Advancing sports with data and artificial intelligence
Technology is being increasingly injected into sports via partnerships with startups, and tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google
Today’s newsletter is presented by NSC Digital Sport Business Summit
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Adelaide FC’s Darcy Fogarty got a “semi-permanent” tattoo of a Coopers Brewery beer on his bicep as part of a paid promotion (reportedly worth over $30k) heading into Gather Round - the stunt has attracted substantial national earned media coverage
Geelong FC announced a 5-year partnership extension with Ford Australia (partnership began in 1925/100 years ago) which will see it continue to feature on the front-of-guernsey across the AFL and AFLW teams, in addition to the VFL and VFLW teams’ guernseys
KFC extended its long-standing partnership with Cricket Australia which will see it continue as Naming Rights partner for the BBL, renew its support for the Weber WBBL, and amplify its involvement with international cricket through the Australian Women’s and Men’s teams
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinstash announced a major sponsorship with the Sydney Roosters for the 2025 NRL season which will see its logo feature on the Roosters’ official media polo worn by coaching staff and players, and across LED signage at Allianz Stadium during home games
AFL announced headspace and Disaster Relief Australia as its Official Charity Partners for the next 3 years, joining existing charity partner FightMND
Hyundai renewed it partnership with the Melbourne Mavericks, contining as the Official Auto Partner for the 2025 Suncorp Super Netball season - it will continue to offer Mavs members up to $1000 back when they purchase a new Hyundai
Brisbane Broncos welcomed Jim Beam as a Platinum Partner of the Broncos NRL & NRLW team as part of a 3-year agreement
NRMA Insurance was announced as the Official Major Partner of the Adelaide Oval - the venue’s Southern Plaza is set to be renamed as part of the 5-year deal
South Sydney Rabbitohs announced new partnerships with SipEnergy who will join the Club as the Official Solar Energy Partner, and full-service media agency Optimise as a partner of the Rabbitohs Business Chamber
Rugby Australia, alongside the British & Irish Lions, announced the continuation of Gilbert as the Official and Exclusive Match Ball Supplier to the Lions tour to Australia, and an extension as the Official Ball and Protective Wear partner of the Wallabies
NSW Swifts secured a partnership renewal with HomeWorld for 2 years, and a 1-year extension with Guzman y Gomez (Related: Athletes buying burritos)
PEUGEOT Australia became the Official Automotive Partner of NSW Rugby and will provide a range of vehicles to support the team’s operations and enhance the overall experience for players, staff, and fans alike as part of a 2-year deal
Essendon FC welcomed Australian owned company MA Services Group as an an Official Partner until at least the end of 2027
Western Bulldogs renewed its partnership with Beacon Lighting and Beacon Trade for 2 years
Collingwood FC inked a 2-year deal with caravan manufacturer Crusader Caravans which became a Platinum Partner
Penrith Panthers and Western Sydney University signed an MOU to collaborate on community engagement, education, and research in Western Sydney
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles launched the “Sea Eagles Sports Business Academy” (offering a double Diploma of Sport, and Diploma of Leadership & Management) in partnership with TAFE Queensland
NOVA Entertainment became the Official Radio Partner of the West Coast Fever
Rugby Australia confirmed the renewal of its landmark broadcast partnership with Nine through 2030, valued at up to $240 million which represents a significant uplift on Rugby Australia’s current broadcast agreement
Sydney will once again host the NRL and NRLW Grand Finals, after the NSW Government secured both matches for Accor Stadium in 2025 - projected visitor expenditure is more than $26 million
BlueBet completed its acquisition of sports and racing betting company TopSport, following the successful migration of TopSport customers to the BlueBet-run Betr platform
As part of Western Sydney Wanderers FC’s Grassroots Recognition Round, all registered grassroots footballers in the Wanderers Club Ambassador Program, can secure a $1 ticket to the game against Western United this Sunday at CommBank Stadium
Suncorp Super Netball broke its Round 1 attendance record with 22,369 fans attending matches nationally – an increase of 8% on 2024 Round 1 attendee figures that set the league’s previous record last year
LeBron James was named as Mattel’s latest “Kenbassador” and became the 1st male athlete to be honored with an official Ken doll made in his likeness
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Data and artificial intelligence are helping to advance sports in powerful ways
Technology is being increasingly injected into sports via partnerships with startups, and tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
At the heart of many of these partnerships are common drivers - data and artificial intelligence. Why? Because sport generates a remarkable amount of data (onfield, at the game, across screens) and sports and their partners in Australia and across the globe are becoming more sophisticated in how they capture it, and extract value from it.
In Australia:
Champion Data “provides data-driven insights with high-tech speed and precision by collaborating closely with sporting organisations, clubs, broadcasters, sponsors, and digital and media content providers for seamless, elite performance.” It has partnered with the AFL (which is reportedly a 49% shareholder) since 1999 and works alongside other codes such as netball, soccer, horse racing and betting.
The start of the 2024 NRL season saw Stats Perform celebrate its 10-year partnership as the league’s Official Data Partner – it collects around 14,000 data points per game.
Wearables have made it easier to capture high-quality data to assist athletes and teams optimise performance - Since being founded in 2006 in Melbourne, Catapult has grown rapidly and now works with the world's top leagues, teams, and organisations (4400+ teams globally) to “unleash the potential of every athlete and team on Earth”. With a market cap close to $1 billion, it’s one of Australia’s greatest sports tech success stories.
The world’s biggest sports have major data partnerships
In 2021, Sportradar became the exclusive worldwide distributor of NBA data as part of a 10-year deal reportedly worth US$1 billion
In 2023, the NFL renewed its strategic partnership with Genius Sports as the league’s Official Data and Video Distribution Partner until the end of the 2027-28 season
Earlier this year, Formula 1 announced San Diego-based company ALT Sports Data as its Official Betting Data Supplier
IBM partners with the US Open and Wimbledon and across both tournaments, it captures almost 10m data points each year
Related: IBM’s AI Capabilities
Sports are leveraging their increasing amounts of data to advance sports on and off the field using artificial Intelligence
Broadcast
Sports organisations across the globe are leveraging AI and technology partnerships to enhance the broadcast experience.
Late last year, IBM was named as the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first-ever Official AI Partner and announced its plans to deliver the "UFC Insights Engine”, giving fans branded insights, stats and graphics across pre-event programming, Pay-Per-View broadcast, social media and in-venue video boards with real-time advanced analytics that enhance broadcast and digital coverage.
More recently, the UFC announced a partnership with Meta which will give it the ability to use Meta's technology platforms, services and products - including Meta AI, Meta Glasses, Meta Quest, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads - giving fans more ways to view content.
Organisations such as Genius Sports are using real-time AI-powered augmentation to completely transform broadcasts. In 2024, it partnered with Electronic Arts (EA) to blend live NFL action with video game elements - the real Chiefs and Texans appeared as their avatars from the popular Madden NFL video game on the field as part of the “Madden NFL Cast” streamed on Peacock.
In Australia:
Kayo Sports unveiled new technology innovations ahead of the Australia vs Indian Test Series that included HyperLayer, an AI-powered platform developed by New Zealand based Virtual Eye. It uses 6 x cameras that track at 250 frames per second to capture every phase of the ball’s journey, from bowler to pitch to batter, which helps unlock new insights and analytics.
Virtual Eye is also using the combination of artificial intelligence and tracking cameras to analyse biomechanics during live cricket broadcasts. During the recent test series, its technology was used to break down the bowling action of Indian fast-bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, unpacking what makes him such a challenging bowler to face. His arm speed at the point of the delivery is around 75km/h and the ball comes out at around 135km/h which means his right wrist can roughly generate 60km/h of power - It’s this explosive wrist action that makes him such a challenging bowler to face. This technology was recently featured in an article by Fox Sports Australia here.
App
Sports organisations are building new AI features into their apps that help immerse fans and deliver hyper-personalisation.
The NBA is commonly regarded as the world’s most “tech-savvy” league. In 2020, it announced a new partnership with Microsoft which became its Official Artificial Intelligence Partner and an Official Cloud and Laptop Partner. Since then, Microsoft has helped optimise its app and streaming products, offering new features and advanced personalisation via machine learning and artificial intelligence.
IBM powers the app and website of The Masters, and it has launched features like “Hole Insights” - A tool that uses match data from the past 8 years (170,000+ shots) to generate detailed breakdowns of current and historical play, as well as projections of anticipated play for any given hole e.g."Shots historically hit in this location have an 82% chance of resulting in a birdie." *IBM also powers the websites and apps of Wimbledon and US Open
In Australia:
Telstra powers the AFL and NRL apps and it recently announced that it will spend $700m rolling out AI across its entire business. It’s unclear if this investment relates to AFL and NRL app development.
Content Creation & Development
Within apps and across other digital platforms, AI is being used to produce quality content at-scale, which also enables editorial teams to save massive amounts of time and focus on higher value tasks.
IBM’s Large Language Model can produce detailed, long-form articles for all 254 US Open matches within minutes of its conclusion, offering fans in-depth analysis of player performance, key statistics, and match highlights.
AI Narration - 20,000+ video clips in the Masters app are narrated by a generative AI model that's trained to speak the specific language of the tournament. E.g. A sand trap is a “bunker” and golf fans are “patrons”
Infosys launched AI Commentary in the Infosys Match Centre on the AO website and App which uses large language models to provide byte-sized AI Commentary and insights at every match moment.
The NBL and Basketball.com.au is leveraging AI through Brand Ninja to create timely, high-volume content, while their editors’ oversight ensures accuracy and authenticity.
Operations
Many sports organisations such as teams, leagues, stadiums and wagerers are using AI to support their day-today operations.
Many major sports leagues use AI to build their fixtures – e.g. the AFL uses Fastbreak.ai’s (it also works with the likes of the NBA) cutting edge Saas solution and uses 400+ rules and constraints to help guide the league to the best possible outcome.
Related: Building and Launching the AFL Fixture
The AFL also uses AI to help things like limiting membership churn - its built data visualisations and a machine-learning model to help its 18 clubs grow and retain their member and fanbases
To optimise revenue, many sports adopt dynamic ticket pricing - when demand is high, the ticket price increases, but if demand is low, it decreases. This practice has recently been scrutinised in Australia
Also, under scrutiny is the use of AI to help with stadium security after the MCG encountered a security breach which saw two men carrying guns enter the venue, bypassing the AI security scanners
The MCG also recently introduced 4 x “swipe, grab and go food” beverage outlets that use artificial intelligence for payment instead of the traditional checkout system.
Sports betting
Data and AI have become a critical part of the sports betting ecosystem. Thanks to multibillion-dollar data deals between major sports and the likes of Genius Sports and Sportradar, punters are increasingly gaining access to advanced statistics and analytical tools, allowing for more informed wagering - More to follow.
New fan engagement initiatives
During the Australian Open 2025, Infosys and Tennis Australia launched:
‘Beyond Tennis’ - ‘A revolutionary AI-driven tennis league and coaching game for the next generation of fans’
The Infosys Fan Zone at Melbourne Park which featured a new VR AI Stadium where fans could create stunning virtual courts using a new generative AI speech-to-image feature and play a game of tennis
In 2021, the AFL and Google launched a machine learning-powered Footy Skills Lab that enables users to access Australian Rules Football-handling activities and training resources through a web application.
Athlete & team performance
Data and AI are also helping improve athlete performance.
Since 2019, Swimming Australia has collaborated with AWS to pioneer world-first use cases for AI and machine learning (ML) in the pool, and it’s leveraging this partnership to create a competitive advantage and push Australian athletes towards Olympic gold at LA 2028
NBA players are improving their on-court performance thanks to AI on Microsoft’s Azure AI infrastructure, which is helping players and coaches understand player strengths and weaknesses. Coaches can look for patterns of play that players may not be aware of, and performance improvements can be more easily measured.
In 2022, Catapult and Champion Data formed a multi-year partnership to supply performance analysis solutions to the AFL to empower data-driven decisions to improve player performance, quantify decisions to help mitigate the risk of injuries, and inform return-to-play processes.
Better performance often helps created a better spectacle for fans.
Sports aren’t just partnering with data, AI and technology companies, they’re investing
For example:
The NFL holds equity in Genius Sports and is one of its largest shareholders.
Many major sports have investment arms that invest in startups that are underpinned by AI. E.g The NBA has an investment arm called "NBA Investments" (previously known as "NBA Equity") that has invested in startups such as Sportrader and FastbreakAI mentioned above
Tennis Australia’s “AO startups” is an initiative in partnership with Wildcard Ventures that gives start-ups (many of them use AI) the opportunity to introduce technological innovations at the Australian Open, in exchange for Tennis Australia having the opportunity to invest in the company - See the latest intake here.
Drawing inspiration from the above, the NRL has a partnership with Advance Queensland which gives Queensland businesses a chance to showcase their innovative products to revolutionise fan engagement, event operations, data management, athlete performance, broadcast innovation and more.
Artificial intelligence and data are becoming increasingly central to how sport is consumed, managed, played and monetised
And this seems to be just the beginning.
With ongoing major investments, growing partnerships, and rapid advancements in AI technology, the future of sport appears set to be increasingly shaped by sports organisations that can learn, adapt, and elevate every aspect of the sports experience.
A quick note to share some exciting personal news…
My wife and I are expecting a baby boy in the coming weeks! As we prepare to welcome him into the world, Notice newsletters will be delivered Ad-hoc and will be taking a short break at some point in the coming weeks. LinkedIn activity will continue so make sure you’re following here.
Also, if you’d like to connect about partnerships, collaborations, or just want to get in touch, please don’t hesitate to reach out on LinkedIn here, or via email:
E: matthew.hughes@noticesports.com.au
Thanks as always for your support 🙏
Matt - Writer/Founder
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Not a subscriber yet? Discover specialised sports marketing insights, tailored for sports industry professionals within Australia and across the globe. If you work in sports for an agency, brand or rights-holder then this is for you.