Smarter Sports
Awards Judges
Judging panel presented in association with
2026 Judges
Allison Barber
To the Hoop Strategies
Neelay Bhatt
Next Practice Partners / TEDSports
James Bisgrove
Al-Qadsiah Club Company
Rory Burghes
Capgemini INVENT
John Burns
JMW Solicitors
Tamika Catchings
EMBA | Entrepreneur | Co-Founder, Catch The Stars Foundation | Naismith Hall-of-Famer
Avinash Chandran
Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention
Aoife Clarke
Irish Rugby Football Union
Lucy Chow
Women in Games
Laura Deas
Team GB
Alejandra De Palma
Mercury 13
Rebecca Edwards-Symmons
Commonwealth Games Wales - Team Wales
Mark Epps
ATP Tour
Dr. Ravi Gill
The OPSIS Group
Yan Gu
Purdue University
Jeff Hintz
Sports Tech HQ
Nathan Homer
NEOM
Mark Jarvis
The FA
Claire Kelly
Gemba
Courtney Lawes
Former England Rugby International
Mike Levine
United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee
Barry McNeill
Bloom Sports Partners
Vincent Minjares
Aspen Institute Sports & Society
Ugo Monye
Former England Rugby International
Jonathan Owen
Energy
Nick Pearson
Forte Talent Group
Zoe Prothero
The Premier League
Kacy Raye
Salesforce
Jamie Riley
USA Football
Kevin Scott
PGA of America
Michaela Snook
F1
Sonia Sulivan
Melbourne Track Club
Charles Torwudzo
USA Football
Karen Webb Moss
Aquatics GB, More than Equal and Thirsty Insights Ltd.
Nina Walsh
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
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The National Institute for Sport & Health, is the official partner of The Awards’ judging panel.
The National Institute for Sport & Health is a dynamic community dedicated to advancing innovation in sport, health, and wellbeing. Built around three core pillars: adaptable spaces and resources to support your growth, tailored support programs for tech ventures, and specialised events to sharpen your business and technical skills.
Whether you’re a solo innovator, a budding startup, a scaling venture with a vision for global impact, or an established leader in sport and health tech, you have just found the perfect place for growth.
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Judges And Judging Process
World class scrutiny for world class innovation: meet the industry experts judging your work…
The Smarter Sports Awards are serious about honest, authentic and authoritative scrutiny and this is reflected both by the outstanding profile of our expert judging panel and the process by which all entries are judged.
Judging is completed online, independently of and without reference to any other score; each judge marks every element of the entry form, then submits a total score for each shortlisted entry. In the case of a tie, more judges from the industry are asked to evaluate the tied entries until a clear winner is determined.
Remember, our judges are unquestionably some of the most informed people in the sector and the judging process means that all their points of view are accounted for fairly. They are totally unbiased in their voting and are committed to working to seeing excellence – not a brand’s size or budget – win.
We ensure organizations of all sizes enjoy fair representation and opportunities at the Awards, and are proud that The Smarter Sports Awards is one of the few industry events where a bootstrap start-up can achieve victory over an established, international sports brand. Ultimately excellence is what counts!
