#109 🎁 Sports Tech gifts for Christmas

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If you’re looking to SportsTech-ify your Christmas gifting, then we have a few suggestions.

As always, have a great weekend!

The SportsTechX Gift Guide: 10 Perfect Picks for Christmas 2024

Looking for the ideal holiday gift for the sports enthusiast in your life? From weekend warriors to elite athletes, these 10 carefully curated gifts will elevate any sports lover's game this holiday season. Here are our top recommendations this holiday season:

1. SportsMemorabilia.com is the ultimate destination for fan memorabilia, offering signed merchandise and collectibles from top athletes and teams

2. The Ultrahuman Ring is a sleek wearable that monitors fitness, sleep, and metabolic health. Combining style with data-driven insights, it's perfect for those aiming to optimize their routines.

3. Huupe Smart Basketball Hoop transforms the traditional basketball hoop into a smart training tool. Ideal for performance-driven players, it integrates sensors and apps to improve shooting and gameplay.

Download: Global Sports Tech VC Report 2024

If you haven’t downloaded the report yet, surely you need it in time for the Christmas holidays. Pairs extremely well with Mulled Wine, I’m told. Here are some highlights:

• Nearly $10 billion in projected dealflow (investment + M&A) in 2024

• 9 New SportsTech unicorns in 2024

• 65% of all investment in 2024 focused on Solutions for Fans

⚡ OFFER TILL DEC 31: The PRO edition of the Global Sports Tech VC Report 2024 also includes a 1 year FREE access to the SportsTechDB PRO (worth 999!).

Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

🚀 PUMA, in collaboration with Manchester City, launched an AI kit design platform, giving City fans the opportunity to design the club’s official Third kit for the 2026/27 season. The tool, powered by DEEPOBJECTS, allows users to use text prompts, customization tools and intuitive sliders.

💡 Sports Business Journal’s third annual list of 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies was released. It honors young startups and more mature firms with a proven track record.

💸 The USTA joined the LEAD One family as a strategic collaborator. The USTA aims to gain access to startups and technologies meant to help drive tennis and sports business.

🏈 Beyond Sports used Hawk-Eye’s skeletal tracking data and the NFL’s NextGen data to re-create Monday’s Bengals vs Cowboys game into the beloved Simpson’s universe. See results of The Simpsons Funday Football broadcast right here, marking the most advanced alternate broadcast to date. 

💪🏽 Robinhood’s Chief Executive Vlad Tenev indicated that the brokerage firm is considering expanding into sports betting in some way. A move into sports could take the form of event contracts, like the ones Robinhood launched right before the presidential election.

🏎️ Vislink Technologies was awarded the ‘Best Innovation Project’ at the Broadcast Tech Innovation Awards 2024. This is in recognition of Vislink’s collaboration with Focal Point VR and ASPIRE in delivering an immersive VR experience for the Abu Dhabi A2RL.

📢 Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, launched Gracenote On Sports, a new solution designed to make it easier for viewers to find sports content.

💪🏽 Bitkraft Ventures, a US-based early-stage investor focused on gaming and interactive media, hired industry veteran Anuj Tandon as its first partner in India to help establish its presence in the country.

🎮 The FIA approved the creation of an esports regulatory framework at its latest FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting. Known as the FIA Esports Code, it’ll be used to regulate sim racing competitions as well as provide legal frameworks for national events to take place.

🏎️ The winners of the Aramco F1 in Schools 2024 World Finals were evolut1on from Karl-Maybach-Gymnasium in Germany. The team of four students, aged 16 – 17 were awarded the prestigious title following a three-day competition against 54 other teams from 25 countries.

👓 ESPN launch VR fan gaming & content offering ESPN Tailgate, in partnership with Meta

🏀 AT&T will once again reward NBA fans. Fans nationwide can visit att.com/dreamsnba and submit a video sharing their dream NBA experience and how AT&T can connect them and their crew to the NBA.

🏀 The NBA and FIBA are in serious discussions potentially creating an NBA-owned league in Europe. FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said he and his staff would remain in “serious conversation” with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his office about starting a new league that could initially compete with the Euroleague and top pro leagues in individual countries.

🏀 The Detroit Pistons NBA franchise teamed up with MeetKai to launch a new virtual arena experience for fans. Detroit Pistons World will enable fans to sample an exact replica of the Pistons’ home court at Little Caesars Arena. 

🏀 The NBA will stage two pre-season games in China next October, marking its return to China after being frozen out for more than five years.

🏀 The NBA today debuted its Christmas Day brand campaign, “Jingle Hoops Regifted,” an animated remix of the league’s popular 2013 Jingle Hoops commercial.

Money Talks:

💰 Lucra, an emerging market leader in social gamification technology, announced it has raised $10 million from NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, 7GC, SeventySix Capital & others.

💰 Boutique wellness platform Bsport raises €30M in Series B funding.

💰 Nodwin Gaming, a major player in the Indian youth entertainment, gaming, and esports market, received approval of Rs. 64 crore ($7.7 million) funding from parent company Nazara Technologies. 

💰 CoachIQ, a platform for sports coaches, raised a $1.3 million pre-seed investment led by Utah-based Startup Ignition Ventures. 

💰 Golftech startup Albatross Golf raised $675K in a seed funding round, swinging for franchise expansion and commercial tech launch.

💰 Adaverse, a leading ecosystem accelerator and seed fund, made a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in Grintafy, a Jeddah based football talent discovery platform.

💰 Blue Owl Capital acquired a minority stake in Bitkraft Ventures for an undisclosed sum.

💰 Capital Q Ventures, a global sports performance and impact technology investment venture, announced a strategic capital partnership of an undisclosed amount with NESTRE™ Health and Performance.

💰 PLATFORM Golf, a putting and full-swing training platform, unveiled a rebrand following an undisclosed investment round.

🤝 UTR Sports, creator of the world-class tournament management software, announced it has acquired PicklePlay, a platform designed to simplify the process for pickleball players and organizers to connect, for an undisclosed amount. 

🤝 Indian gaming company Mobile Premier League (MPL) has acquired gaming development tools provider CloudFeather Games, a Lumikai-backed innovator in gaming technology, for an undisclosed amount. 

🤝 Brave Bison announced that it agreed to acquire the entire issued share capital of global sports marketing business Engage Digital Partners, for an undisclosed amount. 

💸 Jada Fund of Funds announced an investment in Jadwa GCC Private Equity Fund I, managed by Jadwa Investment. They committed to invest in regional Saudi funds with sports tech as a notable sector. 

Latest from our channels

🔙 STX Article: The Rise of Esports- Transforming the Future of Competitive Gaming.

✅ STX Monthly: Last month’s sports tech dealflow, in case you missed it.

💪🏽 SportsTech AllStars Recap: Innovation in Broadcasting Tech