Ahead of Aer Lingus College Football Classic, it emerged that Output Sports and Orreco work with Georgia Tech while Wiistream reveals breakthrough US deal.
This weekend more than 27,000 US fans will arrive in Dublin to witness the 2025 Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Georgia Tech and Florida State University at the Aviva Stadium.
The game is a sell-out with more than 47,000 tickets sold, the second year in a row that this has happened.
“It’s more than a game – it presents an important opportunity to promote the strength of the Irish-US business relationship and showcase Ireland’s dynamic business environment and innovators to the US visitors”
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic has consistently boosted Ireland’s economy, according to Grant Thornton’s Post-Game Economic Impact Reports. Last year’s game between Navy and Notre Dame (Fighting Irish) generated a record €180 million for the local Irish economy.
The €180m economic impact figure provides a solid impact calculation based on factual data and analysis. It is also crucial to acknowledge that this represents a conservative estimate. In reality, the true value of the 2023 Aer Lingus College Football Classic extends far beyond this figure.
Combined with the estimated €53.5m impact of the 2022 Classic between the University of Nebraska and Northwestern University, and a projected economic impact in excess of €115m for this year’s game, the first three games in this initial five-game series are set to contribute over €350m in total.
Irish sports tech takes on America
Beyond the economic impact, Irish tech companies are also storming the field at the Football Classic.
From NFL Teams to NBA Players, Irish sports tech has gained a dominant “behind the scenes” position with elite sports in the USA and globally. Their innovative solutions have been sought out by major global sporting powerhouses from the NFL and NBA to PGA golfers, Olympians, F1 Drivers and English Premier League soccer teams.
Output Sports, a leader in elite sports-science technology works with Georgia Tech athletes to optimise their athletes’ training sessions and to achieve specific fitness goals. Output Sports enables coaches, sports scientists, and rehab professionals to fully understand and optimise their athletes’ performance using a single wearable sensor system. The company’s technology is used by sports practitioners across 30+ countries, including in the USA and in multiple sports, with flagship clients in the NFL, NWSL, MLB, NHL, WNBA and NBA.
Sports data company Orreco has been working with Georgia Tech Women’s Swim team since 2022, using Orecco’s FitrWoman app and FitrCoach platform. The app and coach platform, part of Orreco’s Te@m platform are also used by USA Swimming, USA Volleyball and global soccer teams including The Lionesses, NSWL teams, Women’s Super League teams and multiple Olympic Medal winners. Orreco’s AI platform helps athletes optimise performance, accelerate recovery and extend playing careers.
Irish sports streaming company, Wiistream announced a collaborative alliance with US Youth Soccer (USYS), the largest youth sports organisation in the United States. The collaboration will see Wiistream explore streaming and content solutions for USYS, to enhance the sports experience for young athletes across the USA. Wiistream are previous participants of the US Techstars accelerator programme and have the backing of Enterprise Ireland and US Venture Capital firm Elevate Ventures. Having started life streaming GAA matches for fans during Covid-19, the company, with its US headquarters in Indianapolis, has since secured significant international breakthrough deals, including contracts with The Big3 and the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
This week, Enterprise Ireland will host an inward US buyer delegation with representatives from Atlanta Hawks, Pittsburgh Steelers and other US sports tech investors. The delegation will meet with Irish sports tech companies and will focus on the IRFU and Enterprise Ireland’s technology innovation programme, which provides Irish sports tech companies an opportunity to test, trial, and potentially scale their products in a professional rugby environment. Visiting the Sport Ireland Campus, the delegation will also meet with Sport Ireland, who lead the development of sport in Ireland, and who are collaborating with Enterprise Ireland to drive the development of Irish sports technology.
“The Aer Lingus College Football Classic provides a valuable opportunity to not only enjoy a great game of American college football play out on Irish soil but also, to deepen the Irish-US business relationship,” said Minister of State for Sport, Physical Education and the Gaeltacht, Thomas Byrne TD.
“It is clear that the future of Irish sport is one where digital technology will be embedded across all sports organisations and that is why our National Sports Policy recognises the importance of encouraging innovation in sport. We want to see Ireland’s strong sport tech industry continue to grow and I welcome the work being undertaken by Enterprise Ireland to enhance the Irish-US business relationship in this respect.”
It has also been announced that the IRFU and Enterprise Ireland’s Technology Innovation Programme is set to continue for another season 2024/ 2025. The partnership will be showcased to the visiting US sports delegation, as part of events organised around the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in the Aviva. Through the programme, the IRFU has embraced Enterprise Ireland client technology to advance the game and the partnership has provided an invaluable opportunity for Irish sports tech companies, to test, validate and scale their innovations, working with teams across the organisation, including the national squad.
To date five Enterprise Ireland sports tech companies have participated in the programme, including Output Sports, MoveAhead, RugbySmarts, Brace and Wiistream, resulting in commercial deals for three Enterprise Ireland clients, soon to be announced.
“We are proud to partner with the Aer Lingus College Football Game,” said Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy.
“It’s more than a game – it presents an important opportunity to promote the strength of the Irish-US business relationship and showcase Ireland’s dynamic business environment and innovators to the US visitors. The US is the second largest export country for Enterprise Ireland clients, achieving exports of €5.9bn in 2023, up 5% on 2022. Across our 6 offices in the USA, we are focused on supporting Irish companies to achieve even greater scale in this market. On the sports tech front, this sector is achieving phenomenal global success, with major national and international sports leagues, athletes and brands turning to Ireland to drive performance,” said Clancy.
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