The Sports Technology Innovation Award
Sports technology reaches from the training ground to the broadcast feed and the stands. This category recognises performance, officiating, fan experience and grassroots participation technology, judged on what athletes, officials or audiences did differently.
- Independent jury
- 250
- Innovations evaluated
- 4,500+
- Star rating
- 1–5
- Running since
- 2010
Academics, scientists, officials, investors
Across seventeen editions
Every nominee earns an AGBA Innovation Star
India’s longest-running innovation award
Three categories sit close to data. This is the one about method and evidence.
Most nominations that fail here fail because they were in the wrong category. Read across before you write anything.
Innovation in Sports Technology
Performance, officiating, fan experience and participation technology.
This category
Innovation in Media & Entertainment
Production, distribution and audience technology, including live broadcast.
Innovation in Health & Life Sciences
Physiology, injury prevention and rehabilitation with clinical evidence.
Who should enter
- Athlete performance, load management and injury prevention with measured effect
- Officiating, tracking and match-analysis technology deployed in competition
- Fan experience, ticketing and venue technology at event scale
- Grassroots participation, talent identification and coaching tools
- Sports data, wearables and analytics used by teams in real decisions
What this award recognises is a decision that changed — a training load adjusted, a call made correctly, a crowd moved through a gate faster. Sponsorship reach is not the measure.
If the work is broadcast or content technology, enter Innovation in Media & Entertainment. If it rests on clinical outcomes, enter Innovation in Health & Life Sciences.
What the jury looks for
- Problem definition & market opportunityWhether the innovation solves a real problem, backed by evidence and a measurable impact on its target audience.
- InnovativenessNovelty and uniqueness — new technology, functionality or business model — measured against what already exists, including IP.
- Market potential & impactSize and growth of the addressable market, competitive landscape, and scalability across geographies.
- Social impact & sustainabilityContribution to society and the environment, including social responsibility and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These are the same four criteria — problem definition, innovativeness, market impact and social/sustainability impact — used to assess every category. In this category the jury also weighs methodological rigour — including what you did to avoid fooling yourselves — the decision that changed as a result and what it was worth, the reproducibility and honesty of the evaluation, and the engineering quality of the data foundation underneath. Read the full evaluation criteria.
Who judges this category
Nominations are assessed by an independent jury, not by the organisers. Jurors are matched to the categories where their expertise lies. These are among those who read sports technology and performance entries.
Dr. Aloknath DeFormer Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute India
Dr. Mathew VargheseHead of Orthopaedics, St Stephens Hospital and public health expert
Prof G C NandiProfessor, IIIT Allahabad
Dr. Anandhi RamachandranProfessor, International Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi
Mr. Dilip ChenoyFormer Secretary General, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Kanu GulatiPartner, Khosla Ventures
Dr. M. SreekumarProfessor, IIITDM Kancheepuram
Dr. Avik SarkarBig Data and AI expert, Indian School of BusinessEight of roughly 250. The full panel spans the IITs, the IIMs, the IIITs, the Indian School of Business, NITI Aayog and central ministries, the Department of Science & Technology, MeitY and CERT-In. See the full jury panel.
A new category at the 17th edition
Sports technology is being recognised in its own right for the first time. Until now, sports entries competed inside the analytics, media and consumer categories.
The closest precedent
Sports technology has no roll of its own yet — the 17th edition is its first as a named category. The two rows below are the nearest entries from earlier editions, marked as they actually finished. The complete record sits in the winners archive.
Category names have changed across editions as the field has moved; the rows above are the closest equivalents in the published record. See the winners archive for the full 1st–16th edition history.
What happens after you submit
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Stage one · nowNomination registration
Register your company and category through the nomination process, then complete the detailed nomination form and processing fee.
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Stage twoJury presentation
Present the innovation to the jury and take questions. Jurors score each entry against the four evaluation criteria and rank it within its category.
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Stage threeStar Certification
Nominees are also assessed for AGBA Innovation Star Certification, an independent maturity rating alongside the category judging.
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Stage fourFinalists announced
Once every category has been evaluated, finalists are announced on the website ahead of the ceremony.
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Stage fiveAward ceremony
Winners are honoured on 18 February 2027 at Hotel Ashoka, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Before you write your nomination
Is this category new?
Yes. Sports technology is recognised in its own right from the 17th edition; earlier sports entries competed inside analytics, media and consumer categories.
Do grassroots programmes compete against elite sport?
They are read on the same criteria. Participation, coaching and talent identification work is judged on reach and outcome rather than the level of competition.
Is wearable hardware eligible?
Yes, where the data changed a decision — training load, return to play, technique. Step counts alone are not enough.
How do I submit a nomination?
Nominations are submitted through the nomination process, which sets out the stages, the supporting material required and the current edition’s dates.
Be the first name on this roll
Nominations for the Sports Technology Innovation Award are read by an independent jury of technologists, clinicians and industry practitioners. Bring the decision your technology changed.