#150 ⚽ Football Tech Report 2025 - OUT NOW

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

The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity at SportsTechX. As always, our goal is to deliver best-in-class data and insights in the most digestible format possible. Our latest report on Football Tech is the first to be presented through our new Sports Tech Intelligence Hub.

We've built a lot of resources for our community - our framework, reports, databases, ecosystem lists, and more - and they all needed a single home. That's exactly what the Intelligence Hub provides.

As members of the SportsTechX community, we're inviting you to be among the first to try it. It's not perfect yet (especially on mobile, we're working on it), but we believe it's a significant step forward and we hope you will too. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think. Any and all feedback is welcome 🙏

⚽ DOWNLOAD NOW: FOOTBALL TECH REPORT 2025

Our second deep dive into what's happening in football innovation, five years after the first (FTR2020).

Why now? Simple: FIFA World Cup 26 is less than 12 months away, and we wanted to take stock of where the industry actually is. A lot has changed since our last report, and it felt like the right time to map out the landscape before one of sport’s biggest events kicks off.

Let’s start with numbers, which tell quite a story.

• $7.7 billion in global football tech deals since 2020 - with $2.2 billion just in H1 2025.

• Europe leads the way with ~60% of that investment, though North America isn't far behind at 33%.

• And here's something that jumped out at us: funding for Fan solutions has shot up from 63% to 80% over the last 18 months (2024-25).

The industry is clearly betting big on making sure fans have a great experience. Whether fans want that and at what cost is a whole other question, and deserves its own investigation.

In this report, here's what we've packed in:

• Analysis of investment patterns

• Insights from innovators who are defining where this industry is going

• 10 major trends we're tracking: from officiating tech and the rise of entertainment-driven formats to the real dangers of decontextualized data

• Special features on women's football and tech at the upcoming World Cup, because those conversations are absolutely central to where football is headed.

• Practical lists: 15 ‘Startups to Watch’, 20+ innovation initiatives, and events worth attending.

If you're investing in this space, building in it, or trying to figure out where football tech is actually headed versus where the hype says it's going, this report is meant to cut through the noise. We're at an inflection point where billions are being deployed, but the fundamental questions about value, adoption, and what fans actually want remain surprisingly unsettled.

The money has arrived, the tech is here. Now comes the harder part: figuring out what works. That's the conversation we're hoping this report advances.

PS: You'll see this report with early access to our all-new Intelligence Hub. We recommend taking it for a spin on your desktop/laptop. If you run into any issues or have any feedback, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

📱 Philadelphia Union launched an official mobile app powered by Theta Network, offering fan engagement tools and exclusive digital content.

⚾ Batbox, a baseball entertainment venue inspired by Topgolf, announced the opening of a 13,000-square-foot facility in North Texas featuring 10 baseball simulators.

⚽ Major League Soccer selected StellarAlgo to enhance fan engagement through data analytics across the league’s growing supporter base.

⛳ Garmin partnered with golf strategy app Noonan to integrate launch monitor data into its Garmin Golf platform through the Premium API, enhancing real-time performance insights.

🏅 Google joined Team USA and LA28 as a founding partner to power cloud infrastructure and fan experiences for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

⚽ Denver Summit FC teamed up with Jump as its exclusive fan experience and ticketing partner, creating a direct-to-fan digital ecosystem for its inaugural season.

🎮 IOC signed a multi-year licensing deal with SEGA, uniting Sonic the Hedgehog with the Olympic rings for official 2026 merchandise.

📰 EA SPORTS partnered with The Athletic to co-create digital sports content aimed at engaging the next generation of fans.

🏟️ Arsenal FC entered discussions about upgrading and potentially expanding the Emirates Stadium, the third-largest club venue in London.

🏙️ Cosm revealed plans for a new stadium-style immersive theater in downtown Cleveland, located near Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

📺 Google secured a multi-year distribution deal with NBCUniversal to keep “Sunday Night Football” and other programming on YouTube TV.

🏈 Hulu scrapped its in-season UNC football documentary after reports of internal dysfunction and preferential treatment under new head coach Bill Belichick.

⚾ FOX Sports secured U.S. broadcast and streaming rights for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, continuing its partnership with MLB and the WBC organization.

🎟️ FIFA faced a preliminary probe by Swiss regulators into its blockchain-based ticketing token system for the 2026 World Cup.

Money Talks:

💸 Apollo Global Management introduced Apollo Sports Capital, a new global investment business providing capital solutions across the sports and live events ecosystem.

💸 Avenue Capital, backed by investor Marc Lasry, closed its Avenue Sports Fund at over $1 billion, following multiple investments across leagues and franchises in North America and Europe.

💸 Arctos Partners launched a dedicated Sports Capital Markets Platform to expand its financing and liquidity solutions for sports franchises and investors.

💰 HELIOS, a US-based hockey wearable technology company, raised $2.2 million in seed funding to scale its smart sensor platform that tracks player performance and movement.

💰 Sportsdunia, an Indian sports media platform integrating AI and analytics into coverage, raised $1 million to scale its data-driven content and grow its digital reach.

🤝 Peloton, the US fitness technology company, acquired the breathwork and mindfulness app Breathwrk for an undisclosed amount, offering free access to most Peloton members and syncing workouts across both platforms.

🤝 Sony Corporation acquired an unnamed sports tech firm previously backed by footballer Harry Kane, which provides performance tools used by clubs including Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Juventus.

🤝 M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment acquired the Women’s Sports Group, expanding its consulting and representation capabilities in the women’s sports sector.

🤝 Crux Football, founded by former New Zealand women’s captain, acquired France’s Montpellier HSC Féminines, marking its first investment in women’s football.

💸 The Women’s Super League (WSL) hired Goldman Sachs to conduct a financing review exploring funding options for the top two divisions of English women’s football.

💵 Cristiano Ronaldo became the first billionaire footballer, with Bloomberg valuing his net worth at $1.4 billion.

STX STARTUP SPOTLIGHT - Coachwhisperer

NEW SERIES: Over the next 10 weeks, we’re shining the spotlight on some of the most innovative startups shaping the future of sports. Each week, we’ll feature one company and share a short conversation with a key member of their leadership team.

In partnership with Sports Tech Nation

What problem do you solve and how do you solve it?

During training execution, communication challenges are a major obstacle. Feedback from coaches must frequently be delivered across large distances. To ensure players understand instructions and criticism, coaches are often forced to interrupt the training session—leading to frequent stops and an overall loss of flow and efficiency. Our intercom system enables a discrete communication channel between coaches and players on the pitch. Our Wi-Fi based solution allows to communicate with individual players, specific groups or the entire team in real time.

 Key achievements you want to highlight?

During our market entry phase this year, we were able to acquire our first partners from the Bundesliga and from the Premier League. Together with those partners we are able to adapt our product offering further to the needs of professional sports organisations. Recently we launched our LiveTranslate feature, which bridges language barriers during training sessions. The coaches instructions are translated automatically for players with language barriers.

 What can we expect from you in the next 12-18 months?

With our Coaching Behaviour Analysis feature, our SaaS coaching evaluation tool, we want to provide the organisations with valuable insights about their coaching performance based on the collected audio data. Together with our customer base we will implement more use cases to further increase the value of our system. Our goal for the next 12-18 months is to expand into additional European markets, and we are preparing to raise a Seed+ investment round by year’s end to make it happen.

Recap from our content archive:

🔙 STX Article: New Leagues and Emerging Formats

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