2026 Sports Business Predictions
As we look ahead to 2026, leaders across our portfolio are thinking deeply about what the next phase of growth and innovation will bring. We asked our portfolio company CEOs to share their perspectives on the trends, opportunities, and challenges shaping their companies and industries in the year ahead. Below are their predictions and insights on what’s coming next.
Asensei: Steven Webster (CEO)
I prefer to create the future than predict it, so here’s 3 things you’re going to see from ASENSEI in the first half of 2026.
Digital Clones of Coaches. We’re announcing ASENSEI COACH in the new year. We’re taking the capability of Chat GPT and Eleven Labs voice clones, and squeezing it down onto a device so you have a clone of your favorite coach who you can watch you and converse with you, using your phone.
Digital onboarding in gyms and studios. We’re working with gyms and equipment manufacturers to bring computer vision and smart warmup movement assessments to new member onboarding. After your first 30 minutes at a gym, you should have a precision and personalized training plan adapted to how well you move today.
Digital Referees and Fitness Competitions. HYROX have led the way, but fitness competitions are exploding in 2026. Expect to see more brand activations like the one ASENSEI and Lucra delivered at HYROX Anaheim for the Centr and RedBull Unbroken challenges. And expect to see fitness competitions bring digital referees to the competition floor, tracking reps and no-reps with digital precision.
IC360: Eric Frank and Scott Sadin (Co-CEOs)
Heading into 2026, the industry is realizing that fragmented solutions are no longer enough to manage risk. At IC360, our prediction is that the 'Integrity and Compliance Ecosystem' will become the mandatory blueprint for the global gaming and sports landscape. By unifying ProhiBet’s advanced cross-monitoring, real-time integrity surveillance, and proactive education and compliance solutions and support, we are moving the needle from simply detecting issues to preventing them entirely. We’re excited to bring a holistic, 360-degree shield for the entire industry.
Lucra: Dylan Robbins (Founder & CEO)
On the Lucra side:
Lucra will reach new heights next year with goals of registering over 1M unique tournament sign ups, and partnering with ~100 brands across existing & new sectors in 2026.
We will even further establish ourself as the fastest growing modern loyalty platform in the country, as we redefine what it means to digitize friendly competition. Anywhere you can play for a buck, or a burger, you'll start to find us.
Expect enhancements within our existing tournaments and peer-to-peer feature set, as well as some exciting new verticals we'll be launching to further drive new customer acquisition, bolster engagement, and increase life time value of customers for our brands.
On the industry more broadly as we head into 2026:
I think we've just entered the 3rd inning of the lifecycle for sports betting, prediction markets, gamification, and more. With each month more casual fans are engaging with new and innovative products in the market, and the LTVs of these customers remain incredibly high compared to other industries.
With the continued growth of AI and modern technology, the bar will only get higher for what makes a great customer experience, which I believe will be the defining vector for which D2C companies reach exponential scale in this market. This provides a unique opportunity for B2B platforms to provide technology and tooling to further amplify the projected massive growth in this sector.
Boomerang: Skyler Logsden (Co-Founder & CEO)
“The broader tech market in 2026 will reward companies solving real, universal problems—not just novel ones. As AI accelerates efficiency across every industry, organizations will continue to face pressure to do more with fewer resources, and software will increasingly replace manual, repetitive tasks. Disruptive tech solutions will quietly handle the heavy lifting, allowing teams to scale without adding headcount. Sustainable growth will come from usefulness, trust, and measurable outcomes. At Boomerang, we see this shift in our favor as lost & found moves from a labor-intensive burden teams can absorb, to a pressing need for an automated, customer-first experience that helps organizations deliver more with less.”
Maestro: Ari Evans (Founder & CEO)
In 2026 well see an explosion of new ways to watch sports: interactive, alternative, short-form, long-form and everywhere in between; and DTC will continue to gain strategic importance as big media continues to consolidate.
Play By Play Sports Broadcasting Camps: Steven Goldstein & Jeremy Treatman (Co-Founders)
At Sports Broadcasting Camps, we are looking forward to our best year ever. With multiple social media videos going viral, a strong base of returning campers, and a growing reputation for kids having their best week of the summer at SBC, we feel it's going to be a strong year. We are excited for our 25th anniversary in the summer of '26!
ZATAP: David Geisser (Co-Founder & CEO)
For 2026, we believe that the Music and Entertainment industry will invest in two areas: AI and D2C. They need to build robust CRM databases and get closer to the fans. Whoever has a direct relationship with the fans, will win.
Ludis Analytics: Vala Dormiani (Founder)
Managed services replacing traditional SaaS: Most organizations don’t need more software—they need outcomes. We’re seeing a shift from “buy software and staff a team” to AI-powered managed services. Ludis offers a managed service layer where we take care of data cleaning, preparation, and analytics, with AI making this model scalable, cost-effective, and a compelling alternative to large internal data teams.
AI workflows that hide complexity from the user: Advanced analytics shouldn’t require deep technical expertise. Multi-agent AI systems that coordinate tasks, retain context, and generate code can abstract away complexity. At Ludis, we use multi-agent workflows and AI-driven code generation to make sophisticated data analysis accessible to non-technical users.
Synthetic data as a core input: Real-world data is often sparse, messy, or incomplete. Synthetic data is increasingly used to fill gaps, test scenarios, and improve model training. At Ludis, we enable teams to generate and use synthetic data alongside real datasets.
GeoSnapShot: Andy Edwards (Founder & CEO)
The quiet change coming in 2026 is that sports photography stops being an afterthought and starts being treated like real infrastructure. Participation sport keeps growing, expectations from families keep rising, and yet most photo workflows are still fragmented. This creates brand risk, youth safety issues, and leaves real money on the table. Governing bodies are increasingly looking for a consistent media model that scales across thousands of clubs without adding admin. Alongside that our safe and secure media platform (proved in schools) is a key element with "Safe Sport" governance.
That’s why GeoSnapShot’s position going into 2026 is strong: the top-down rollout model is proving to be sticky, we have already scaled globally, and we’re well aligned with where the category is heading.
As we head into 2026, these predictions underscore the ambition and momentum across the SeventySix Capital portfolio. We invite you to explore more about the founders building alongside us and stay connected as we share insights, news, and opportunities throughout the year. Visit our Portfolio page to discover the companies driving innovation, learn more About SeventySix Capital, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week in Sports Business, for analysis on sports tech investing, venture capital trends, and the evolving sports business landscape.
