Top Sports Startups Innovating in 2022, According to VC Investors

• Insider asked VC investors which sports startups they find the most innovative.
• We asked each investor to nominate companies, including one outside their investment portfolio.
• The top startups are innovating on the models for leagues, betting, athlete performance, and more.

Technology is reshaping the world of sports, from how people watch and engage with games to the way athletes train and make money.

Evolutions in streaming, sports betting, and more have helped promising sports companies of all stages continue to attract investment in a shaky economy.

Insider asked 10 top venture capitalists who focus on sports to name the most innovative startups in the industry in 2022. We asked for nominations for early-stage companies the investors have, and have not, invested in.

A few are pioneering emerging sports, like Major League Pickleball, which is backed by athlete investors including Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James; the Professional Fighters League, which counts Alex Rodriguez among several big-name investors; and the Overtime Elite high-school basketball league that’s creating a new model for youth sports.

Personalization is another major theme, be it B2B businesses like Future Anthem and Epoxy.ai that are helping sports-betting platforms build customer loyalty, or gaming platforms that are tailored for specific audiences, such as GridRival and Sporttrade.

Athlete performance is also a hot topic for investors, who highlighted startups like Diamond Kinetics, biomarker scanner Spren, and Veo.

Even in the tough funding environment, several of the companies on this list closed funding rounds this year, including Almost Friday Media (which raised a Seed round) and the Professional Fighters League (which raised a $30 million Series E in May).

Here are 22 startups innovating in sports in 2022, listed in alphabetical order: