailed resource will support the Sports Marketing Australia & Sports Marketing International team in attracting domestic and international high-performance camps and events to the Councils and Destinations in Queensland we partner with leading into Brisbane 2032.

From training to broadcasting, artificial intelligence will have an imprint on this year’s event for the first time. Some of the technologies will include the Athlete365 app for the 10,000 athletes which will incorporate an AthleteGPT chatbot. The chatbot is a large language model (LLM) built using an AI developed by Paris-based company Mistral AI and Intel’s Gaudi processors.  The International Olympics Committee (IOC) is embracing the technology. In April, it rolled out its AI agenda — an effort to streamline the explosive growth of AI research in sport and to strategize its use in the Olympics. 

Olympic riders, spectators and fans worldwide can view the equestrian cross-country course which runs through the beautiful park of Versailles. Eventing is a triathlon of dressage, cross country and show jumping. CrossCountry app is a GPS smartphone app and mapping system customised precisely to the needs of equestrians. It allows riders to record their competition course so they can memorise it and ride it to time. Course designers use the CrossCountry app Toolkit to design, document and publicise courses. CrossCountry app has been used at every Olympic Games since its launch in 2011.

Stan Sport launched a 19-day Olympics activation powered by Komo's Live Trivia card, where thousands of subscribers compete live daily, testing their sports knowledge for a chance to win epic prizes. Komo Technologies is a Perth-based company developing digital fan and marketing activation solutions across various industries including sports, entertainment and retail.

LEAD Sports and Health Tech Partners (LEAD), a globally recognized venture corporation in the sports and health tech sectors, has announced the launch of LEAD ONE, a new direct investment vehicle focused on pre-seed companies. This initiative marks a strategic evolution from LEAD’s previous accelerator model, tailored to meet the dynamic needs of the global early-stage venture market. With an annual allocation of $US 1 million, LEAD ONE aims to invest in 10 companies each year.

Australian compression wear brand 2XU teamed up with LA-based District Vision to launch a limited-edition collection inspired by the world’s toughest foot race, the Badwater 135 ultramarathon.The Badwater 135 is widely recognized as the world’s most challenging foot race. 2XU and District Vision set out to create gear capable of withstanding these extreme conditions to support ultrarunner and 2XU athlete Harvey Lewis to cross the finish line for a 13th time. The collection features nine new pieces from 2XU, including tops, bottoms, and accessories, paired with District Vision’s ultra-lightweight sunglasses.

As our Olympians and Paralympians take on the world in Paris, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will be home to a team of analysts working around the clock to give our athletes an extra edge against their competitors. The AIS Paris Performance Analysis Hub will see collaboration across sports, disciplines and organisations in the high performance system to ensure our athletes perform at their best and to fast-track development of world-class practitioners. There will be 20 performance analysts, nine data analysts/engineers and five Paralympics Australia staff working in the Hub across the Games with practitioners coming from national sporting organisations, the AIS and the national institute network.

Skip, a wearable tech startup that began as a secretive project inside Alphabet, exited stealth this week to announce a partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Arc’teryx. The deal is the first to bring Skip’s technology to market: “powered pants” that utilize a soft exoskeleton. The tech, called MO/GO, short for “mountain goat,” is a hybrid soft/rigid system designed to assist wearer mobility and boost the wearer while walking. Rather than actually walking for a person, it provides a 40% energy assistance to the quadricep and hamstring, while offloading work from the knees.

A highly regarded scientist and tech innovator from The University of Western Australia has won a prestigious international award for her achievements in bridging the gap between biomechanics research and practice in sport. Professor Jacqueline Alderson, Director of Technology at the UWA Tech & Policy Lab, has been honoured with the Geoffrey Dyson Award, the highest honour of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport (ISBS). Professor Alderson has been a pioneer in applied machine learning for health and sport applications and in envisioning blue-sky research and development programs, such as for digital human twins.

AC Milan has joined with the Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) in a partnership that will see the Italian club utilise a data-first approach to evolve its consumer understanding. It is hoped that the collaboration will allow the AC Milan to better know and engage with fans to ultimately unlock new revenue streams. KAGR, a world-renowned leader in data and advanced analytics.

Catapult Sports has launched the new Catapult Athlete mobile app for athletes that includes the ability for the data collected during a training session to upload directly to OpenField Cloud. This is especially useful when training or playing away from team facilities and staff as it allows a more comprehensive data set for longitudinal reports on athletes regardless of where they are in the world. Athletes will see summary data for both activities they have uploaded via the app and activities that were completed with a team.

Panathinaikos BC AKTOR, in collaboration with Globalsat, is set to redefine the EuroLeague experience with the installation of the ASB GlassFloor, the Full-LED video sports surface officially endorsed by the EuroLeague. This groundbreaking flooring will make Panathinaikos the first team to regularly host EuroLeague games on this cutting-edge court, marking a significant milestone in basketball history.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the renewal of its partnership with The Walt Disney Company and new agreements with NBCUniversal (NBCU) and Amazon under which ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video will telecast NBA games beginning with the 2025-26 season and running through the 2035-36 season. The NBA App will be a universal access point – seamlessly directing fans to every national game on Disney, NBCU and Amazon platforms.

The Women’s Super League (WSL) has moved from OTT platform, The FA Player to YouTube for streaming live, free-to-access matches. The UK broadcast rights for the bulk of WSL matches are currently owned by Sky Sports and the BBC, with Sky showing 44 live games and the BBC airing an additional 22 games each season. All other games (66 matches in total) were previously streamed live on The FA Player. These games will now be shown on WSL’s YouTube channel instead of The FA Player. 

In another groundbreaking innovation by ECAL, set to revolutionise digital calendar communications, ECAL has unveiled it’s ‘Native Language Translations AI’ service. In collaboration with Microsoft, and as part of its Calendar AI toolbox, ECAL’s ‘Native Language Translations AI’ feature delivers smart, personalised events content in the user’s preferred native language, directly into their calendar. The service covers 248 countries, 49 languages, intelligently translated, with key nouns such as sporting team names, venue names, and brand names preserved. 

Q Bio Inc., a pioneer in medical imaging technology secures $27M in strategic funding to propel its innovative Mark I full-body scanner towards market launch. Founded in 2015 by Jeff Kaditz, Dr. Michael Snyder, and Dr. Garry Choy, Q Bio is dedicated to revolutionizing medical imaging with innovative technologies like the Mark I scanner. Mark I eliminates the need for multiple scans by capturing extensive quantitative anatomical data in a single session. This data fuels the creation of “digital twins” and large biological models, offering unparalleled insights into human health.

Reddit has announced a new partnership program to enhance the fan experience. This program taps major sports leagues and aims to bring more  content to Reddit’s communities while also creating opportunities for advertisers to align with this content via video ads, AMAs (ask me anything), and other formats. Reddit’s first program partners include NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA TOUR, and NASCAR. Sports are one of Reddit’s most popular and fastest-growing (at +26% YOY) interest groups, bringing together highly engaged fans across over 1000 communities.

With applications ranging from athlete safeguarding to enhanced broadcast experiences and efficient energy management, artificial intelligence (AI) and technology innovations are set to transform some aspects of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, paving the way for future editions

Paralympics Australia has announced Deloitte as its official partner for its digital transformation program. Deloitte’s support focuses largely on the implementation of SportsCore, a sports CRM solution developed by Deloitte to provide best practice capability across stakeholder, supporter and fan management, and integration and process automation.

The NBA and WNBA reached an agreement with Disney, NBC and Amazon on a new round of TV deals worth $US 76 billion over 11 years, and the WNBA will earn $US 2.2 billion over the life of the deal—or $US 200 million a year, according to someone familiar with the agreement—which represents a 6x gain compared to its prior ESPN deal. The WNBA commanded only 1% of the prior TV deal but nearly 3% of the current one. The two leagues negotiated their TV rights together, but they have different term sheets. 

Bandit has released The Program, a free iOS app offering a comprehensive, AI-assisted marathon training experience. The Program generates a personalized 16-week training plan based on your selected race, goal finish time, and preferred weekly mileage (or the amount of time you have available to train each week).In addition to this, The Program offers an AI-Assistant Coach, which provides instant answers to training questions, expert guidance on running, strength, nutrition, sports psychology, and recovery and discounts on ASICS and Hyperice products.

INTIX has been selected as the exclusive ticketing provider for all Football Victoria run events, and the preferred ticketing provider for events occurring at the Home Of The Matildas venue. The partnership aims to unlock greater value from audience, reduce costs, streamline operations and increase communication fans & sponsors.

SportWest and ActiveXchange have extended their partnership to see the award-winning ActiveXchange for Sport platform remain in use across a number of State Sport Associations in Western Australia until at least 30 June 2027. As SportWest’s data partner for community sport participation and engagement, ActiveXchange delivers deep insights to help shape industry planning and prioritisation throughout metropolitan, regional and remote Western Australia.

ATP, Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) and Sportradar have teamed up to launch Safe Sport, a new service to address online abuse targeting professional tennis players. The collaboration breaks new ground by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) moderation, education and investigation into a single service to protect athletes. The new service will be made available to the Top 250 ATP singles players and the Top 50-ranked doubles players, on a free and opt-in basis, starting this month. It combines AI technologies from Sportradar and its partner, Arwen AI, to scan players’ social media channels for toxic and abusive comments, spam and bots across 29 languages. 

In a move designed to revolutionize club fundraising, USA Fencing has partnered with iSponsor, a dynamic platform that turns everyday shopping into significant fundraising opportunities. This collaboration is designed to enhance the financial sustainability of fencing clubs by allowing them to focus more on developing the sport and less on funding concerns.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) today announced IMG ARENA, OpenBet’s sports data and streaming products arm, as its exclusive official Cricket South Africa Data Supplier and Betting Live Streaming Partner. IMG ARENA, in partnership with CricViz, will collect detailed data, both live and in-venue, for CSA’s domestic and international matches spanning a wide array of competitions, from bilateral series to domestic leagues.

Eventbrite has become the latest ticket business to partner with TikTok, allowing event creators promote their events and sell tickets. Eventbrite creators and TikTok users can add Eventbrite links directly to their TikTok videos thanks to a new integration. These links will help users discover event details and purchase tickets without leaving the app. It also allows event creators to promote multiple events simultaneously. 

Fanatics has announced the launch of Fanatics Collect, a new collectibles marketplace that will connect buyers and sellers of trading cards and memorabilia through fixed-price listings and auctions. Fanatics Collect launches with a comprehensive range of services for collectors. The Buy Now marketplace has been designed to make it quicker and easier for collectors to buy and sell cards at fixed prices. In addition to the Buy Now marketplace, collectors will be able to buy and sell through weekly and monthly auctions.

Freeletics, the leading provider of AI-based fitness and lifestyle coaching announces the launch of Coach+ Pilot, a pioneering, generative AI model to simulate an authentic, true-to-life personal training experience. The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI will emulate a lifelike personal training experience with personalised dialogues for guidance, feedback, and motivation. The company has become the world’s leading provider of AI-based fitness and lifestyle coaching, with 57+ million users in over 175 countries.

Leading smart ring company Oura has released an AI health advisor through Oura Labs, the brand's in-app platform that allows Oura members to test experimental features. The advisor gives personalized insights, recommendations, and encouragement to get members on track to achieve their health goals. This includes customizable coaching intensity and focus areas, and a forum to chat with your coach, ask questions, share progress, and get recommendations based on your daily health data.

Audiences will be immersed in the Olympic Games like never before this summer as a new collaboration between Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and YouTube is set to bring Paris 2024 to a diverse set of fans, further expanding the reach of Eurosport’s live coverage. The new content partnership will base a group of YouTube creators in the heart of the city to produce fresh and exciting new content, expanding the reach of the Olympics and its fandoms across Europe. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it has partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This groundbreaking step follows the IOC’s recent announcement that the IOC Executive Board (EB) has established Olympic Esports Games. 

STWS have formed a partnership with Matchfy for Australia Sports Innovation Week (ASIW) 2024 to become the official accommodation partner for international and interstate delegates who will be travelling to Melbourne for the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and most respected sports innovation and technology experience. 

DECATHLON has launched DECATHLON PULSE, an investment arm and start up studio, designed to pioneer new growth engines and accelerate our purpose of 'moving people through the wonders of sport'. DECATHLON PULSE will build, invest in and acquire forward-thinking companies that are transforming the world of sport. Looking outward to identify additional markets and new business models. From product and sport to wellness and the circular economy. 

Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of the new Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra. These new additions to the wearables portfolio are central to Samsung’s vision for Galaxy AI to enhance digital health, delivering personalized insights and tailored health experiences. Galaxy Ring delivers a straight-forward approach to wellness, offering health monitoring, tracking and personalized insights while worn comfortably on a finger, even while asleep.

WHOOP, the human performance company, announced a new body composition and weight trends feature that has been designed for seamless integration with WITHINGS, which is also a world leader in connected health and inventor of the first smart scale. The new feature gives members the opportunity to measure and manage advanced body composition and weight metrics, addressing the requests from nearly a quarter of WHOOP members who have cited weight management as a top motivator for their health journey.