Sport-tech Must Connect

29 May 2026

Daniele Caninis PhD-avhandling om åpen innovasjon i europeisk idrett gir akademisk tyngde til noe NST kjenner godt: innovasjon i idrett skjer i åpne nettverk — og feltet trenger bedre forbindelsesledd.

Something important is happening in European sport. Not only on the pitch, in the arena or on the track, but in the space between sport, technology, capital and the people who will actually use the solutions. In his recently published PhD thesis, Open Innovation Strategies in European Sport: How Start-ups Collaborate within Open Innovation Ecosystems, Daniele Canini points to something we at Norwegian Sport Tech know well: innovation in sport no longer happens behind closed doors. It happens in open networks. It happens when start-ups, clubs, federations, researchers, investors, technology providers, athletes, coaches and fans find each other. But it does not happen by itself. Canini's work gives academic weight to a reality many in the sport-tech community already recognise: we have energy, talented founders and a sports sector that needs development. Still, the distance is often too great between need and solution, research and market, start-up and pilot, idea and implementation. This is where the thesis becomes highly relevant for NST. Canini shows that European sports start-ups largely succeed through open innovation strategies. They bring in knowledge from the outside. They collaborate with others. They develop solutions together with users, customers, technology partners and established actors. The two most central strategies are outside-in and coupled innovation. Put simply: the best sport-tech solutions are rarely created alone. Start-ups need insight from sport. Sport needs the speed and drive of founders. Technology environments need real problems to solve. Investors need validated cases. Research needs contact with practice. And users must be brought in earlier, more clearly and more systematically. One of the strongest findings in the thesis is exactly this: users are not just recipients of innovation. They are co-creators. For NST, this is crucial. If we are to build a stronger sport-tech environment in Norway and the Nordics, it is not enough to gather people on stage and hope the magic happens during the coffee break. We need to build arenas where the real needs of sport meet the solutions of founders. We need to create pilot pathways, test arenas and trust-based connections. We need to help start-ups understand the language, culture and decision-making logic of sport. And we need to help sport understand the opportunities of technology without drowning in hype. Canini also points to a finding that should make people pause: intermediaries, universities and knowledge brokers play a surprisingly weak role in European sport-tech ecosystems. That is a paradox. A sector that needs more collaboration, better coordination and more knowledge sharing often lacks the actors that actually connect the system. For NST, this is not just an observation. It is a strategic space. NST should not be just another loose meeting place. Not a newsletter with logos. Not a network applauding development from the sidelines. NST can be the innovation infrastructure the sport-tech field is missing. An actor that connects start-ups with federations and clubs. Capital with validated cases. Academia with practical challenges. Technology with the reality of sport. Needs with solutions. Canini's thesis also reminds us that sport is not an ordinary industry. Sport is culture, identity, volunteering, performance, politics, commercial interests and local communities at the same time. That is why innovation in sport is demanding. It is not enough for the technology to work. It must fit. It must create trust. It must survive the locker room, the boardroom, the everyday life of coaches, the parents' meeting, the sponsor logic and the federation structure. Here, NST can take an important role. Not as a technology pusher, but as a translator. Between sport and technology. Between start-up and system. Between enthusiasm and implementation. Canini points to the need for clearer coordination, less bureaucracy and safe spaces for experimentation. That resonates strongly with Norwegian sport. We have many strong environments, but too few structured pathways that take a solution from idea to pilot, from pilot to learning, and from learning to scaling. Sport-tech does not need more conversations about potential. It needs mechanisms for action. That is why NST should build thematic innovation pathways around concrete problem areas in sport. Bring together start-ups, federations, clubs, researchers, investors and users around defined challenges. Establish test arenas where new technology can be tried in safe and relevant ways. Document the learning. And help strong solutions find a faster route into the market. Start-ups do not only need capital. They need legitimacy. In sport, trust is often the entry ticket. A start-up may have a good solution, but without references, without an understanding of the reality of sport and without access to the right environments, the road is long. NST can help give the right companies that legitimacy. Not by endorsing everything and everyone, but by creating structured meeting places, pilot processes and professional connections that make sport more willing to test, and investors able to see more than a pitch. Canini's thesis is therefore more than an academic contribution. It is a mirror. It shows that sport-tech is becoming more open, more collaborative and more user-oriented. At the same time, it shows that the ecosystem still needs better connections, clearer roles and actors capable of orchestrating collaboration across boundaries. For NST, this is an invitation. We can choose to be a network that follows development. Or we can be an actor that helps shape it. The real question is not whether Norwegian sport needs more technology. It does. The question is whether we can build the trust, structure and collaborative power that make technology actually get used. Because in sport-tech, the smartest solution does not always win. Often, it is the solution that finds the right problem, the right user and the right ecosystem. And perhaps it is precisely in the ability to connect these that the most important competition of the future will be decided. Not only the competition for medals, market shares and investment. But the competition to get more people active, to create stronger communities, and to build solutions that actually make sport and society better. <a href="https://iris.uniroma4.it/handle/20.500.14244/10981" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read the thesis here →</a>