Cyclists Maud Oudeman and Alex Bogna have earned one-year contracts with professional cycling teams Canyon-SRAM and Alpecin-Fenix through Zwift Academy, a talent identification program held on cycling simulator app Zwift. 

 Ouderman, a Netherlands native, won the women’s field to join Canyon-SRAM of the UCI World Tour, while Australian men’s winner Bogna will join Alpecin-Fenix of the UCI Continental Circuit. More than 150,000 riders competed in this year’s Zwift Academy, which was held on Zwift’s indoor cycling platform. Finalists also competed on the roads of Mallorca, a Mediterranean island in Spain. 

 The Zwift Academy dates back to 2018 with previous participants Ella Harris, Jay Vine and Neve Bradbury also turning pro through the global online tournament.

 Zwift previously held a digital race around the Collins Cup in partnership with the Professional Triathletes Organisation—which announced Tuesday that Peter Hutton, director of sports partnership at Facebook’s parent company Meta, will join the PTO’s board of directors.

 When Mark Zuckerberg broke his arm in 2016, he wrote on Facebook that he started to bike indoors using Zwift. Zuckerberg’s tech giant is now forging its own fitness journey into the metaverse after recently buying virtual reality fitness app Supernatural to pair with its Oculus VR headset. 

 Zwift also held an event during this summer’s Olympic Virtual Series hosted by the IOC that generated 250,000 participants from around the world. Earlier this week, USA Cycling selected 19 men and women to race in the 2022 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships held Feb. 26 on Zwift’s New York Knickerbocker map, a 34-mile online course with 3,000 feet of incline.

Arizona State University has selected four winners for its 2021 Global Sport Venture Challenge. The startup pitch competition was held in partnership with Adidas, the  Global Sports Venture Studio and Coalition Venture Studio.  

Winning the first-place $15,000 prize was  Timeout , an app for connecting athletes with mental health resources founded by  Maya McClendon, a former ASU volleyball player from the Class of 2017. Apparel startup  Conscious Gear   won $10,000 for second place. The company sells outerwear clothing in plus sizes for outdoor enthusiasts and endurance athletes.   

Get Gifted , a platform for brands to give gift cards to customers, received $5,000 for third place. The startup was co-founded by Michael Matus, a junior defensive end on ASU’s football team. In addition to the funding, all three startups will receive mentorship from GSVS, Coalition and Adidas. Also selected to receive mentorship was VBA America, a volleyball clothing brand founded by current ASU beach volleyball player Kate Fitzgerald.  

Arizona State’s Global Sport Institute and J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute organized the event. The  Global Sports Venture Studio   is operated by  R/GA Ventures and the Elysian Park Ventures, and its partners include NASCAR, MLB, MLS, the NHL, and UEFA.  ShotTracker   co-founder  Davyeon Ross helped launch the Coalition Venture Studio.   

The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority has ordered Arsenal FC to remove ads promoting its Socios fan token. The ASA claimed that the ads “trivialised investment in cryptoassets...took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity” and “were misleading because they failed to illustrate the risk of the investment.”

Arsenal partnered with Malta-based Socios in July to create its $AFC Fan Token, which fans purchase through first buying the cryptocurrency Chiliz, which also owns Socios. Token holders can take part in fan engagement programs such as voting for the song that Arsenal plays at its home stadium following a win.

The $AFC token was promoted on the club’s website and Facebook page. Arsenal’s fan token ads did not mention the potential capital gains tax tied to crypto trading, a key factor in the ASA’s decision.

“We acknowledged that the ads did not promote the Fan Tokens as an investment or financial product,” the ASA wrote. “However, the product was a cryptoasset regardless of how it was promoted, and the ads did not contain any information that capital gain tax could be payable on profits from investing in cryptoassets.”

More than 100 sports teams have partnered with Socios, including five other Premier League clubs and other soccer giants like FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus. ASA’s ruling only applies to Arsenal because the regulator received an individual complaint regarding the club.

Arsenal will have an independent review of the ruling, and a Socios spokesperson told SportTechie that Arsenal will appeal against the original complaint. 

“We welcome Arsenal’s call for an independent review. This is a fast-moving area, and clarity is needed to ensure all companies can adhere to the latest guidelines,” Socios said in a statement.  

Socios signed deals with 12 NHL clubs earlier this month, as well as with the New England Patriots last month, the UFC last May and the New York Knicks and New York Rangers on Wednesday. Alex Dreyfus, CEO of Socios and Chiliz, said Wednesday that Socios plans to launch its U.S. app in the first half of 2022.

Ticket monetization startup Project Admission has raised a $9 million seed funding round led by investment firm Anthemis Group. The startup’s software is already integrated into ticket platforms such as SeatGeek and Tickets.com.

 Other teams using Project Admission’s ticketing tools include the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans and Cleveland Cavaliers and the MLS' Portland Timbers. The company recently began offering digital commemorative ticket solutions for its clients. 

 “We still have a hard time knowing who’s in the room, so at the core of our product is identity-based ticketing, which allows us to kind of track the chain of ownership,” Project Admission CEO Stephen Glicken told SportTechie in April. 

 Kansas City area-based Flyover Capital also contributed to the funding round. Nashville-based Project Admission was one of 10 startups selected in 2019 to join the Techstars Sports Accelerator in Indianapolis. 

Crypto.com has signed a new deal to become a founding sponsor of Angel City FC, the Los Angeles-based NWSL club expected to begin play in 2022. The agreement spans four years and is worth in the low-seven figures annually, according to Sports Business Journal. 

 Crypto.com will function as ACFC’s official cryptocurrency and NFT partner. The brand will receive in-venue signage and ads on broadcasts and social media. 

Reddit co-founder and blockchain entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian is among Angel City’s high-profile ownership group that also includes his wife, Serena Williams. The tennis star has made previous investments in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and  bitcoin rewards app Lolli.

“Key to Angel City’s goal to drive equity for women is to empower them with the tools and resources to be financially independent,” Angel City co-founder and president Julie Uhrman said in a statement. “Given the speed with which Web3 and cryptocurrency is changing our world, we want to ensure that women are being brought along on the journey as investors and creators.”

Crypto.com’s biggest sports sponsorship is its deal for the naming rights to Staples Center in Los Angeles. The company also has deals with UFC, Formula 1, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, esports team Fnatic and Italy’s Serie A.

Mental wellness platform The Zone will now integrate Morgan Stanley’s financial tools and educational resources within its app for athletes. This is part of a partnership with the Global Sports & Entertainment division of Morgan Stanley announced on Tuesday.  

The experience of The Zone CEO Ivan  Tchatchouwo , a Cameroon native who had mental health problems while playing Division II college basketball, inspired the idea for the company. Young athletes input their mood and other information, and The Zone’s AI algorithms  generate   personal feedback and  help   connect users to helpful resources. So far, most of its partners are university athletic departments including Division I Lehigh University and Division II Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pa..

Studies have shown that financial stress has a demonstrable negative impact on college students’ performance in class and in sports. Morgan Stanley’s educational curriculum includes fundamentals of personal finance and tips toward starting on a path toward financial wellness.  

The LeAD Sports & Health Tech Accelerator in Lake Nona, Fla., has graduated five startups from its second annual program. The four-month accelerator concluded with a Demo Day earlier this month and saw the five startups receive commitments for 65% of their combined funding goals.

 AI nutrition guide Kutai, oxygen monitoring ear device OxiWear, biometric health tracking app Point, blood flow restriction compression device Suji and fitness instructor schedule planner Indifit were the five startups to finish LeAD’s second cohort. They were accepted out of 495 applicants.

 Highlights from the program included Kutai securing a partnership with the Lake Nona Performance Club and three letters of intent from Genexia, Bio4Tech and LifeFactor. OxiWear raised $1.25 million in pre-seed funding during the accelerator, while Point received three acquisition/merger offers.

 Suji sold 200 of its units to 30 sports clients, including D1 college teams. Indifit signed deals with Barry's, SoulCycle and Lululemon—and grew its revenue per instructor from $200 to more than $1,000 during the program. 

 The accelerator is a joint venture between Tottenham Hotspur majority owner Joe Lewis’s Tavistock Group and LeAD, a VC firm founded by a grandchild of Adidas founder Adi Dassler. The program is hosted at  Lake Nona, a community near Orlando that uses Verizon’s 5G network to help startups test products and aims to be known as the “Silicon Valley of the East” for sports and health innovation.

MaximBet—a sports betting app founded through a partnership between men’s lifestyle brand Maxim Magazine and online gaming company Carousel Group—has launched its first free-to-play prediction offerings. The new MaximBet Play app was developed by online gaming software provider Splash Tech.

 A new gaming challenge on Maxim Bet Play will ask fans to correctly predict the outcomes of 25 college football bowl games played Dec. 28, 2021 through Jan. 10, 2022. Users will be competing for a piece of a $10,000 prize pool. Outside of cash prizes, the app also plans to offer the chance to win experiences such as a trip to attend the MaximBet Big Game Party in Los Angeles around the Super Bowl in February. 

 The MaximBet sports betting app is live in Colorado and has secured market access in Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company can now launch its free-to-play app in states where it does not yet operate its sportsbook. In September, MaximBet offered to pay $500 to any NCAA female athlete over the age of 21 in Colorado as part of an NIL marketing opportunity. 

Movie theater chain Cinemark has partnered with ESPN to screen the College Football Playoff Semifinals and National Championship in select theaters. The games will be shown in theaters across 19 states and 27 cities, including the local markets of all four playoff schools — Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati. 

  Fans will be able to reserve seats by purchasing a $10 concessions package at participating Cinemark theaters. Each  showing will also show ESPN’s live pre-game studio programming, according to Market Watch.

ESPN has owned exclusive rights to air CFP games since 2014 through its 12-year deal reportedly worth about $470 million annually through 2025. Cinemark, which is based in Texas and operates 345 theaters across the U.S, also lets guests visit its theaters to play video games such as Mario Kart and Rocket League. 

The Utah Jazz has announced a multi-year partnership with Utah-based solar energy company LGCY Power that anoints LGCY as the team’s exclusive solar energy provider. LGCY will receive the naming rights to Vivint Arena’s second-floor Legends Club, as well as branding throughout the arena and on game broadcasts. 

  LGCY will also serve as the presenting sponsor of the NBA All-Star voting campaign for Jazz players. The company will help organize voting efforts for the team, which sent three players to All-Star Weekend last season: guards Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell and center Rudy Gobert. 

 Other teams to have signed renewable energy partnerships include English soccer’s Manchester United, MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the NBA’s Washington Wizards. SolarFi, which makes solar powered pods for students to use as study spaces, recently partnered with the University of Alabama. 

Pixellot has expanded its automated video production technology into both youth and professional sports venues in the United Arab Emirates. The Middle Eastern expansion for Pixellot comes through its new partnership with Dubai-based sports streaming app Cam Plus Sport.

 Pixellot’s AI camera system has been added to 11 venues in the UAE, including those for Sharjah FC, Al Ain FC and Al-Nasr—all of which play in the UAE Pro League, the country’s top tier of soccer. The system will also automate video streaming at The Sevens rugby stadium and Hartland International School in Dubai, as well as at venues for the UAE Futsal League and the UAE Handball Federation.

 More than 18,000 Pixellot systems are active in 57 countries across the world, with the Tel-Aviv-founded company expanding in May to cover high school sports in Africa. Pixellot, whose cameras follow the flow of ball and player movement during games and automatically zoom in or out, has developed products in partnership with FC Barcelona and records broadcasts for MLB’s new summer leagues for college players. 

 “This is an exciting partnership forged in the wake of the historic peace agreement signed in August 2020 between Israel and the UAE, unlocking business opportunities and increasing economic co-operation between our nations,” Pixellot CEO Alon Werber said in a statement.