Featured #15 ⚽ Football Tech & Business Report 2026 is OUT NOW

Interviews, articles, events, and everything else Featured by SportsTechX.

Our latest Football Tech & Business Report is here. The third edition of our deep dive into football innovation, investment and technology, now looking back at the FIFA World Cup 26 and what has changed across the industry.

This is also our first report built on ATLAS, our newly launched Sports Tech Intelligence Platform. Every deal, company and investor behind the charts is now available to explore in one place.

⚽ FOOTBALL TECH & BUSINESS REPORT 2026

Last year's edition landed just before the FIFA World Cup 26. This time, we're taking stock of what the tournament changed, and where football's tech money has been going over the last five and a half years.

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

• $7.5 billion in global football tech dealflow since 2021, including $475.9 million in H1 2026 alone.

• Europe leads the way with $4.8 billion in funding, followed by North America at $2.5 billion.

• 72% of football tech funding has gone to Fan Tech since 2025, up from 65.9% across the full 2021 to H1 2026 period.

The numbers reveal an interesting split. Football-only startups have seen funding decline every year since 2021, with average round sizes falling from $20.1 million to $6.7 million in 2025. Meanwhile, multisport platforms attracted $2.2 billion in 2025 alone.

Founders are still raising, but the cheques have gotten smaller. And much of the money is concentrated in platforms serving fans, particularly content and media.

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

• A detailed analysis of football tech investment patterns, with breakdowns by year, region, sector and sub-sector.

• Three major developments shaping football innovation: officiating technology becoming infrastructure, creator-led distribution of live sports, and multi-club ownership in women's football.

• A special feature on FIFA World Cup 26, covering the technology deployed across officiating, broadcast production, fan experience, venue operations and player performance.

• Leaderboards of the top funded companies, countries and cities, along with 12 football tech startups to watch.

• A mapped view of the football innovation ecosystem, including 25 innovation programmes and accelerators, the people driving them, and special features from our report partners Playermaker and Soccerment.

If you're investing in football, building in it, or trying to understand where the industry is actually heading, this report gives you a closer look at where the money is moving, what technology is being adopted, and where the opportunities are emerging.

The World Cup showed how much technology is already embedded in the game. The next question is how much of it makes its way beyond the biggest tournaments and into football at every level.

That's the conversation we're hoping this report advances.

PS: The report is available through ATLAS Explore, free for everyone. You can also explore our complete collection of SportsTechX reports, newsletters and investment analytics in one place.

LIVE WEBINAR: FOOTBALL TECH & BUSINESS REPORT 2026

Join us on

Friday, 13 November at 2 PM CET for a live walkthrough the report.

Hosted by: SportsTechX
Partners: Soccerment & Playermaker

🚀 Introducing ATLAS: Explore. Raise. Scout.

Our SportsTechX Intelligence Hub has received a major upgrade.

Introducing ATLAS, our new purpose-built sports tech & venture intelligence platform.

10,000+ companies. 8,000+ deals. $130B+ in tracked investments.

One platform bringing together the intelligence, tools and connections Team SportsTechX has built over the last 8 years to navigate the global sports tech ecosystem.

So what’s different?

We often talk about how the ‘Age of AI’ is all about personalisation. So rather than building one product with multiple subscription plans, we've built three distinct solutions around different users and workflows.

One platform. Three solutions. For three distinct use cases:

1. Atlas Explore - For Everyone 

Built for anyone looking to navigate and understand the sports tech market. Reports, newsletters, investment analytics, frameworks, event listings, all our best content in one place. Plus extras.

Free to use, and always will be.

2. Atlas Raise - For Founders

Built for founders preparing for or already on their fundraising journey, from preparing your pitch to identifying investors and managing your raise.

3. Atlas Scout - For Investors & Accelerators

Built for investors, accelerators and anyone hunting the best companies, deals and partners, with live fundraising opportunities and intelligence to support due diligence.

ATLAS is now open to all. 

More about it on the link below. We’re really excited about this one.

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