Sports organizations can’t build it themselves—partners like Sportian can help

The sports tech sector is rocketing toward a projected $127 billion valuation by 2030—but only if sports organizations evolve into tech-enabled, data-driven businesses. The industry has largely resisted digital adoption for some time, thanks to its ability to trade on fan emotion, but fans are now demanding more personalized, immersive, and connected experiences. This pressure will eventually force clubs and leagues to look beyond the pitch and invest in their digital infrastructure. To get ahead of the curve, they should act right now.

This is where Sportian comes in—a sports-native technology firm born from LALIGA and Globant. For sports executives looking to embark on their organization’s digital journey, doing it yourself isn’t always an option, and Sportian offers a compelling value proposition that you might want to take note of.

Sportian was built by the sports sector, for the sports sector

Sportian started life as LALIGA’s internal digital operations team, tasked with transforming one of football’s biggest leagues into a digitally fueled powerhouse. In 2021, it founded LALIGA Tech, and Globant acquired a 51% stake, ultimately evolving the business into Sportian in 2023.

This history gives Sportian an edge traditional service providers lack: an inside-out understanding of the sports business. This, combined with Globant’s IT and business services muscle, means it can deliver traditional services with a strong understanding of industry-specific nuances—a proposition not many can match.

Sportian’s wide range of solutions for every step of the sports journey—from fans to front office

Most sports organizations have digital blind spots across the fan, team, and business landscape. That’s not because they lack data but the infrastructure to connect it—the reality is that they are overwhelmed with data, but it is fragmented and underutilized. Sportian’s full-suite solution aims to turn these disconnected touchpoints into a unified, intelligence-powered operating model. When HFS analysts connected with Sportian’s leadership, they highlighted several key solutions:

• Sportian’s fan engagement platform unifies ticketing, merchandise, content, OTT streaming, and gamification into a modular ecosystem. This approach enables personalized fan journeys that drive loyalty, engagement, and monetization. Integrated with gamification tools, including fantasy games, live voting, and matchday quizzes, the platform helps clubs turn passive audiences into active, connected communities.
• Sportian’s Performance platform offers real-time analytics that delivers tactical, physical, and opponent insights to directly inform training, preparation, and in-game decisions.
• Sportian’s Marketing Services helps organizations create AI-powered, 360-degree fan views and activate targeted multichannel campaigns to drive commercial outcomes.
• Sportian’s Minds platform unifies data across the entire sports organization—fan, team, and business—into one AI-powered platform. It delivers actionable insights that drive smarter business decisions, from personalized fan engagement to optimized player performance and commercial strategy.

From these offerings, it’s clear that Sportian supports clubs and leagues in unifying fragmented digital systems and scaling data-driven strategies—turning fan engagement into long-term business performance.

Sports organizations often don’t have the scaled expertise needed to deliver transformation themselves

Despite having access to vast amounts of fan, performance, and operational data, most sports organizations have yet to convert this information into lasting business value. Legacy systems, short-term planning cycles, and fragmented digital strategies make it difficult for many organizations to accomplish this on their own, despite their efforts. Our conversations with leading service providers revealed that sports organizations have tried to assemble their own teams to drive digital initiatives in the past. They quickly found scaling them too time-consuming and resource-demanding, particularly given that digital operations are at the core of very few sports organizations’ business models today. Sports organizations should focus on nurturing a small handful of specialists to manage their overall digital strategy while partnering with external providers for the scale needed to deliver them.

This isn’t just theory, either. When we connected with Sportian’s leading executives, they told us Major League Rugby doubled its audience in one season, Belgium’s Pro League saw 9x engagement growth, and the LA Clippers transformed their entire game-day experience with a fully contactless, data-driven venue journey. Of course, LALIGA’s 42 clubs still leverage Sportian’s solutions, too. This shows the value of partnerships in the sports technology space.

The Bottom Line: Many sports organizations aren’t equipped to drive their own digital transformation, which is why they should look to partners such as Sportian.

Sportian proves that sports tech isn’t theoretical—it’s active, global, and modular enough to scale from top-tier leagues to regional clubs. The industry’s strong growth projection depends on its willingness to drive digital transformation—but not every organization can drive that transformation internally. That’s where partners such as Sportian could be invaluable—and it’s something every sports executive should be considering.