SportsTech Weekly: Global Investment Fuels Innovation Across Sports
Week 12 sees record funding rounds, strategic partnerships, and breakthrough technologies reshaping the future of sports engagement
Hello sports tech enthusiasts 👋🏼 Welcome to Regen Sports, your twice-weekly deep dive into the intersection of sports and technology. Every Monday, catch up on the week's most important developments in sports innovation, and every Thursday, explore in-depth analysis of trends, companies, and technological breakthroughs reshaping the future of sports.
Before we get started, if you didn’t manage to get last week’s developments, be sure to find the recap of week 11's sports tech highlights.
As we move through this week, the sports technology ecosystem continues to experience serious growth across multiple sectors. Significant funding announcements signal strong investor confidence. Meanwhile, the landscape is evolving through innovative partnerships that span traditional boundaries—from Kylian Mbappé's investment in SailGP to the PGA Tour's cybersecurity collaboration with ReliaQuest. Breakthrough technologies demonstrate how rapidly advancing technologies are transforming both athlete performance and fan experiences.
This week's developments highlight the sports industry's continued convergence with cutting-edge technology, creating new commercial opportunities and reshaping how sports are played, consumed, and monetised globally.
Without further ado;
FUNDING & INVESTMENTS 💰
Image source: EU Startups
Bioniq, a personalised nutritional supplements company, announced that Diogo Dalot joined the company as an investor, investing over €1 million
Zenniz, a Finnish developer of tennis court technology, secured €2 million in funding to expand its smart tennis technology, led by Butterfly Ventures and Superhero Capital
Monarch Collective, the first women's sports private equity investor, has expanded its debut fund to $250M, up from its initial $150m in 2023
Playtomic, which rents racket sports courts through its mobile app, closed a $70 million funding round, to expand its reach in the United States, Britain and Germany
Saudi's SURJ Sports Investment is looking to back a new global Twenty20 cricket league, developed in partnership with the ACA, with a reported $500 million investment
World Sevens Football, a new global seven-a-side women’s soccer league launches with $5m prize pots, set to pump $100m into the league over the next five years
Why This Matters: The Monarch Collective's expansion to a $250 million fund dedicated exclusively to women's sports represents a watershed moment in sports investment. This significant capital increase—growing by $100 million from its initial 2023 fund—signals institutional investors' growing confidence in women's sports as a viable and lucrative market. As the first private equity firm focused solely on women's sports, Monarch's success could trigger a fundamental shift in how financial markets value women's sports properties, potentially unleashing a wave of similar investment vehicles and accelerating the commercial development of women's leagues, teams, and adjacent businesses.
PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS 🤝🏼
Image source: Football Australia
Football Australia announced a world-first partnership with Live Graphics Systems, for delivering multi-tier live sports production
France’s football governing body LFP, has partnered with Camb.AI to become the official global language solution for French football
ScorePlay, a provider of AI-driven digital and media asset management solutions, has partnered with LFP, becoming the league's new digital asset management provider
CazeTV, the Brazilian sports streaming platform, has partnered with DAZN through a sublicensing deal to broadcast 39 of the 63 2025 FIFA Club World Cup matches
Kings League has announced a new partnership between Adidas and Kings League France, with the sportswear giant becoming the official technical partner
Home Run Dugout, a baseball eatertainment startup, has signed its first MLB franchise partnership with the Texas Rangers, bringing its batting bays to Globe Life Field
The South African Football Association has announced the global technology brand, HONOR, as the Official Technology Devices sponsor of Bafana Bafana
Coinbase has signed a sponsorship deal with Australian rugby team, Cronulla Sharks, becoming the club's new front-of-shorts NRL sponsor for the 2025 season
Image source: SAIL GP
France SailGP Team announced an investment from Kylian Mbappé’s Coalition Capital, with ‘Inspired by KM’ set to become the team’s official charity partner
PlayHQ announced a partnership with Basketball England, providing a unified technology platform to support grassroots basketball in the country
Table Tennis Australia announced a new live streaming partnership with SportVot, the sports production platform having recently opened operations in Australia
F1 ACADEMY announced that its partnering with More than Equal, a data-driven programme, becoming the Official Driver Performance and Research Partner
MotoGP has extended its long-term, anti-piracy partnership with Sportian, which aims to track and remove illegal broadcasts
The PGA Tour has announced a sponsorship with ReliaQuest, provider in AI-powered security operations, becoming the official cybersecurity sponsor
Why This Matters: Kylian Mbappé's investment in the France SailGP Team through his Coalition Capital fund represents an evolution in athlete investment strategies. As one of football's most marketable and wealthy superstars, Mbappé's move into the cutting-edge sailing competition signals that elite athletes are increasingly viewing technology-driven sports properties as strategic portfolio diversification opportunities rather than mere endorsements. This crossover between traditional sports stars and emerging tech-forward competitions could accelerate audience growth for newer sports formats while creating innovative engagement models that bridge different fan communities.
PRODUCT LAUNCHES & TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS 🔬
Image source: Business Wire
Muse, a startup in neurotechnology, launched Muse S Athena, the world’s first consumer wearable to provide advanced cognitive fitness insights
SailGP is set to unveil several new tech solutions in its U.S.-based races this month, including AI-powered race marks, AI cameras, and immersive fan experience tech
Relo Metrics, an AI-driven sponsorship analytics platform, announced the adoption of NVIDIA tech such as computer vision, AI-driven automation, and real-time analytics
CBS is set to debut Centre Court, a virtual environment for its coverage of the 2025 March Madness tournaments
PlaySpark, in partnership with Aidan Singleton, has announced the launch of a new gaming platform for athletes to improve interactive engagement with fans
Why This Matters: Muse's introduction of the S Athena wearable marks a milestone in the convergence of neurotechnology and consumer sports products. As one of the first consumer devices offering advanced cognitive fitness insights, this technology could fundamentally transform how athletes at all levels understand and optimise their mental performance. Beyond traditional physical metrics, this breakthrough opens up entirely new dimensions of performance analysis, potentially creating a new category of cognitive training technologies. As mental performance becomes increasingly recognised as a critical factor in athletic achievement, Muse's innovation could pioneer a shift in how athletes train, with brain metrics eventually becoming as standard as heart rate monitoring is today.
ACQUISITIONS 🧱
Sportradar received $125 million from Endeavor as it agreed to acquire its IMG Arena data platform and the accompanying portfolio of rights
Why This Matters: Sportradar's acquisition of IMG Arena signals a shift in the sports data landscape, creating a concentration of betting data rights and distribution capabilities under one company. This consolidation grants Sportradar extraordinary influence over the rapidly expanding sports betting ecosystem, potentially allowing it to set industry standards and pricing models across multiple sports properties. As data increasingly becomes the currency of sports engagement and monetisation, this acquisition positions Sportradar as the dominant gatekeeper between sports leagues and betting operators, giving it exceptional leverage in negotiations with both sides of the market while potentially raising regulatory concerns about market concentration.
EVENTS & EXPANSIONS 🏗️
The Global Sports Tech Startups Program between Morocco and Israel is accepting applications for it’s 3-month online curriculum set to begin this week
Golfweek Tech Lab presented by T-Mobile for Business is back for it’s second annual event set to take place on May 12-13
Immersive sport entertainment firm Cosm is looking at adding a location in Indianapolis as its next venue site
Why This Matters: The Morocco-Israel Global Sports Tech Startups Programme is a remarkable example of sports technology fostering diplomatic and economic cooperation between nations. This initiative leverages shared interests in sports innovation to build bridges between entrepreneurial ecosystems in two strategically important regions. Beyond the business opportunities it creates, the programme demonstrates how sports technology can serve as a vehicle for cross-cultural collaboration and economic development in geopolitically significant areas, just in time for the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As this week concludes, we're witnessing the sports technology sector enter a new phase of maturity characterised by significant capital injections, strategic consolidation, and breakthrough innovations. The remarkable diversity of developments underscores how technology has permeated every aspect of the sports ecosystem.
Particularly noteworthy is the accelerating investment in previously underserved segments, especially women's sports, suggesting a fundamental revaluation of market opportunities that were once overlooked. Simultaneously, the increasingly sophisticated application of artificial intelligence across multiple domains is creating unprecedented capabilities for both sports organisations and their partners.
Looking ahead, we can expect to see further integration of cognitive and physical performance technologies, continued evolution of immersive viewing experiences, and new models for athlete-fan engagement powered by emerging platforms. Organisations that successfully navigate this complex landscape will be best positioned to capture the enormous value being created at the intersection of sports and technology. Stay tuned for next week's roundup as we continue tracking the transformative developments reshaping the global sports technology landscape.
Track the Trends. Spot the plays. Shape the game.
Thanks for reading,
Dean
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