Technology and data have never been more deeply embedded in sport. However, as Akhilesh Agarwal from The Sports Consultancy notes, investors are increasingly prioritising clear revenue visibility and strong business models over growth alone.
Over the past five years, technology and data have become core infrastructure in modern sport. From athlete monitoring systems and match forecasting models to official betting feeds, technology is no longer peripheral – it is embedded.
Yet public capital markets are sending a more nuanced signal. The TSC SPIN 100 – an index from The Sports Consultancy tracking 100 listed companies materially exposed to sport, shows that the Technology & Digital Innovation and Data, Analytics & Intelligence sectors have followed sharply different paths. Often grouped under “sports tech”, these segments operate under distinct economic models and risk profiles. Markets are increasingly pricing them that way.
Within SPIN 100, Technology & Digital Innovation spans performance systems, wearables and digital platforms embedded in sport operations. Data, Analytics & Intelligence covers sports data suppliers and analytics providers powering betting, fan engagement and performance ecosystems.
The divergence reflects a broader shift: investors now prioritise revenue visibility and business model strength over growth narratives alone.
What the TSC SPIN 100 is showing
Over five years, Technology & Digital Innovation has been the TSC SPIN 100’s strongest performing segment, delivering 215% growth over five years and 96% over one year, though short-term momentum has moderated, with YTD gains of 16%.
Across the segment, multi-year returns reflect sustained demand from elite sport organisations integrating technology into training, performance and operations. More recent performance has been mixed, as investors apply greater scrutiny to the quality and durability of that growth.
By contrast, Data, Analytics & Intelligence has underperformed over the same period: down 56% over five years and 34% over one year, despite a positive 22% three-year return.
Strong three-year returns reflected optimism during the scaling phase of regulated US sports betting, when data providers benefitted from rapid operator expansion and rights aggregation. The more recent picture is markedly different: valuations have compressed under regulatory scrutiny, sportsbook margin pressure, and concerns around data rights ownership and exclusivity, even as underlying revenue has continued to grow.
This divergence between revenue growth and share price performance is one of the clearest signals in the index. It suggests that markets are not doubting the value of official sports data but are focusing more closely on how reliably that value converts into predictable earnings.
Why the reset?
Three structural forces are shaping both segments:
- Post-pandemic demand normalisation
- A shift from growth to profitability
- Greater scrutiny of recurring revenue quality
During Covid-19, digital adoption accelerated rapidly. Performance systems, streaming infrastructure and data services were deployed at speed, pulling forward investment cycles. Markets are now testing how sustainable that growth is.
A fourth factor sits outside sport but affects it directly: macroeconomic instability. Global supply chain disruption and ongoing trade uncertainty, most recently due to the USA-Iran conflict, are increasing costs across the technology and data stack, from hardware manufacturing to energy-intensive data operations.
Technology & Digital Innovation
Valuation is increasingly driven by:
- Recurring software versus hardware exposure
- Contract renewals and visibility
- Switching costs once embedded
- Clear enterprise ROI
The strongest performers tend to offer technology that becomes embedded in day-to-day operations, creating switching costs and supporting predictable revenue. Where that visibility is weaker, or where growth relies on one-off hardware sales, investor confidence has softened.
Data, Analytics & Intelligence
The reset here has been driven less by demand cycles and more by regulatory sensitivity. The segment’s exposure to betting introduces vulnerability to:
- Higher tax regimes
- Margin compression at sportsbooks
- Political scrutiny of gambling economics
New York’s 51% tax on online betting and Illinois’ graduated structure (up to 40%) illustrate how regulatory shifts affect operator economics. When sportsbook margins tighten, markets anticipate downstream pressure on data pricing and rights economics – creating a dynamic where companies can report strong revenue growth but still see share prices decline.
The private market perspective
The same recalibration is visible in private markets across both technology and data segments, where capital remains active but increasingly selective.
Global sports tech funding, covering both focus segments, rose from roughly $5 billion to $6 billion in 2020 to more than $12 billion in 2021, before cooling between 2022 and 2023 and recovering to around $10 billion in 2024. 2025 is tracking back into the low teens ($12 billion+ by October), making it one of the sector’s strongest years outside the 2021 peak.
Consolidation remains a defining feature, with disclosed sports tech M&A exceeding $25 billion globally between 2020 and 2024 as scaled players acquire capabilities to control more of the value chain.
While funding is returning towards prior peaks, capital is now deployed more cautiously, favouring businesses with: established enterprise customers; long-term and contracted revenue; data and analytics capabilities built into their core product; and products that teams, leagues or operators rely on every day.
In Data, Analytics & Intelligence, this has driven consolidation and rights aggregation – the acquisition of IMG Arena’s sports betting rights portfolio in November 2025 being a prominent example of scaled players moving to control more of the content supply chain.
In Technology & Digital Innovation, capital is flowing toward platforms embedded in training, athlete monitoring and venue operations, particularly where hardware deployments lead to recurring analytics revenue.
Across both segments, private capital is favouring control and predictable cash flow over experimentation – mirroring what public markets are already pricing in.
What this means for investors
The signal from TSC SPIN 100 is one of refinement rather than retreat. Technology and data remain central to sport, but markets are applying greater discipline in how they value different models.
For Technology & Digital Innovation, resilience tends to sit where companies:
- Pair deployed systems with recurring software revenue
- Become embedded in workflows, creating switching costs
- Secure long-term enterprise contracts
- Reduce reliance on one-off hardware sales
For Data & Intelligence, resilience is strongest where companies:
- Hold long-term, exclusive rights with leagues and federations
- Diversify revenue across betting, media and performance markets
- Lock in multi-year contracts with clear pricing structures
- Limit dependence on a small number of sportsbook customers
Sport is more technology-driven and data-intensive than ever. What is changing is not its importance, but how capital markets assess risk and reward. The next phase will be defined less by adoption and more by the consistency and visibility of earnings.
