SportsTech Predictions for 2026

Sports tech is heading into one of its most transformative years yet. After a decade of steady progress in wearables, data analytics and fan engagement tools, the industry is now edging toward a new era – one in which AI, automation and immersive experiences collide.

In 2026, the boundaries between athlete, coach, fan and algorithm are sure to blur even further. Startups are moving faster, leagues are becoming more experimental and investors are, once again, circling the space with fresh enthusiasm.

From training systems that feel more like video games to AI assistants that quietly reshape how clubs operate behind the scenes, sports tech is moving from something that was once “nice-to-have” to a fundamental part of sports. In fact, innovation isn’t happening in isolated pockets anymore – it’s happening everywhere at once. It’s in grassroots training, elite performance, stadium operations and even on social platforms where fandom is being remade in real time.

If 2025 was about proving what AI could do, 2026 looks set to reveal what happens when it’s woven into every layer of sport. We’re expecting surprises, experimentation and that the industry will suddently feel a lot less like traditional sport and a lot more like a fast-moving tech ecosystem.

A New Era of Sport–Tech Convergence 

What used to be separate worlds – coaching, data, entertainment, fan communities and digital platforms – are now merging into one connected ecosystem. For founders and innovators, this convergence opens up a wave of opportunity – tools built for athletes spill into consumer fitness, fan platforms double as data engines and coaching concepts become interactive digital products.

Rather than thinking in terms of “sports tech companies” and “sports organisations,” the industry is beginning to look more like a shared innovation playground. Startups are increasingly building solutions that serve multiple layers of the sporting world at once.

The feeling heading into 2026 is that the entire industry is reorganising itself – and it’s not around institutions, but rather around experiences, journeys and ecosystems that flow seamlessly between digital and physical worlds.

Fans Are Becoming Co-Creators, Not Just Spectators

Sports audiences have changed dramatically, and next year will amplify that shift. Fans aren’t just sitting back and consuming content – they’re shaping it, remixing it and demanding more influence over how sport is experienced. Whether it’s grassroots creators building followings, supporters driving new formats or communities organising around niche sports and analytics, the fan base is evolving into a creative force.

For tech and startup leaders, this is reshaping what “engagement” means. It’s not just about delivering polished content from the top down anymore. Rather, it’s about building platforms that allow fans to participate, contribute and even co-own parts of the sporting landscape.

This shift is pushing the industry to think less about broadcasting and more about community – that means less control and more collaboration. The result is a far more dynamic, unpredictable and opportunity-rich environment for anyone innovating in the sports world.

Our Experts

• Peter Bell: VP of Marketing, EMEA at Twilio
• Jen Yuan: Co-Founder at View Source
• Ross McGraw: Global VP and Head of CORE
• Maxime Sebti: CEO and Co-founder of Score
• Roman Rylko: CTO at Pynest
• Joe R. Faris: President and CEO at Accountalent
• Annika La Vina: Founder and CEO of Draco Intelligence
• Chris Rodgers: Founder and CEO at CSP Agency

Peter Bell, VP of Marketing, EMEA at Twilio

“Sports fandom is moving beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ era. Next year, we’ll see clubs start to use real-time data to treat every supporter as an individual, regardless of postcode. Chelsea FC is leading the charge, unifying insights across 615 million fans to tailor the experience from the turnstile to the app.

“This is the future of the sector: operating with the reach of a global brand, but using scalable tech to maintain a personal connection inside and outside of the stadium. It’s about bringing the fan closer to the action – securely, intelligently, and personally.”

Jen Yuan, Co-Founder at View Source 

“Taste – a considered balance of rigor and warmth, logic and creativity – often resides in the details you barely notice, and it will be a defining factor in which sports-tech brands stand apart in 2026. It shows up in the subtle nuances of a brand’s design language: typography that feels perfectly calibrated, layouts that feel like they can breathe.

“While today’s sports-tech aesthetic often leans minimalist, typography determines whether that minimalism feels clinical or alive. Font choices, spacing, and hierarchy shape the brand’s voice. And while UX design traditionally aims to remove friction, a small, intentional moment of friction can create a distinctive, memorable experience. These nuanced decisions distinguish a brand with taste from one simply following a trend. The result is authenticity – a human energy that counterbalances tech’s sometimes impersonal edge.

“If the early era of sports-tech branding was driven by emotion, and the last decade by aspiration, the new frontier is about architecture – with taste as the ultimate filter. ”

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Ross McGraw, Global VP and Head of CORE

“In 2025, sports tech underwent a major shift as wearable tools moved from ‘nice-to-haves’ to essential for athlete safety, adaptation, and long-term performance optimisation. Rising temperatures and more extreme training conditions accelerated the need for real-time physiological data, particularly core body temperature, a vital metric that until recently was only measurable through invasive methods. Today, technology like the CORE 2 sensor gives athletes, coaches, and everyday performers precise, validated insights into heat strain, recovery, and effort regulation.

“AI may be the future of human performance, but it’s only as good as the inputs it receives. Much of the insights we currently receive from wearables are heavily dependent on just one or two data points. I expect a wave of new data inputs, like core temperature, will allow wearables to harness the ability of AI to form a more complete picture of an individual’s wellbeing. The goal is simple: help every athlete and train smarter, stay safer, and unlock their full potential.”

Maxime Sebti, CEO and Co-founder of Score 

“For years, elite sports data has been a luxury only the biggest clubs could afford. Providers like Opta rely on expert human analysts to tag and interpret every frame of match footage: a process that’s expensive, time-consuming, and largely inaccessible beyond the Premier League.

“By 2026, that model will change. Advances in computer vision will make detailed match data searchable and available to lower-league clubs.Once computer vision is able to identify and classify match footage autonomously, clubs of all sizes will be able to gain access to the insights that were once only available to the very elite clubs.

“There are so many areas within sport where these benefits can be applied. Coaches will be able to ask, “Show me every moment our shape broke down”. Scouts will be able to uncover decades of archived footage for specific traits, such as every winger that’s capable of beating a defender one-on-one to cut inside. Even medical teams will track fatigue and recovery patterns in real time.

“This doesn’t generate data for data’s sake – it levels the playing field, enabling smaller clubs to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The advantage then becomes one of mastery over money: how well a club can interpret and apply its data. Computer vision won’t just analyse the game, it will democratise it.”

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Roman Rylko, CTO at Pynest

“By 2025, it became clear: professional clubs are already heavily tech-enabled, and huge growth is visible in the semi-professional and amateur niches. Sensors have become cheaper, smartphones are ubiquitous, but the data still resides in 10 different apps.

“In 2026, I expect an explosion of fairly simple solutions like “one platform for the whole team.” Of course, this won’t be super-analytics, but a set of basic answers: who’s overloaded, who’s missing training, who’s recovering improperly. We’re already in talks with a client in Europe (the client works with several football clubs) who wants to combine training plans, well-being, video, and a minimum of sensor metrics in one place. This will free the coach from having to check all the parameters in separate apps.

“The main trend will be toward sportstech “for real people,” not just for top clubs with 10-person analytics teams.”

Joe R. Faris, President and CEO at Accountalent

“In 2026, the largest trend will be around the use of Data Engines to generate compliant-level data, essentially data that has less than 2% of errors in it. These systems are being chosen by teams over all new wearable technology products because they provide the reliability of input needed to make good decisions and avoid expensive training errors.”

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Annika La Vina, Founder and CEO of Draco Intelligence 

“The biggest shift in sports tech in 2025 – and the one that will define 2026 – is the rejection of data maximalism. Athletes are no longer motivated by endless charts or ten metrics competing for attention. They want technology that helps them run better, not think harder. The future isn’t about more numbers — it’s about curated, athlete-defined insight delivered in the few moments it actually matters.

“At Draco Intelligence, we’re building DRAGON, an ultralight AR HUD that displays only the metrics an athlete chooses — pace, distance, cadence, heart rate, or even a single minimal cue. What we’re seeing is a broader movement away from distraction-heavy dashboards toward tools that protect rhythm, focus, and flow. Technology is becoming a silent partner, not a second sport to manage.

“In 2026, sports tech will shift decisively from “track everything” to “surface only what helps.” Less noise, more performance. Less data, better athletes.

Chris Rodgers, Founder and CEO at CSP Agency

“The big theme of 2025, and something everyone has had to adapt fast to, has been the growth of new leagues and new digital first distribution points. The market feels saturated. But though content fragmentation may not seem the most exciting topic, it will be the thing that destroys some incumbents in 2026. We have new clients every month lamenting how fans’ attention has been chopped up between dozens of streaming services and creator-driven distributions. We measure with clients how much fans pay per month to get a full package of sports. On an average client, this rose from less than $35 to more than $60 in one year, and discoverability dropped. We hope ESPN’s Where to Watch and bundled rights at Eurovision Sport are stopgaps while OEMs like Apple sign direct rights. But the shifts in 2025 markets should teach vendors that discoverability and retention will be the revenue battlefield in 2026.

“Speaking of, creator-driven live broadcasts are accelerating, and the new watch party mode will redraw engagement numbers. Networks like Creator Sports are validating that the Gen Z customer prefers this to legacy play by play. We see clients get 3 to 4 times the engagement on alt broadcasts hosted by fan-favorite creators. The message for tech firms is that they will get most growth in the next few years if they have creator-driven distribution and AI-assisted curation at the heart of their engagement play.”

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