Sportstech & Member News

Plunge, the leading innovator in home and spa wellness solutions, announced the launch of its Evolve Series - four new products that make cold water immersion powered by their leading technology more accessible. These new offerings, which include an inflatable cold plunge tub and a compact chiller, aim to provide an easy and customizable entry point for individuals looking to explore the transformative benefits of cold water immersion in 2024.

The Zwift Games was record breaking in its delivery of community racing. Over 80,000 people participated in the Games, with Zwifters completing over 215,000 races. These races also broke records in terms of field sizes with almost 50 races attracting >1000 starters and an average race attendance of over 250. The inaugural Zwift Games Elite Competition saw riders from 35 nations represented, with 8 champions crowned across the three disciplines and Wahoo Overall Classification. This festival of world class racing was covered in 6 broadcasts.

Two of the industry’s most prominent artificial intelligence firms working on athlete performance and injury risk, Zone7 and Svexa, are merging to provide a more complete offering under the Svexa brand name. The merger integrates Zone7's specialised capabilities injury risk forecasting and load management with Svexa's robust analytics solutions. Svexa's portfolio includes collaborations with elite teams and leagues across basketball, soccer and American football. Zone7's notable clients include high-profile teams like Liverpool FC and Napoli FC, along with partners in the NFL, MSL and NWSL.

The Chinese Men's Professional Basketball League (CBA League) and Sportradar today announced a strategic extension of their partnership aimed at growing the league's global presence and ensuring integrity within Chinese basketball. This extension will leverage Sportradar’s expansive network to distribute more than 550 games, including highlights and short form video, through the regular and post-season. Through international broadcast and audio-visual distribution channels, including leading broadcasters, streaming services and over-the-top (OTT) platforms, the collaboration seeks to enhance fan engagement and broaden the league’s viewership in international markets.

Volt Athletics, a pioneering leader in performance training technology, has announced the acquisition of ZAMA Health. Volt Athletics has revolutionized athlete training with its patented artificial intelligence and performance training platform, serving nearly 2 million individuals worldwide. Volt will now provide comprehensive mental health and wellness tools for athletes and coaches alike, further enhancing its offerings with the integration of ZAMA Health.

FIFA will be running the first of four Data Protection & Risk Networking Events in 2024 on Tuesday 9 April in Zurich and online. The event is focussed on privacy and cybersecurity risks in the world of sports and will be attended by sports industry professionals. Stéphanie Saulnier from the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) will be presenting on the golden rules for protecting athletes’ data in relation to individual physical performance, followed by a fireside chat with Tomas Maldonado, the Chief Information & Security Officer at the NFL. This series of events is the first step towards FIFA’s Data Protection & Cybersecurity Team’s long-term plan to build a comprehensive portfolio of workshops, events, blogs and other resources to equip Member Associations with practical tools and insights.

GameDay, a leading provider of digital solutions for sports organisations, is proud to announce an exciting new partnership with the Regional Academies of Sport Inc. (RASi). GameDay’s Fixturing, Live Scoring, and Results modules will be utilized by RASi for the upcoming Academy Games. This digital infrastructure will revolutionise the management of the Games, particularly in six key sports: Hockey, Cycling, Rugby Union, Volleyball, Netball, and Basketball.

The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and SPORTPASS, a fan engagement and gaming platform and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, today announced the entry into a framework in respect of a partnership to transform the fan experience for triathlon and endurance sports that leverages Web3 and blockchain technology. The arrangement seeks to redefine the way professionals, fans and amateur athletes engage with endurance sports, offering tokenized rankings, dynamic incentives, gamification, content and rewards across digital and ‘in real life’ starting at the newly announced T100 Triathlon World Tour, which began in Miami on 9 March.

One of the world's leading sportstech Accelerator Programs, Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech, has opened applications for their 2025 Accelerator cohort. A cohort of 10 companies will be selected, with every company gaining direct access to key decision-makers and industry leaders within the SportsTech partner consortium. which includes four Comcast NBCUniversal sports brands: NBC Sports, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, and Golf – alongside NASCAR, WWE, Premier League and PGA TOUR.

Fans are now able to purchase food and drinks using cryptocurrency at Adelaide Oval following an agreement between the venue, its Australian Football League (AFL) tenants the Adelaide Crows, and Crypto.com. Supported by financial systems software DataMesh, which is providing the payment technology and terminals, the integration marks a world first at this scale.

Layercake, together with partners, Enveu and DoubleTake Sports is delighted to announce the launch of Qplus.tv for Queensland Rugby League. Using the award-winning Streamcake, media orchestration and automation platform, Layercake has delivered an exclusive live streaming solution that elevates the viewing experience for the rugby league community and fans of the game.

QBurst Technologies and Amerinda Advisory have entered into a strategic alliance which will combine Amerinda's deep advisory expertise with QBurst's comprehensive suite of digital transformation services and solutions. QBurst's expertise focuses on big data processing, AI, machine learning, blockchain, web and mobile application development, testing services and solutions for all levels of enterprises

WiST (Women in Sports Tech) has announced its seventh year of WiST Fellows with the 2024 program cohort. This year features 19 students representing diverse academic backgrounds from across the US and abroad. Each WiST Fellow brings unique talents and perspectives to the forefront of the sports technology landscape. This year's cohort comprises undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students from 18 universities, spanning 11 different degree programs, who will complete summer internship experiences with 16 different WiST Partners. 

In collaboration with the National Rugby League (NRL), Advance Queensland is offering a unique opportunity for up to 20 local businesses to showcase their groundbreaking products and solutions to key decision-makers from the NRL, clubs, stakeholders, and major sporting organisations across Queensland. Advance Queensland and the NRL are seeking expressions of interest (EOIs) from businesses with innovative solutions in areas such as: innovative fan engagement and fan experience enhancement, event operations and broadcasting optimisation, health and wellness technologies for athlete performance improvement, business data solutions for customer engagement and performance, any other technology solutions that can elevate the NRL's product offerings and sponsorship value. Applications close 23 April 2004.

VALD Performance has been become a successful recipient of an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship grant, applying sports technology to prevent knee injuries in Queensland's female athletes. With the support of $240,000 over 2 years, Research Fellow, Dr Matthew Bourne's work will apply world-leading human measurement tech to predict which female athletes are at risk of injury, revolutionise training for injury prevention and monitor rehabilitation outcomes. The Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowships program supports researchers partnering with industry to complete original research that will have a positive impact on Queensland. Applications for our 2024 Industry Research Fellowship grants are now open and close on the 22nd April.

The Gold Coast SUNS have today launched the ultimate free online fitness companion tailored to young people aged 12-17 in a partnership with the Queensland Government and Playbk Sports. SUNS Active Lab is a cutting-edge platform accessed via a smart phone or tablet which encourages young people to access inclusive fitness programs curated by SUNS staff.

PlaySpark has announced a partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL) team, the St. Louis Blues. Teaming up with the Blues, PlaySpark introduced its branded arcade games to their app, injecting a whole new level of fun and engagement. PlaySpark arcade games are about creating unforgettable moments and keeping fans hooked from puck drop to final buzzer.

Quintar has gained a new investment as part of an $US 8.2 million funding round for its spatial XR platform. Santa Clara, California-based Quintar said that Centre Court Capital has made a significant investment as part of an $8.2 million Series A round. The round was led by SeventySix Capital and Cowles Company. Quintar’s goal is to use augmented reality (AR) to enable fans to see more data superimposed on the real world and dive deeper in stats, create sports content, or provide other quality-of-life improvements to the live-game experience.

3DLOOK, the global leader in AI-powered mobile body scanning solutions, has announced the launch of FitXpress. Through a single API, customers can access precise AI-powered body scanning; 3D body models; fat percentage, body mass index (BMI), and basal metabolic rate (BMR) estimates; target weight visualizations; and highly-accurate progress tracking. Users gain access to 80+ precise body measurements for every user, providing a new stream of insight and improved analytics to finetune services, develop new features, and deliver hyper-personalized experiences such as tailored workouts, product recommendations, and engagement strategies designed to maximize usage and user satisfaction.

Centre Court Capital, a fund with a focus on sports technology, announced the initiation of a venture capital fund valued at approximately 3.5 billion rupees ($US 42 million) on Thursday.  Centre Court Capital (CCC) has successfully raised 2 billion rupees from various stakeholders such as athletes, corporate entities like SG Sports (associated with APL Apollo’s sports and entertainment sector), aiming to support entrepreneurs who introduce cutting-edge technology into the realms of sports and gaming.

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.

Teamviewer is working with its sports partners at Manchester United and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, launching SheSportTech. The initiative which is supported by the community partners, Women in Sports Tech WiST) and Women’s Sport Collective, looks to inspire more women to see the breadth of opportunities in the world of technology.

Yahoo Sports, one of the internet’s leading destinations for sports news and fantasy games, announced today that it has partnered with OneFootball, one of the world’s biggest football platforms backed by clubs such as Real Madrid, Manchester City, and FC Bayern Munich, to create a new hub for comprehensive soccer content. Through the hub, fans will have access to news and analysis from leagues and competitions around the world. OneFootball has a 24/7 newsroom that operates in six languages, as well as a network of over 200 well-known content partners and publishers worldwide. 

Biolinq, a healthcare technology company pioneering precision multi-analyte biosensors to improve metabolic health, today announced the completion of $58 million in financing led by Alpha Wave Ventures. The financing will support completion of a U.S. pivotal clinical trial this year, evaluating Biolinq’s proprietary intradermal glucose sensor, and subsequent FDA submission. Biolinq’s wearable patch uses an array of tiny electrochemical sensors to measure glucose levels from the intradermal space just beneath the surface of the skin, combining glucose information with relative levels of activity in one device.

Australian enviro-tech startup Samsara Eco and its partner, athletic apparel, accessories and footwear brand lululemon, have today launched the first product made from enzymatically recycled polyester. The lululemon limited edition Packable Anorak jacket is made from a variety of inputs, including mixed plastic waste, lululemon apparel at the end-of-life stage, and converted carbon emissions. The jacket is available for purchase online in Australia, the US and Canada beginning today. 

Greenfly, the leader in powering short-form content workflows for sports, media, and other brands, today announced the closing of equity investments of $14 million led by global sports tech investor ADvantage, with participation from Ryan Sports Ventures, Mercato Partners, and NBA Equity. The Greenfly Platform is core infrastructure for short-form content operations, allowing the world’s largest sports and entertainment organizations to create, aggregate, collect, organize and distribute short-form content throughout their ecosystem.

Advanced body composition analytics pioneer Evolt, has entered a strategic partnership with digital fitness solutions company, EGYM, signalling a pivotal shift within the industry as individuals increasingly adopt a holistic approach to health. The collaboration, announced at IHRSA in Los Angeles earlier this month, merges EGYM’s fitness equipment and digital platform with Evolt’s cutting-edge composition analysis technology, offering gym members comprehensive insights into their health and fitness. 

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.

A new sports tech startup, Volley, aims to revolutionize the way racquet sports players (platform tennis, tennis, padel and pickleball) train with its AI-enabled sports training machine. Unlike traditional tennis ball machines that simply launch balls at varying speeds and heights, Volley’s trainer robot leverages AI and vision software to collect data as you play, learn your skill level and simulate live gameplay.

Alta Global Group (NYSE American: MMA), a technology company that is enabling the global martial arts and combat sports industry to maximize the monetization opportunities available to the sector by increasing consumer participation in the sport and building upon existing community offerings within the sector, announced the pricing of its NYSE initial public offering of 1,300,000 ordinary shares at a price to the public of $5.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $US 6.5 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the listing for marketing and sales, product development, research and development.

EGYM Genius creates fully automated personalized training plans that are precisely tailored to the respective club and all of its equipment, including free weights. Trainers and members benefit from the insights from seven billion EGYM data points and counting. EGYM Genius is the new driver of the entire EGYM ecosystem, which seamlessly connects its components: EGYM Smart Strength (including the Fitness Hub and connected Smart cardio), training plans, workouts of all kinds (including classes and training outside the gym recorded with apps and wearables) as well as motivational and community tools such as Gameday and the Branded Member App.

Riddell, the industry leader in football helmet technology and innovation, announced the strategic acquisition of longtime partner Simbex. With the addition of Simbex' premier engineering and health science product development expertise, Riddell will further elevate its position at the forefront of sports technology. Simbex is a premier product design and development firm with over 20 years of experience in the sports, medical, and health technology markets. 

News Corp Australia’s News Sport Network today announced it is joining forces with Partnerbrite, an internationally renowned fan audience platform. Partnerbrite is an ad-tech platform that transforms partnerships with fan targeted digital campaigns on social, video and display channels. It solves a major problem in sports marketing – providing a full-funnel solution for brands to target audiences, without sports organisations needing to share their data.  News Sport Network and Partnerbrite will work to sell their offerings together, work with brands to identify appropriate properties in the sport industry to invest in and work with sporting partners to identify appropriate commercial partners for available categories.

Populous has joined Building 4.0 CRC, an industry-led research initiative co-funded by the Australian Government. The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program aims to fund industry-led collaborations between industry, researchers and end-users. Building 4.0 CRC aims to foster a thriving Australian advanced manufacturing sector, deliver better buildings at lower costs, and develop the human capacity to lead the future building and construction industry. Populous APAC is partnering on the #48 shared interest project titled “Scoping Study for Building the Future – Circular Economy,” and aims to design out waste and pollution by maximizing the utility of products and materials, thereby reducing excessive material extraction and manufacturing.

Portuguese star striker, Cristiano Ronaldo will release wellness app ERAKULIS on 3 April. Declaring “balance is everything”, the world’s most-capped player is leveraging his elite training to deliver fitness, nutrition and mental balance programmes. Stacked with 1,000+ workouts and 400 recipes, the app includes personalised wellness plans, expert-led video consultations and community support.

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.

HITIQ has announced a partnership with the National Rugby League (NRL) for the 2024 season. The NRL has initiated a trial of HITIQ's state-of-the-art head impact mouthguard technology, aiming to evaluate the product's fit for broader rollout within rugby league. In addition to the NRL's trial, several teams have independently adopted HITIQ's instrumented mouthguard (iMG) technology to measure, mitigate, and better understand head impact exposure during training, games and competitions. 

The Premier League has today announced a four-year partnership with Rezzil, the virtual reality (VR) software developer. Rezzil, a Manchester-based VR software firm, are specialists in the production of sports gaming software for athlete training and game analysis within virtual reality. The Premier League and Rezzil will work together on the development of a VR game, which is expected to be launched later this year. The game will place users on the pitch and in the boots of their favourite Premier League players, offering fans a unique opportunity to recreate iconic Premier League goals and moments from within the perspective of virtual reality.    

Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Centre for Data Centre launched its new Sports Data Science & AI Next Generations Graduate Program on 28th March. The event also featured two interesting panel discussions around Sports Tech, AI, and all the research around it now and in the future. Panelists included domain experts from Queensland Academy of Sport, Australian Sports Commission, QUT, ASTN, CSIRO's Data61 and University of NSW Data Science Hub. Details of the new program are at https://lnkd.in/gbQqWyfU

 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.

Basketball Forever, a rapidly expanding and highly engaged independent sports media brand, recently disclosed the successful closure of its Series A funding round, amassing over $US4 million. The fundraising was prominently spearheaded by Yolo Investments. Basketball Forever uniquely integrates its gaming operations with its content distribution, leveraging its website and social media platforms to engage users with a compelling second screen experience. Following the establishment of its presence in North America, Basketball Forever is set to channel these funds towards bolstering its growth, aiming to capture a larger audience within the region, branching out into additional sectors apart from basketball.

GTG Network, a leading Australian sports analytics company, are continue to expand its operations into the quick-play arcade game segment. GTG Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group are partnering on Game Center, a new direct-to-consumer platform offering personalized and interactive fan experiences with gamification elements aimed at growing fan engagement with the help of fandoms and social communities. A total of 79 Sinclair stations are making Game Center available on their websites. With 30 unique games across sports, word and number puzzles, trivia as well as cards and casino, the game collection is intended to have broad appeal from fans.

The most advanced sport in the world is turning to Artificial Intelligence to solve a problem that many broadcasters have struggled with for decades. Formula One is using AI to create 3-times slow motion replays from standard speed cameras. AI is also used on some of the graphics, like car tracking and virtual graphics signage, for up to eight cameras. AI is used to position signage within the frame so it looks real when cars drive in front of it. 

Andorra Business and Andorra Research + Innovation (Andorra), in partnership with Global Sport Innovation Center Powered by Microsoft  (GSIC) and with the support of SPSG Consulting (SPSG) are launching the second edition of the Andorra Sports Scale-Up Program, to select a second cohort of the best sport-tech companies in Andorra and across the world, and help them in their internationalization process. The program aims to identify the most promising technological solutions that can help improve the sports industry in general, with priority over those focused on winter and mountain sports, and have the potential for scalability and internationalization.

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.

Coles Little Athletics Australia today announced it is extending its partnership with KommunityTV Team as the Official Streaming Partner for the 2024 and 2025 Coles Australian Little Athletics Championships. KommunityTV will provide the digital platform to live stream the 2024 & 2025 Coles Australian Little Athletics Championships (ALAC), in addition to writing and producing local stories about the competing Little Athletes in the lead-up and during the up-coming 2024 ALAC.

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.

Queensland University of Technology, in partnership with AusCycling and Zwift hosted Australia's first National eSports Cycling Championship on 22 March. QUT welcome some of Australia's top men and women's cyclists to The Cube for the finals event. 27 QUT students assisted with the delivery of this event, from IT configuration to production, broadcasting, commentating and everything in between. Many of these skills and capabilities are learnt and led through our esports program which delivers Oceanic Varsity and Oceanic Development Tournaments to the region for Riot Games every week on campus.