South Africa is known as a fairly sporty nation, even though the country doesn’t necessarily compete at a high level in all sports.
The Springboks, the country’s rugby team and national pride and joy, have consistently been among the best in the world, becoming the only country to have ever won the Rugby World Cup three times in 2023.
Other than that, however, and a few odd victories and talented individual athletes, the country isn’t exactly known for its competitiveness in the world sporting arena.
But more importantly, some may argue, South Africa has a deep sporting culture that transcends all other boundaries.
Soccer, for instance, is the most popular sport played recreationally around the country, despite Bafana Bafana, the South African men’s national team, never being particularly competitive on a global scale.
Indeed, when it comes to sport, it’s not always about international success.
For South Africans, sport is very much a part of life. Children are required to take part in sporting activities while at school, university sport (especially rugby) is still fairly popular and club sport for adults is still alive, although it may be struggling somewhat.
Although the country may not have the finances and resources to fund experienced coaches and facilities and get children training at a high level from a young age, people still take great joy in playing and watching sport and bringing an element of competition into their lives.
And, that seems to be why South Africa has a budding sports tech startup industry.
What Are the Most Popular Sports in South Africa?
We’ve already pointed out football (or soccer, as it’s referred to in South Africa) as the most popular sport around the country. Indeed, the sport has a long history in terms of race in culture in the country, but on top of that, another reason it’s so popular is that it can be a reasonably inexpensive sport to play.
That means that children and adults alike can play soccer no matter where they are or what their financial situation is, as long as they have a ball. Of course, fancy boots, top-quality kit and a well-kept field make it a whole lot better, but the game can still be played without those things, and you can rest assured that it is.
No matter where in South Africa you go, from the urban centre of Johannesburg to the most rural parts of the Eastern Cape, you’re bound to find people playing soccer.
But, other than soccer, what other sports do South Africans enjoy? In no particular order, here are some of the other top sports in South Africa in terms of popularity:
- Rugby
- Cricket
- Field Hockey
- Basketball
- Golf
- Netball Swimming
- Athletics
With this in mind, let’s dive right into the top 6 sports tech startups in South Africa.
1. Tagmarshal
Founded in Cape Town in 2012, Tagmarshall offers users a golf management system with the primary goal of monitoring players on the course and ultimately increasing pace of play.
Tamarshall makes uses of several GPS tags and clips that are able to transmit GPS data back to the main system back at the clubhouse. The clips can be attached to a golf bag, a cart or stored in a player’s pocket.
By tracking all activity on the course at once, club managers can not only keep track of players, but players can go back and monitor their performance.
Tagmarshall was founded by the team of Bobdo Sieber, Craig Kleu and John Willmore, and so for, the startup has gone through and completed two funding rounds, with the most recent one ending in 2017.
2. My Fan Park
My Fan Park is easily one of the most popular and successful sports tech startups to have come out of South Africa in the last decade. The company operates as a sports fan engagement platform that allows fans to engage with famous sportsmen and sportswomen as well as various other celebrities and well-known figures.
It enables interactions by means of direct messaging, requests for shoutout videos, questions and answer sessions and live calls. The idea is to help strengthen ordinary players’ and fans’ associations with top talent in order to help them boost exposure and grow their audiences.
My Fan Park is a unique business that was founded in 2017 by Joy Fountain, Peter Karpas, Matthew Martin, Wouter Lombard and former Springbok rugby captain, Jean De Villiers.
3. Golf Coach App
Founded in Randburg, Gauteng in 2018, Golf Coach App is a virtual coaching platform that allows golf coaches to help players improve by means of a filming and analysis process.
By means of the app, players can upload footage of themselves playing – most important, footage of their swing – enabling coaches from anywhere in the world to provide you with their knowledge and expertise to help you improve.
Furthermore, the app helps players and coaches collect statistics and data on their own performance, and it also gives coaches a channel through which they can create game plans for players and more.
4. Match Kit
Match Kit is a South African startup that aims to help sportsmen and sportswomen improve their professional careers.
With a focus on managing finances, Match Kit gives players a means to create professional profiles detailing their own careers while also giving them access to broader opportunities, including sponsors, recruitment, crowdfunding and more.
Match Kit aims to deal with a very real issue faced by South African athletes which is that often, the biggest setback to launching a successful sporting career isn’t talent or hard work, it’s a lack of funding and know-how.
Thus, this innovative startup is giving athletes the tools they need to commercialise their own sporting careers.
5. Ball Talent
Ball Talent aims to provide a top-notch platform to connect players and recruiters to help the process of widespread scouting, improving opportunities for athletes far and wide and allow recruiters to get their eyes on the best talent in the country.
By means of capturing high-quality footage of players, Ball Talent gives recruiters the opportunity to analyse players’ performances.
It also makes the process easier in terms of remote scouting, as well as giving players, clubs and coaches the opportunity to learn from previous matches and practices in order to improve performance. Ball Talent provides services such as filming, editing and video analysis, among other things.
6. Fan Cam
Fan Cam is a sports engagement startup that aims to help spectators and fans connect with players, athletes and coaches by means of post-event engagement.
By means of advanced technology, Fan Cam allows spectators to find and tag themselves in footage of sports crowds, enabling spectators to connect with each other and more.
In technical terms, Fan Cam uses advanced analytical software to extract demographic data from stadium footage in order to contribute to research and eventually the overall improvement of fan experiences.
The startup was launched in Cape Town in 2010 by Tinus Le Roux and James Taylor and has since received a significant amount of venture capital from all over the world, including investors from the United States.
