Sports, tech leaders: This is our moment to turn Kansas City’s new fans into investors
March 13, 2026 | Nikki Overfelt Chifalu | News
With Kansas City’s knack for scoring big sports headlines, opportunity is on the court for the region to boost its brand as a hub for innovation, said Pam Kramer, emphasizing that the eyes of the world will be watching when the World Cup arrives this summer in the Midwest.
But the shot clock is already ticking, she warned.
Pam Kramer, CEO of KC2026, speaks during a panel conversation on the intersection of the Kansas City region’s sports and tech industries at the Gamechangers and Champions summit in Lawrence; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
“Chances are, if they know about us right now, it’s because of the Chiefs or one of our sports teams,” said Kramer, CEO of KC2026, the local organizing committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “That’s amazing. We want them to be fans, but we also want them to know this is a great place to invest, a great place to start a business, a great place to raise a family.”
“So creating opportunities for investors and for startups to meet global investors who will be here for the tournament is just one of the ways we’re thinking about that,” she told a crowd gathered Tuesday for the Gamechangers and Champions summit — set in the spotlight of recent state-of-the-art renovations at the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on the University of Kansas’ Lawrence campus.
ICYMI: World Cup innovation-networking hub, FIFA fan fest plans unveiled by KC organizers
A panel conversation at the event focused on the rise of Kansas City in the sports tech industry, featuring Kramer; Jason Booker, deputy athletics director for external affairs and revenue generation for KU; Justin Wood, principal and sports + higher education practice director for Dimensional Innovations; Stuart Ludlow, CTO and cofounder of VeloVisa; Ford Galvin, vice president of data strategy and analytics for the KC Current; and Kevin Higgins, vice president of IT for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Justin Wood, principal and sports + higher education practice director for Dimensional Innovations, shares insight on a sports tech panel during the Gamechangers and Champions summit in Lawrence; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
Sports innovation across the Kansas City region is already outscoring the Midwest’s “flyover country” reputation, said KU’s Booker, pointing to startup strides amid the excitement of this week’s Men’s Big 12 Basketball Tournament.
“I could go down a list of local entrepreneurs that we’re working with,” he said. “We really like being first to market a lot of things, so we’ve enjoyed being in that atmosphere.”
Kansas City-rooted Dimensional Innovations, FanThreeSixty, and ShotTracker are among the local innovation-led companies keeping the Division I university at the top of its game, Booker told the Gamechangers and Champions crowd.
Jillian Letrinko, broadcast anchor and KC Current announcer, moderated the sports tech panel, which was presented by event organizers NXTUS, the Kansas Department of Commerce, and KU Innovation Park.
“In Kansas City — and really the region — it’s quickly becoming one of the most interesting sports innovation ecosystems in the country, thanks in large part to this group, obviously, and many others,” Letrinko said. “From global events like the FIFA World Cup to new stadiums to collegiate athletics, fan experience technology and sports startups, we’re really seeing that sports become an economic driver and a testing ground for new technology.”
Two local startups, Booker detailed, are helping KU with the student athlete experience and fan engagement.
Nicole Burke, CSO and COO at The Good Game; and Zarif Haque, founder of The Good Game, pose during the award reception for Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2026; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News
Lawrence-based The Good Game — a universal, compliant sports marketplace, powered by a single verified passport that clears families, athletes, coaches, and communities to join, work, and fund youth sports on demand that was founded by Zarif Haque in 2023 — has developed technology that the university is using to streamline NIL (name, image, likeness) opportunities for its athletes.
ICYMI: The Good Game connects young athletes with on-demand sports experts
“Our student athletes have upward of six to seven apps that they have to engage with in order to get access to NIL, REDshare and all the things they deal with,” Booker explained. “We’re trying to find a way to create a passport for a student athlete so that they don’t have to go and re-enter all their information on all the apps. How does it roll up to one? So you’ve got one passport that has all of their financial information, background, address, tax ID, all those things. So it just makes it a lot easier for those student athletes to activate.”
Merriam-based ShotTracker — with patented tech that delivers deep data and analytics as well as video, scoreboard and broadcast integration that was founded by Davyeon Ross and Bruce Ianni and was one of Startland News’ Startups to Watch in 2019 — is assisting KU athletics with both athlete and fan experience, Booker continued.
“We’re using ShotTracker technology to showcase advanced stats,” he said. “They’ve got chips in our basketballs, for example, that our student athletes use in training. How many shots did you take? Where did you make your shots in training?”
“We’ve actually converted that technology now to a fan engagement platform,” he added. “So we added two new corner video boards in Allen (Fieldhouse) last year. So if you look at it, we have advanced stats that’s all fed from the ShotTracker platform. We turned that into revenue for sponsorship. We integrated it into our app because we want people at home to be in our app instead of on ESPN looking at stats.”
Ludlow — an exited founder now with VeloVisa, which helps Major League Baseball simplify the visa process for its athletes — said breaking into the sports world, whether professional or collegiate, is a daunting task. It took the startup 18 months to get a date sharing agreement with MLB, he offered as an example.
“It isn’t for the weak at heart,” Ludlow explained, “because you’re coming into teams where technology truly is at the forefront. Data security isn’t a ‘Oh, that can happen.’ It is literally on top of everyone’s mind and the level of professionalism is at the peak. So just being a startup in this space is very hard.”
“Sports in America is a global brand,” he added. “So for us to be able to focus on the international movement of players, both in and out of the states. We hold that responsibility high.”
