Sportup 2018, Turkey’s first international sports tech and innovation Conference, held in Istanbul for second time at Nişantaşı University’s Neotech Campus.

Turkey has the youngest and perhaps most sports and tech savvy population in Europe. Around 300 representatives from the sports industry, sponsor brands, retailers, digital agencies and media discussed business opportunities and digitalisation in sport.

In opening speech Dr. Veli Ozan Çakır, the Deputy Director of Sport at the Turkish Ministry of Sport, said:

“We will show that we are the best candidate for EURO 2024… We are a strong candidate for both events (EURO 2024 and 2026 Winter Olympics). We believe that an international event will be awarded to Turkey… We support Turkish sports brands and companies to be more active in global markets. Our main motivation is to increase market share of current Turkish sports brands, supporting the establishment of new companies and improving skills of labour in sports industry… We also want to support local production of new technologies and innovation in sport.”

The event also brought European sports startups together with local stakeholders in sport. As part of the programme sport startups demonstrated their products to visitors and pitched to Turkish investors on stage. They have also visited Beşiktaş and Galatasaray at their home grounds, Vodafone Arena and Türk Telekom Arena respectively, and conducted roundtable meetings with marketing teams of clubs.

SportExperience, KickUp, Upshot, CIES presented at panel sessions. 3Dmouthguard, Content Stadium, REMIQZ, SmarterTV and Stadiugraph attended the conference and pitched on stage. SportExperience also represented JudaFashion, Ockyz, Propeaq Light Glasses, SHFT, SmartGoals and WannaSport in Istanbul.

At the final session of Sportup 2018, ten startups from five different countries pitched to a jury of investors and sports industry executives. Smarter TV took first place where Content Stadium was second and Sprongo third according to votes of jury.