Sport's Cutting Edge

Alicia Nagle is a passionate community builder. This firefighter and surf life saver has spent the past decade working in media and marketing across Australia and the United Kingdom. Alicia’s grandpa, Kel Nagle, is an Aussie golf legend, who won the 1960 British Open, and was runner-up at the 1965 US Open. Naturally, Alicia’s first venture as a start-up entrepreneur is Zonely- a platform that uses...

Chris Smiles is one of the world’s leading tech-driven architects. He has mastered the use of digital technology and computational design to create sports stadia that will dominate deep into the 21st Century. He is the man behind the quarter of a billion-dollar Marvel Stadium redevelopment. He was a key member of the winning bid to build Optus Stadium, and was lead designer of the new Adelaide Ova...

In the past 18 months, crypto has crashed, NFTs have gone from rare gold to rarely spoken about, inflation continues to bite hard, and recession fears loom. Despite the adversity, Australian sportstech has continued to power forward, with ASTN’s Australian Sports Innovation Report 2023, showing the industry now generates $4.25 billion annually.  ASTN Chair Dr. Martin Schlegel says the tough econom...

Cricket is one of the world’s oldest sports, first played in the 1500s in England. The modern game is equal parts tradition and revolution- first seen with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, and now T20. BBL team the Melbourne Renegades, in conjunction with ASTN, selected Spark-Up Studios to digitally revolutionise their fan connection. Today we hear from Spark-Up founder Luke Santamaria and Ren...

Lydia Lassila is one of Australia’s all-time Olympic greats, having won aerials Gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and then become the first ever woman to complete a quad-twisting triple somersault at the 2014 Games in Sochi. Lydia says “playing it safe is not my style”, and she used all of that resilience to get her through the depths of despair in 2006, when she tore her ACL apart, t...

George Gregan is one of greatest rugby union players of all time: A Wallabies captain, 1999 World Cup winner, 5x Bledisloe Cup winner, and the Australian games record holder. George co-founded PTP Fitness to bring his fitness passion and expertise to the wider community. PTP now work with the Wallabies, Matildas, the Diamonds, Boomers and the Opals. They are also with Richmond, Carlton and Sydney...

NTT is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, founded and based in Japan. NTT have become a major player in sports technology, and Aussie Peter Gray is their Global Sportstech & Innovation Boss. Peter heads-up NTT’s Tour De France operation, powering one of the world’s most iconic sports events with revolutionary technology. Today, Pete takes us behind the scenes of the Tour,...

Carsten Koerl founded Sportradar in 2001, and the NASDAQ-listed company are the official data partner of FIFA, the ICC, the NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR and UEFA. Carsten Koerl is the mastermind who made it happen. With a Masters in Electronic and Microprocessor Engineering, Koerl has always been two steps ahead of the competition. Before the ‘dot-com boom’, he founded sports data company B-WIN, in 1997....

Paul Hoon is the CEO of etrainu. He’s been with the Queensland company since day one, 18 years ago, when he started as the Sales Boss. Paul is an Engineer by profession, and was formerly General Manager at SumTotal, and Sales Boss at YomStar. etrainu is an online learning platform now playing on the global stage- working with golf’s PGA and LPGA, Youth Soccer in the USA, as well as Basketball Aust...

Cameron McKenzie-McHarg is a 2-time Olympic rower, winning Silver in Beijing. He is a 2-time World Champion, and former Australian Captain. The prodigious athlete was also a top-10 AFL Draft Pick, who went on to become Chair of Rowing Australia, forge a successful commerce career, and then found 776BC with wife, Kate. 776BC are now a global leader in performance apparel, as the official outfitter...

Libby Owens has been a leading figure in Australian sport, business, and media for more than a decade. Formerly managing broadcast rights at Cricket Australia and a formative stint with the Indian Cricket Board, the BCCI, Libby was also formerly at Australia’s media watchdog, ACMA. Since April 2016, Libby has been CEO of the company that invented modern sports data in Australia, Champion Data. Cha...

Courtney Smith has been a prolific business and tech entrepreneur for the past quarter century. He has now founded the world’s first blockchain volunteering rewards platform, Firefly Initiative. This not-for-profit is on a mission to pump $25 million worth of direct social benefit into local communities, empowering local sport and local business. Most importantly, their goal is to honour the tirel...

Gen Z (those born after 1996) are the first cohort of true digital natives, and are fast becoming one of the most influential age demographics. Forbes reports Gen Z purchasing power to be US$360 billion, and Brisbane 2032 Olympics Minister Sterling Hinchcliffe says he wants Gen Z advisors to help shape and organise the Games. Winning Gen Z is crucial to the future of any sport. Today we find out h...

Niall Hendry is an Emmy award-winning sports technologist who has been at the industry’s spear-tip for the past 15 years. Niall became a world-renowned figure during his time at ChyronHego, where he and his team won an Emmy in sports broadcasting for their TRACAB Player Tracker. The Englishman then jumped head-long in to Web3, when he joined MOVE Ai, to become Head of Product & Partnerships. M...

The Australian Institute of Sport is a national treasure, a source of great Aussie pride, and international success. Stuart Morgan is a world-leading figure in AI and machine learning, and is at the helm of AIS innovation. Stuart’s original background is in psychophysiology, and he is uniquely placed to find the happy medium with technology- both embracing the power of the human mind, and the powe...

Brett Nicholas has been a high achiever from day one. His first job out of Uni was running Rip Curl’s ‘No Fear’ marketing campaign at the turn of the millennium. He then became Aussie brand manager for motorsport and board labels Fox and Shift. Brett then decided to backpack Europe, before he was headhunted by Fox, and made marketing boss of Fox Europe. Promotions and a highly successful career in...

James Ellender has worked in health and fitness since he was a 15 year-old kid growing up in Sydney. From personal trainer, to group fitness instructor, then to sales, before becoming a gym manager, and then a state manager. James saw a problem, and is now finding the solution, as CEO of ActiveXchange. ActiveXchange uses tech and data to bridge the knowledge gap, and help all health and fitness st...

Sam James, co-founder Laurie Malone, and first employee Chris Rowe, were sitting around a Brisbane sharehouse one day in 2015, when the idea of VALD was born. Seven years later, VALD are world-leaders in musculoskeletal technology for performance and allied health. They work with 20 EPL clubs, 25 NBA teams, 27 NFL teams, and are now focused on democratising their cutting edge tech, to enable acces...

Sarah Cook is a two-time Olympic rower for Australia, and a dual international athlete, having also sailed for her nation, and won an Aussie championship. Sarah is now Chief Operating Officer of Rowing Australia, represents Oceania on the World Rowing Council, is lead commentator for World Rowing, works on the Australian Government’s National Sports Tribunal, and champions the cause of women in sp...

Jarod Pickering became a software engineer at the turn of the millennium, and built his career as a leading figure in our nation’s digital footprint. The former Digital Product Owner at Medibank, and Digital Boss at Cricket Australia, is now Head of Cricket at global tech titan, Sportradar. Jarod and his Sportradar team are the official data provider for the International Cricket Council, and for...

Markus Deutsch is a PHD in Exercise Physiology, and a pioneer in sport and health data science. He worked with New Zealand Rugby as a Sports Scientist at the turn of the Millennium, before becoming an internationally renowned University Professor. In 2003, he started Fusion Sport, which is now a global leader in human performance solutions, used by elite sports all over the world, and now the US M...

Felicity George is the Melbourne Renegades Marketing & Brand Boss. Felicity is an elite operator, having worked at FIFA in Zurich, Arsenal Football Club, along with Tennis Australia, St. Kilda and the Western Bulldogs. Craig Hill, a co-founder of ASTN, is a key architect and engineer of Australia’s $3billion sportstech industry. Together, they ran a start-up pitch opportunity, with one success...

Credited by the Australian Financial Review as a “Visionary” behind the creation of Australia’s Venture Capital industry, Bob Beaumont has worked in finance for nearly half a century. Bob made his name in United States finance, and is the original ‘Business Angel’ in Australia. He works hand-in-hand with UC Berkeley & UCLA, helping to foster next-gen businesses. Bob helped to create ASTN, and...

Jess Corones is Swimming Australia’s Sportstech Boss, and is Head of Sports Science for Australia’s Olympic Swim Program. Jess gives us an incredible behind-the-curtain look at the high performance that goes into the world’s best swimmers. We hear about the revolutionary Sparta 2 technology, which debuted at the Tokyo Olympics, and the machine learning helping our Aussies build to Paris 2024. And...

While the coaches at the AIS train promising athletes, Dr. Martin Schlegel and his team train promising sportstech start-ups. Martin, a globally renowned Chemical Engineer, joined ASTN in 2016, and is Program Lead at the Australian Sports Innovation Centre of Excellence. Having just been handed the ASTN baton by founder, James Demetriou, Martin gives us the keys to business success, and some razor...