Sportable

Sportable is a sports technology company that supplies ball and player tracking systems to professional teams, leagues, ball manufacturers and broadcasters. Its product set has three parts: a Connected Ball containing patented micro-tracking sensors, a Portable Local Positioning System (LPS) that uses 12-16 lightweight beacons to build a live 3D map of players and the ball, and player wearables that report position, speed and movement data linked to in-game events. The system is fully wireless, fits into two suitcases, auto-calibrates to field dimensions and, per the company, can be set up in about 10 minutes without permanent installation. Data is delivered locally or via the cloud in under 800 milliseconds, and a patented cloud-based "AI Event Detector" automatically identifies and categorises game events to generate advanced metrics.

Applications span team performance work, league and rightsholder commercial products, broadcast and streaming, and officiating. For broadcasters the data powers augmented-reality graphics such as player trails and pass trajectories, play-by-play breakdown, real-time statistics and automated social content. Officiating use cases include sensor-based semi-automated offside, accelerometer-based "live touch" detection of ball touches and deflections, and semi-automated goal-line technology positioned as a lower-cost alternative to camera-based GLT systems. The company states its Portable LPS is validated for safety, performance and accuracy through the FIFA Quality Programme and supports four sports with compatibility across major ball brands.

Sportable was co-founded in 2015 by CEO Dugald Macdonald, a former rugby player, and Dr. Peter Husemeyer, described as a former NASA engineer. The company began by placing chips inside rugby balls and subsequently expanded into other sports, including American football, soccer and Australian rules football.

Founding story

Sportable was co-founded in 2015 by Dugald Macdonald, a former rugby player who wanted to connect sport and data, together with Dr. Peter Husemeyer, a NASA engineer. The company's first application was embedding chips inside rugby balls, and it later expanded into additional sports verticals.

Business model

Sportable supplies an integrated hardware and software tracking system - connected balls, portable LPS beacons and player wearables - together with a cloud analytics platform, to teams, leagues, rightsholders, ball manufacturers and broadcast partners. It works with ball manufacturers to build connected professional-grade balls and with technology partners for distribution and integration of live data.

Commercial relationships described include league and team partnerships, ball manufacturer partnerships and broadcast/technology integrations; a third-party profile characterises potential revenue lines as licensing, training services and data analytics subscriptions to teams, leagues and media partners.

Traction

Deployments and partnerships reported include Rugby Australia during the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season, the Smart Sherrin in the 2024 NAB AFLW season, the CFL, the United Football League as official Connected Ball and player tracking partner, multiple NFL and college teams, Wycombe Wanderers, Elite 11's 2025 Finals, and Nike/WSL Football from the 2026-27 season. The company cites 500,000 broadcast hours with leading broadcasters. A third-party profile estimates roughly 156 employees and annual revenue of $10M-$25M as of July 2026, up from more than 70 employees in early 2023.

Latest developments

In November 2025 Sportable established its Asia-Pacific headquarters and Centre of Excellence in Collingwood, Melbourne, creating up to 20 specialised roles in software development, hardware engineering and client delivery. In March-April 2026 it announced a partnership with Nike and WSL Football under which its FIFA-certified Connected Ball technology will be integrated into Nike Official Matchballs from the 2026-27 season, with player tracking deployed in matches and available in training; a partnership with women's soccer multi-club owner Mercury13 was announced in the same period. Other recent announcements include the UFL naming Sportable its official Connected Ball and player tracking partner, Wycombe Wanderers adopting the Connected Ball for training, and a multi-year Elite 11 ball tracking partnership covering the June 2025 Finals.