A new range of startups are bringing fresh approaches and innovative outcomes to individuals, teams and clubs in a variety of sports.

Four finalists have been named in the ‘Fast Growth Award’ category of the upcoming Australia & New Zealand Sports Technology Awards (ANZSTA), which are supported by the Telstra-Cisco alliance, nextmedia and Vumero Sports.

The ANZSTA awards are being held on the 9th August at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne - the evening before the Vumero Sports Analytics in Sport conference. 

Finalist one: Live Graphic Systems

Live Graphic Systems has created a broadcast solution that uses live and historical sports data to automate commercially driven graphical overlays for live stream broadcasts.

It allows rights holders to own the look and feel of their content and to build a digital asset they can use to drive revenue and growth and to engage fans.

Basketball NSW uses the technology to live stream Spalding Waratah League Championship Division games. The company’s technology is also used for other sports.

Finalist two: RefLive

RefLive created a smartwatch app for football referees and has since also built a referee management system to measure abuse of referees from players, coaches and parents.

The management system also provides a wellbeing and self-assessment of performance from referees after a match.

The company has quickly scaled up and has gained significant international traction.

Finalist three: GameFace

GameFace pivoted to sports analytics in late 2016 and quickly gained recognition and a string of high-profile paid pilot projects.

The technology can be used to perform instant video footage analysis to bring you key events and insights from the match.

It can track every aspect of a match for any sport, including goals, assists, players, passing patterns and ball possessions, using machine learning and computer vision.

Finalist four: SponServe

SponServe has created a complete sponsorship management software solution for servicing sponsors.

The system presents selected data from a rights holder’s system to the brand’s system including the fee, any value in kind, the total value of benefits to be delivered across partnerships, benefits delivered to date and benefits still to be used.

The company has achieved substantial local and international success, with more than 120 clients across eight countries.