Photo Creds: Hudl makes their 16th acquisition with the purchase of Titan Sports.
Hudl’s ~$1B Video Analytics Roll-Up Success
Along with ticketing, video analytics is one of the most attempted startup ideas within sports. While in the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of multiple startups building AI-powered analysis for sports video footage, the market remains too saturated to see which winner might emerge.
However, Hudl still remains the leader in the space, despite being one of the oldest sports video analytics companies. Founded in 2006, Hudl started out as a film breakdown tool for high school football teams. Today, it’s a ~$1B full-stack sports tech platform used by over 6M+ athletes and coaches worldwide.
A lot of their success has been due to inorganic growth (M&A) vs. drastic in-house tech improvements.
Here’s the rundown.
One of the most successful investing strategies of all-time is the classic PE roll-up playbook. It goes like this:
Step 1: Buy a business
Step 2: Identify other companies in the space - competitors, customers, or suppliers - that are complementary
Step 3: Acquire those companies, combine teams and product offerings, and cut redundancies
Step 4: Cross-sell and scale by bundling offerings, reaching new markets, and operating more cost efficiently
Step 5: Sell the business at a profit
Although it’s not a traditional sports PE fund, Hudl has been running this exact playbook (minus Step 5) for over a decade - and it looks like there’s no slowing down. On Tuesday, Hudl made their 16th acquisition (and third this year) in its quest to become the all-in-one hub for sports video analysis.
Hudl’s Portfolio Strategy Explained
While you may only know Hudl for its video analysis solutions, the company now offers everything you need to supplement youth athlete development, from live-streaming to data aggregation to advanced wearables.
And it was through 16 methodical, intentional acquisitions.
Here’s how they did it:
Expanding sport-specific offerings: Bought VolleyMetrics (2017) for volleyball, Balltime (2025) to layer on AI, and FastModel (2025) for basketball and hockey coaching tools.
Owning the tech stack: Incatec (2019) powers Hudl Focus cameras, RealTrack (2022) adds elite GPS tracking (WIMU), and now Titan Sports (2025) will bring affordable GPS wearables to the youth and high school market — completing the top-to-bottom coverage of athlete performance tracking.
Controlling distribution and monetization: Hudl’s BlueFrame (2022) acquisition lets teams stream and monetize games through PPV — turning Hudl into a media platform.
Hudl’s playbook is especially interesting because no one else in sports-tech has pulled off an M&A roll-up like this — not in data, not in ticketing, not in betting. While others spent years building features in-house, Hudl bought what it needed to become a full-stack machine that owns every part of the athlete performance workflow.
And if you’re a founder building in this space — pay attention. Hudl is the natural exit for video analytics startups. We think there’s real whitespace in AI-powered tools for pickleball, rowing, and boxing - emerging sports markets where performance video is still catching up.
Nail the execution, and Hudl might just come knocking.
Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals
New Funds
Damar Hamlin, NFL safety and entrepreneur, joins VC ‘The Cashmere Fund’ as investor and strategic advisor (June 2nd)
Cashmere’s venture portfolio focuses on consumer and health & wellness
Joins a roster of high-profile partners, including NFL MVP Josh Allen and designer Jenna Lyons [SBJ]
Venture Capital
PressBox, a B2B fandom media startup offering personalized content distribution solutions to sports organizations, raises $825K in Pre-Seed funding (June 4th)
Scaling personalization pilot program to more leagues and media partners
Investment led by Relay Ventures; other investors include 43 and Profluence Capital, among others [PressBox]
Maxiom Labs, a health tech startup geared towards optimal human performance coaching via AI/ML, opens up $6M Series A round, launches ‘SmartCoach’ (May 29th)
Roxfit, a fitness tech platform that serves the hybrid-fitness community, raised £800K in Seed funding (May 29th)
Accelerating product development, investing in UX, and growing presence within Hyrox and hybrid-fitness communities
Investment led by DSW Ventures; other investors include York Angels and U.S. and European investors [Athletech]
Latent Technology, an animation tech company developing its real-time generative physics engine for games, lands $8M in Seed funding (June 5th)
Fueling its ‘Latent Behaviour Engine’ geared towards applying general physics to output emergent behaviors for developers
Investment led by AlbionVC and Spark Capital; other investors include Root Ventures and Alumni Ventures [GamesBeat]
M&A and Investments
Hudl, a sports video analysis platform, acquires wearables company Titan Sports to expand affordable GPS wearables for sub-elite teams (June 3rd)
Marking Hudl’s 16th acquisition (third this year), following FastModel and Balltime
Integration to combine Titan’s data with Hudl video, enhancing analysis for low-budget teams, including high school, club, and college, among others [SBJ]
SailGP US team seeks fresh investment at a $125M pre-money valuation while Hollywood stars back Australia’s SailGP 3x champ team (June 4th)
US investment bank & asset manager Guggenheim Partners to take over Italian Serie A’s Udinese in new European sports play (June 2nd)
Acquisition expected to finalize June 6 in Luxembourg; Pozzo family (current owner) may retain a minority stake
Marks the 10th NA-backed club in the Serie A, furthering US expansion into European soccer [Sportcal]
Following Fever’s $100M funding round announced earlier this week, led by L Catterton and Point72 Private Investments
Dice brings 10M+ MAUs, strengthening Fever’s global reach to 300M+ audience across 40+ countries [Fever]
WNBA Seattle Storm owners sell minority stake at $325M valuation (June 5th)
1.5% stake of team sold, more than doubling last year’s $130M pre-money valuation raise with $21M raise last year to help fund new $64M facility [Sportico]
Swedish PE firm EQT Partners eyes £500M ($675.8M) acquisition of ‘World Rally Championship (WRC) Promoter’ amid global expansion push (June 3rd)
Red Bull and German investment firm KW 25 currently own ‘WRC Promoter’
WRC’s U.S. debut in 2026 seen as key growth catalyst for PE-backed revenue strategy [BlackBook Motorsport]
US consortium, including SF 49ers investment arm, acquires majority stake in Scottish soccer club Rangers FC (May 30th)
Andrew Cavenagh, alongside 49ers Enterprises, led the consortium for the 51% stake acquisition [RangersFC]
Premier League, NFL, and F1 owners flock to bid for R360 rugby franchises ahead of next year’s launch (June 3rd)
R360 to feature 8 men’s teams, 4 women’s teams in a 14-week city-hopping season
Matches paired with concerts at venues like Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Camp Nou, and NY & LA venues [SBJ]
Photo Creds: Cosm to stream live PBR events in their L.A. and Dallas venues.
Strategic Ventures
Pickleheads partners with pickleball rating and player assessment platform MyDUPRCoach to launch ‘RateMyGame’ for instant DUPR skill ratings (June 1st)
Players submit videos from any pickleball match to get certified DUPR ratings remotely
Eliminates the need for clinics or match logging, speeding access to leagues and tournaments [Pickleheads]
Immersive experiences venue company Cosm partners with TKO Group-owned PBR (Professional Bull Riders) to host bull riding in 87-foot LED shared reality domes (June 3rd)
Four PBR Camping World Team Series events to stream live in L.A. and Dallas venues featuring themed food, whiskey tastings, mechanical bulls, and merchandise giveaways
Builds on prior collaborations with fellow TKO-owned UFC and WWE as part of expanding venue rollout [Cosm]
Mercury13, a women’s soccer club investment group, partners with sports agency Wasserman’s ‘The Collective’ to drive global sponsorship strategy (June 4th)
The Collective to lead commercial rights and global brand activations across the multi-club portfolio
Italian club ‘Como Women’ to serve as launchpad for multi-market sponsorship campaigns, with expansion into UK, France, and Germany planned soon [Sportcal]
Ochy, a biomechanics platform that analyzes running form, partners with ‘England Athletics’ governing body (June 5th)
The body’s 147K+ members gain access to Ochy’s smartphone-based gait analysis, delivering lab-grade feedback in under a minute using 10-second video clips [Fitt Insider]
Cisco signs partnership with Monumental Sports to upgrade 20K-seat Capital One Arena tech (June 4th)
Multiyear deal supports $800M renovation, with completion targeted for 2027
Integration with IPTV, D2C video, and AI-powered analytics aiming to ‘future-proof’ the arena [SBJ]
Job Board & Opportunities: Week of June 6th
Here are some cool roles we found and personally curated this week - enjoy!