Welcome to the fourth edition of Sports Business Journal’s 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies, a labor of love and exercise in outside-the-box thinking by our editorial team.
We approach this list with a simple mandate each year: to recognize companies that pushed the sports industry forward with new technological initiatives, products or services in the prior 12 months — and project to continue doing so in the future.
There are no exact criteria for this group. We consider fledgling startups, decades-old conglomerates and everything in between. There is no number of clients one must support. No volume of prior awards one must have won. No amount of money must have been raised.
What is required is an ambition to improve the industry, either by solving an old problem or creating something new, and the credentials to prove that ambition is making tangible impacts.
The companies to be recognized in 2026 exemplify those qualities, each in their own way. Their diverse set of specialties speaks to the depth, ingenuity and complexity of the modern-day sports industry.
There are tech firms driving real business results using artificial intelligence to streamline operations such as event scheduling, officiating and sales lead generation. There is a startup revolutionizing live event accessibility for blind/low-vision fans, and a platform that analyzes reams of performance data to assess athlete readiness and identify injury risks before they happen.
For the first time, spotlight two league operators that are pushing the boundaries of how technology can not only augment the fan experience, but reimagine it entirely.
Here they are:
Bolt6
Mashgin
OneCourt
Orreco
Owl AI
Recentive Analytics
SailGP
Sportable
TMRW Sports
WolfCycle
These companies will be profiled in greater depth in SBJ’s May 11 issue and during the Sports Business Awards: Tech ceremony that kicks off SBJ Tech Week, May 18-20, in New York City.
Past honorees
2025
AiFi | ASB GlassFloor | Camb.ai | Cosm | FlexPro Grip | Hawk-Eye | Immersiv.io | Misapplied Sciences | Plantiga | Wicket
2024
Genius Sports | Infinite Athlete | Kitman Labs | OnePlan | Peak AI | Pramana Labs | Springbok Analytics | Supponor | Videocites | WSC Sports
2023
Amazon’s Just Walk Out | BreakAway Data | CrowdIQ | NeuroSync | Nextiles | Pixellot | Proteus Motion | Quintar | The Famous Group | Zippin
