Arsenal: Innovation Lab
Arsenal launched the Arsenal Innovation Lab in 2017 to be at the forefront of the game
Read moreEFL Innovation Lab
Formed in 1888 by its 12 founder members, the English Football League (EFL) is the world’s original football league competition and the largest body of professional Clubs. With more than 135 years of history, it is home to some of football’s most memorable and iconic moments and is responsible for administering and regulating the EFL (Championship, League One and League Two), the Carabao Cup, Vertu Trophy and reserve and youth football.
Launched in 2024, the EFL Innovation Lab is an initiative designed to foster collaboration between the football industry and innovative suppliers, start-ups and scale-ups.
The 10-week immersive programme offered the EFL and their 72 football clubs the chance to access leading solutions from global suppliers whose solutions address specific pain points and opportunity areas established during the early phases of the programme.
“The EFL Innovation Lab is a fantastic opportunity for both us and cutting-edge suppliers to collaborate and continue improving the EFL and its clubs. We’re thrilled to partner with these innovative companies, driving real progress and reaffirming our commitment to championing innovation across the EFL and the 72 football clubs.”
Rick Parry, Chairman of the EFL
The categories for the inaugural EFL Innovation Lab were:
- Next Generation of Fans
This category sought solutions that future-proofed the EFL and its clubs, with a particular focus on creating engagement with younger, more diverse demographics. We sought innovative solutions to deepen fan connections, elevate the matchday experience, and create a more inclusive fan community. - Delivering Process Excellence
Our goal was to ensure we consistently operated at peak efficiency to provide the best service to our fans. This category focused on optimising both matchday staffing and internal club operations. We sought practical solutions that enhanced employee management, streamlined workflows, and digitised manual activities to deliver process excellence across the EFL and its clubs. - Unlocking Data Insights
For this category, the EFL and its clubs actively sought solutions to unlock the full potential of our data. We looked for solutions that could deliver actionable insights and inform decision-making across all areas. Technologies of interest included data capture and collation, advanced data analytics, and tools for processing fan feedback. - Wildcard
The Wildcard category was truly open. At the EFL, we were constantly seeking groundbreaking solutions that could redefine the experience around football. This was an opportunity to bring forward a game-changing solution that challenged the status quo and elevated how we engaged with fans and the community.
Of the 195 startup applications, 33 were further screened before 16 were invited to pitch their solutions at Pitch Day, which was held at Crewe Alexandra’s Mornflake Stadium. The Pitch Day concluded with six teams being selected to take part in the EFL Innovation Lab programme and being paired with EFL Clubs from across the three leagues. The teams came from Australia, the US, Ireland and the UK
Results
Campaignware
Campaignware is a no-code campaign suite that enables Clubs to launch a variety of digital activations to engage audiences, collect zero-party data, build loyalty and drive sales.
Campaignware launched and continuously iterated on successful digital activations with Sunderland throughout the 10-week programme. Their flagship initiative was a weekly score predictor, which achieved high conversion rates and impressions, demonstrating immediate fan engagement. Building on this success, they developed a comprehensive “Omnihub” for Sunderland’s play-off campaign, incorporating new and highly engaging features such as trivia competitions and a User Generated Content (UGC) fan wall, which proved to be very popular with supporters.
Beyond direct fan engagement, Campaignware explored various strategic avenues. They actively collaborated with Sunderland to refine campaigns, improve impression numbers, and identify new contacts. This close partnership enabled them to tailor their offerings and maximise impact. Campaignware also rolled out squad selector activations for each team that took part in the play-off finals as part of the trial, where they worked directly with EFL to rapidly roll out activations to fans.
By the conclusion of Sunderland’s play-off campaign, Campaignware had generated significant overall fan engagement.
IVY PASS
IVY PASS is a platform that allows anyone with a smartphone to instantly create a unique direct fan relationship with their teams, so fans can join exclusive team-branded digital experiences. All experiences require is one scan of a QR code, NFC tag or URL link; no app, sign-up, or sign-in is required.
Ivy Pass focused on providing a positive experience for fans and unlocking an additional way to market to them without the need for them to provide any data or sign up to any service (via the use of Apple/Google wallet notifications). Ivy Pass successfully launched a QR code-based digital collectable competition with Chesterfield, demonstrating positive initial usage and account creation rates. The competition encouraged fans to collect various digital cards, stored in their Apple or Google wallet, by scanning QR codes located around the stadium and club facilities, with initial results showing a strong conversion rate of accounts created to total attendance. They also successfully tested push notifications for fan engagement and revenue generation, including a targeted notification about early bird season tickets that generated significant interest.
By the end of the 10 weeks, Ivy Pass had collected valuable data on fan engagement, card collection rates, and the effectiveness of push notifications in driving actions. They were also able to demonstrate the solution’s flexibility in adapting to significant club events like play-offs and its potential to generate both fan interaction and commercial outcomes, with Chesterfield selecting a winner for the initial competition and showing continued interest in the platform’s capabilities.
Field of Vision
Field of Vision creates AI-powered handheld devices that translate sports action into real-time tactile sensations for visually impaired fans.
Field of Vision successfully trialled their solution for visually impaired fans at multiple matches with Port Vale and Oxford United. Initial “dry runs” and subsequent trials at both clubs garnered positive feedback from participating fans and club staff, who noted the ease of training and functionality.
Notably, the original plan was for Field of Vision to only trial with Port Vale, but at the start of the programme, a member of staff at Oxford reached out to trial the solution due to his father being visually impaired and having a season ticket at Oxford.
Not only did Field of Vision work with existing fans of both clubs, but they also were able to benefit the clubs by bringing in fans from local visually impaired charity and community groups on matchdays.
By the end of the 10 weeks, Field of Vision had concluded their matchday trials with both clubs, focusing on analysing the collected feedback. They also successfully tested Genius Sport’s camera tracking for accuracy and reliability and piloted it with clubs at all three EFL Play-off finals at Wembley, demonstrating scalability and engaging a wider audience.
Club DNA
Club DNA is an integrated digital solution for football contract and asset management. Streamlining football management operations for Clubs and Governing Bodies across Legal, Administration, Finance & Senior Management.
Club DNA’s key achievement was the successful refinement and implementation of its document generation features, particularly for player administration and financial reporting. Administration features, such as a centralised clause library, along with financial features such as SCMP reporting efficiencies, had immediate tangible value for the clubs they were working with.
The pilot successfully showcased Club DNA’s capabilities in streamlining administrative and financial processes for clubs across both player administration and financial reporting, along with the clear potential for benefits centrally for the league.
Aposto
Aposto is a platform for the management of matchday staff, making management easier for Club staff. It offers features such as briefing, training, attendance tracking, announcements and feedback – all connected to a Club’s payroll, creating an audit trail that simplifies workflows for club staff.
Aposto successfully conducted multiple live match trials of their solution at Oxford United games, consistently receiving positive feedback from both the club and participating stewards. These trials started on a smaller scale and gradually expanded, including a “hands-off” trial to simulate real-world implementation without direct Aposto team presence, which also proved successful and showed that Oxford could manage the system independently. A key achievement was the successful onboarding of an external agency, allowing Aposto to expand the trial to an additional 10-12 stewards, demonstrating the solution’s scalability and ease of adoption for larger operational teams.
Throughout the 10 weeks, Aposto actively worked to gather comprehensive feedback from Oxford United. This included direct video interviews with stewards and club staff, as well as developing and distributing surveys to capture a wider range of user experiences. They also conducted in-person “deep dive” sessions with Oxford to fully showcase additional features of their platform beyond the initial pilot scope, ensuring the club understood the complete capabilities of the solution.