#111 🚀 Sports Tech & Investment Predictions for 2025 - Part I

News, features & insights from the world of Sports Tech & Biz. Every Week.

And we’re back! So let’s dive right in…

Kicking off the year with our predictions for what’s going to dominate the headlines in 2025. It’s a big list, so we’re breaking it into two parts—Part I this week, and Part II next week. And yes, there’s a sprinkle of clickbait because the full list is already up on our website (link below).

The investment landscape? Starting with a bang! A $3 billion investment round was announced earlier this week—talk about hitting the ground running.

Here’s to a fantastic 2025! Can feel it already, is going to be a good one 😎

SportsTechX’s Predictions for 2025 - Part I

Our take on the most influential sports tech & innovation trends for 2025. Covering Fans, Athletes, and Sports Business, we believe these will fundamentally shape the sports landscape this year.

Some are pretty straightforward, others are a bit out-there. It’s up to you to decide which is which. It is a big list so part I this week, part II will follow next. If you can’t wait, the full list is already up on our website, link below.

In no particular order, here's our big list of predictions for 2025:

Fan Trends

Fan Voices will get Louder, their influence stronger

We saw it with the Super League. With the Tennis Ball protests in Germany. The latest initiative, Stop Exploiting Loyalty, by the Premier League Football Supporters Association is a direct response to "19 out of 20 facing ticket price hikes and a general sense that clubs just don’t value fan loyalty". Fans are banding together to make sure their opinions are heard. Which makes total sense, if fans are being turned into customers, then you can't forget that the customer is always right.

Fan Ownership will become more common

Clubs like Watford FC offered digital equity, raised millions in 2024. German club St. Pauli have set up a cooperative raising €18 million in 2 months with a target of €30 million. We believe 2025 will see fan ownership models expand. Whether it is using traditional cooperatives, like the Green Bay Packers who raised $65 million in just 3 months, through Sports DAOs or other blockchain based mechanics. All indicating a shift towards community-powered sports ecosystems.

Increased focus on Kids as the TV Audience

The Simpsons family had a Funday of Football as Bart vs Homer faced off as quarterbacks of opposing NFL teams the Bengals and the Cowboys in an ‘Animated Alt-Cast’. NBA followed suit on Christmas Day with their “Dunk the Halls” broadcast and the NFL has followed up with their latest Nickelodeon collaboration. Fun, family-friendly broadcasts designed to captivate the next generation of fans. This bandwagon will have its first European jumper. After all, the team providing the underlying tech is not far in The Netherlands.

The Live Sports Experience in-stadium will be (more) digitally enhanced

Shared reality environments, like those at Cosm’s venues, promise immersive viewing in 2025. Go into arenas and some have giant halos as screens, while others have LED floors. Some of these, especially the LED courts, significantly upgrade the broadcast experience as well. Smarter stadiums are a better way to justify increased ticket prices.

Athlete Trends

Sport specific gadgets will be more common in training, especially in grassroots sports

We had our own Christmas shopping list of Sports Tech gadgets, and expect more of those will fill stockings this year. 2025 will see an bigger appetite for specialised tools across all sports levels. This democratisation of sports tech is driven by young athletes and parents eager to gain any competitive advantage. And amateur athletes eager for bragging rights.

Market leader will emerge in AI based Scouting and Training, likely through acquisition

The big boys stepped up big time in 2024 as Google did with Liverpool and IBM with various partners through WatsonX. Athletes preparation is increasingly more data-driven recruitment, and there are a number of solutions in this market. We expect some consolidation in this segment.

Business Trends

Next week. Or…

Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

⛳ The new indoor golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TGL, debuted this Tuesday at the SoFi Center, with The Bay Golf Club securing the league's first victory defeating the New York Golf Club. The debut drew nearly 1 million viewers.

🏈  CBS Sports announced that its annual family-friendly alternate broadcast will return with special Slime-filled Spongebob coverage of the Wild Card Weekend playoff matchup between the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers, a year after also hosting the Nickelodeon presentation of Super Bowl LVIII. 

🏈  The Bears launched an interactive digital experience, presented by Dunkin', honoring the best fans in sports ahead of the Fan Appreciation game against the Seahawks at Soldier Field.

⚾ Pison, AI-powered neural sensors for wellness and performance announced the launch of Pison BASEBALL Pro, the world’s first mental performance training solution designed to empower baseball players at all levels to develop an elite mental game.

🏀 Portland Trail Blazers teamed up with Ticketmaster and OneCourt to become the first professional sports team to provide OneCourt’s haptic display at every home game for Blind or Low Vision fans. 

⚽ Crystal Palace became the first football club in the world to offer permanent technology to visually impaired fans. The Give Vision headset relies on a private 5G network at Selhurst Park, allowing users to sit in their season ticket seats and stream live footage of the game without missing out on the matchday experience.

🏒 AHL's Utica Comets unveiled the new Vepe-Icepro 360-degree digital LED Dasherboards, fitted around the entire rink, at the Adirondack Bank Center. 

🏆  The Magic will host the Orlando Magic Venture Challenge, powered by LEAD, in collaboration with the DeVos family. A pitch event to discover and support innovations in sports, health and wellness, the challenge will provide up to $750,000 in total investment.

🏈  At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Sony and the NFL showed a prototype of the new official coach-to-coach communication headset.

🏀 The NBA is set to launch a league-wide biomechanics program with motion capture labs which will be installed at the training facilities of all 30 teams within a year. 

⛳ The PGA TOUR unveiled PGA TOUR Studios, a state-of-the-art production studio to energize how the TOUR creates and delivers content to golf fans across the globe.

🎮 Huawei announced that its Android application store Huawei AppGallery signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Emirates Esports Federation to drive ‘innovation and growth’ across the esports and mobile gaming ecosystem in the region.

🏈  NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix averaged over 30 million global viewers according to the Nielsen Big Data + Panel, making it Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever in the US.

🏈 NFL dominated most-watched US TV broadcasts of 2024. While college football, Paris 2024, women's March Madness and World Series also generated some of the biggest audiences.

⚽ Netflix secured the exclusive US rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup for 2027 and 2031, marking the first time the tournament will appear on a streaming service.

🏎️ adidas announced a multi-year partnership with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, where adidas will design and create a complete range, combining performance

Money Talks:

⚽ Sportsbank, an investment business, signed an exclusivity agreement about investing £230million in John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings - Crystal Palace's biggest shareholder. 

⚽ Errol Musk claimed that his son, billionaire Elon Musk, was interested in buying Liverpool FC, but Fenway Sports Group dismissed rumours indicating they are not looking to sell.

💰 Infinite Reality (IR), an immersive technology company, announced a $3 billion round of funding from a private investor, moving IR’s valuation to $12.25 billion.

💰 ŌURA announced the completion of a $200 million Series D funding round from Fidelity Management & Research Company and Dexcom bringing ŌURA’s valuation to $5.2 billion.

💰Barcelona-based bsport, a platform for boutique wellness studios, closed a €30 million ($30.9m) Series B funding round led by Base10 Partners and Octopus Ventures.

💰 Rivalry, the sportsbook and iGaming operator, completed its non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $3.3 million.

💰 Liverpool-based social gaming startup Betmate, successfully raised $2 million in a new Series A funding round, with the investment led by London VC firm Accelerate Ventures.

💰 Back Dooor raised 53 million yen ($336k) from six new individual investors which will be used to strengthen Back Dooor’s recruitment of personnel, further understand the needs of both athletes and users, and also support athletes.

💰 KIBI Sports, an Indian sports technology startup, successfully raised $100,000 from angel investors in a seed funding round.

💰 Pison, who specialises in AI-powered neural sensors for wellness and gesture control, announced an equity investment from Samsung Ventures, of an undisclosed amount.

💰 Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB) reached an agreement to join the shareholding of Omniscope, a US tech start-up that has created the world’s largest immune database, for an undisclosed amount. 

🤝 DAZN, a global sports entertainment platform, announced an agreement to acquire Foxtel Group at an enterprise value of $2.2 billion.

🤝 Allwyn acquired a 51% stake in the parent company of Novibet, Logflex MT Holding, for $223.6 million, to boost its online gambling operations.

🤝 Indian esports and gaming company NODWIN Gaming announced the acquisition of digital esports media firm AFK Gaming, for $884 k.

🤝 Unrivaled Sports, a fast-growing leader in youth sports experiences, announced the acquisition of Rocker B Ranch, a premier destination for youth baseball and multi-sport experiences In Texas. 

🤝 PlayersTV, the first athlete and fan-owned media company, announced the acquisition of Cloud Media Center, an AI-driven sports adtech and media distribution company, for an undisclosed amount.

🤝 Smart Ball maker Sportable, acquired a computer vision and sports graphics company, Intaneous, for an undisclosed amount.

🤝 FuboTV and The Walt Disney Company announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Disney to combine its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo, forming a combined virtual MVPD company.

💰 Women's tennis star Coco Gauff invested in the professional 3-on-3 women's basketball league, Unrivaled Basketball.

💸 Scrum Ventures, a San Fran and Tokyo-based early-stage VC firm,  announced the closing of its first vertically focused tech fund, Scrum Sports & Entertainment Fund I (SSE), at $68 million. 

⚽ Sir Jim Ratcliffe increased his shareholding in Manchester United, paying £79 million, according to the US SEC filings.

⚽ The Friedkin Group completed its takeover of Everton, ending the turbulent tenure of Farhad Moshiri. The deal for 99.5% of the club was believed to be worth in excess of £400 million.

Recap 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