In late 2023, Sport Ireland and the Innovation Exchange launched Digital for Sport, our first national initiative aimed at supporting National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships in embracing digital transformation. This initiative is designed to help sporting organisations leverage technology to streamline operations, enhance communication, improve data management, and gain deeper insights into team and athlete performance.
How It Works
Digital for Sport follows the Innovation Exchange’s proven Six Step Challenge to Deal model. Before challenges are issued, Innovation Exchange advisors work closely with each sporting organisation to define and shape the challenge to ensure it accurately reflects the organisation’s needs and goals.
Where We Are Now
To date, several challenges have been published under the Digital for Sport initiative. These have addressed a wide range of needs, including:
- Data cleansing and record digitalisation
- Online training platforms and content
- Membership and player management systems
- Communication and engagement platforms
- Automation, integration, and digital transformation strategies
So far, we’ve seen 75 submissions, multiple deals secured—with more currently in the pipeline.
Spotlight on Deals
The deals secured so far showcase the speed and impact of this initiative:
- Horse Sport Ireland led the first Digital for Sport challenge, which resulted in the fastest deal in Innovation Exchange history. Miagen, a leader in advanced modelling and analytics, secured the contract within two weeks.
- Cricket Ireland (Or another sporting body if they still don’t get back to me on publishing the details of the deal.) selected Sport:80 to develop a player registration system due to its robust functionality, integration options, and seamless user experience.
- Cycling Ireland awarded a contract to Fit2Trade for a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) tailored to cyclists and their guardians. Fit2Trade stood out for its intuitive interface, innovative content capabilities, and proven experience in the sports sector.
What’s Next
At the Innovation Exchange, our mission is to empower Irish innovation and help sports organisations future-proof their operations. We’re actively collaborating with more sporting bodies to launch new challenges that will bring exciting opportunities for Irish tech companies and accelerate digital transformation across the sports sector.
Stay tuned—there’s more to come.
