Competitiveness
New revenue for every club
Clubs pool consented fan, member and youth-sector data under their own control. Top clubs close Europe’s monetisation gap with US sport; smaller clubs earn a share of every network campaign.
The data space of the sport value chain
Make sport’s value count.
SportX gives clubs, leagues, sponsors and public bodies digital standards to share data securely, earn from it together and measure what sport gives back.
A sovereign data space built on IDSA standards and the Dataspace Protocol. Founded by professional volleyball clubs and operated by Opiquad.
The project
A major economy that is barely measured
Sport accounts for €627.5 bn of EU GDP and reaches every town, from professional arenas to volunteer-run youth clubs. It links directly to tourism, mobility, health, media and local retail.
Yet its data stays locked inside each club, and its economic and social contribution has been officially measured only twice. SportX turns everyday exchanges between clubs, leagues, sponsors and fans into verified, continuous data, so sport can be monetised fairly and its impact can finally be counted.
The measurement gap
201220192026: no new figure
Health, transport and automotive are measured every year. Sport waits seven years between studies.
Why SportX
Three goals for the sport value chain
Social ROI
Sport’s impact, counted
Participation, inclusion, youth engagement, health and local spend become measurable club by club, continuously instead of once every few years.
Resilience
Continuity for grassroots sport
Many clubs are non-profit associations whose social value far exceeds their revenue. Verified credentials and shared revenue help them stay funded and stay open.
Use cases
Running today, and what comes next
Two use cases are ready to run. Five more are on the roadmap and build on the same standards, from social impact to health, mobility, tourism and the facilities where sport is played.
UC-01Ready today
Certificate exchange
Verifiable proof that a club, sponsor or supplier exists and is in good standing, issued as a verifiable credential.
- League and championship registration certificates for clubs
- Activity certificates for sponsor and supplier companies
- Proves legal status and federation membership, so non-profit clubs need no separate eligibility check
For clubs, leagues, federations and the sponsors and funders who need to trust them.
UC-02Ready today
Network campaigns with shared revenue
A sponsor runs one campaign across the whole network instead of negotiating club by club.
- Fans give consent per purpose, recorded as a credential
- The lead club of each sub-network runs the campaign over its user base
- Revenue is paid per contact and shared with every club that contributed, smaller clubs included
For sponsors, professional clubs and the youth and satellite clubs around them.
UC-03Roadmap
Social ROI reporting
The signals already flowing through SportX become a shared metric of sport’s social value.
- Participation from verified registrations
- Youth engagement and inclusion across age, gender and territory
- Local spend from sponsor campaigns
For municipalities, public funders and other data spaces that want to show their societal impact.
UC-04Roadmap
Health
Sport is the largest prevention programme a country already runs. SportX lets its data support public health, always with consent.
- Aggregated, consented participation and activity data for prevention programmes
- Athletes share wellbeing data with medical staff under their own usage policies
- Physical-activity outcomes measured club by club and territory by territory
For health authorities, insurers, medical staff and research partners.
UC-05Roadmap
Mobility
Every match moves thousands of people. Shared calendars and attendance forecasts help move them better.
- Matchday transit planning from event calendars and ticketing forecasts
- Low-emission travel incentives for fans, rewarded through their club
- Team and youth-sector travel coordinated across clubs
For transport operators, municipalities and clubs.
UC-06Roadmap
Tourism
Away fans, tournaments and youth events bring visitors to towns that tourism rarely reaches.
- Visitor flows from away fixtures, tournaments and camps
- Stays, dining and local services packaged around sporting events
- Local businesses reached through the club’s consented fan base
For destinations, hospitality, local businesses and event organisers.
UC-07Roadmap
Facility management
Gyms, arenas and pitches are shared by clubs, schools and communities. Shared data makes them easier to run.
- Booking and occupancy shared across clubs, schools and community users
- Energy use and maintenance data for publicly owned facilities
- Evidence of use and social return to plan new investment
For facility owners and operators, municipalities and clubs.
How it works
One hosted data space, many sovereign participants
Participants
Clubs, leagues, sponsors, venues and municipalities, each with its own identity and usage policies.
SportX data space
One multi-tenant EDC-V instance operated by Opiquad. IDSA reference architecture and Dataspace Protocol. Consent recorded per purpose and enforced by the data space.
Value out
Verified credentials, sponsor campaigns, shared revenue and measurable impact.
A club’s path into SportX
Join
The club becomes a member of the SportX association.
Get an identity
Opiquad onboards the club with its own identity in the data space.
Exchange certificates
The league registration is issued and shared as a verifiable credential.
Join campaigns
Consented contacts take part in network-wide sponsor campaigns.
Share revenue
Revenue per contact flows back to every contributing club.
Standards and technology
Built to IDSA standards, running on EDC-V
SportX abides by the standards of the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA). Every participant keeps control of its own data, and SportX can connect to other data spaces built the same way.
IDSA reference architecture
Data sovereignty by design
Each club, league or sponsor sets the usage policies for its own data. The data space enforces them on every exchange.
Dataspace Protocol
One common language
Offers, contracts and data transfers follow the open Dataspace Protocol, so exchanges are standardised, traceable and portable.
EDC-V
One hosted connector for everyone
SportX runs on EDC-V, the multi-tenant edition of the Eclipse Dataspace Components. One instance hosted by Opiquad serves every participant, so a club joins without installing or running its own connector.
Governance and trust
Owned by sport, run on European standards
IDSA reference architectureDataspace ProtocolEclipse Dataspace ComponentsGaia-X Label Level 3ISO/IEC 27001 · 27017 · 27018CISPE Data Protection Code of Conduct
- Legal form
- Association under Italian law, founded by six professional volleyball clubs and Opiquad.
- Operator
- Opiquad S.p.A., data space manager and operator. One of five companies in Europe with the Gaia-X Label Level 3.
- Incentive
- Members share the revenue the data space generates, so taking part pays rather than only complies.
- Ecosystem
- The whole sports ecosystem in one data space: clubs and federations, suppliers, sponsors, fans and families, public entities and the venues and facilities where sport is played.
Roadmap
Where SportX is going
Now
First cohort
- Certificate exchange live for founding clubs
- Network campaigns with per-contact revenue sharing
- Onboarding clubs across football, basketball and volleyball
Next
Measure and scale
- Social ROI reporting from data already in the space
- Expansion to clubs across Europe
Later
Connect
- Interoperability with other European data spaces
- The same model for sport systems outside Europe
Powering transparency and shared value in sport
Clubs, leagues, federations, sponsors and public bodies can join SportX. Write to us to find out how.