Kairos Sports Tech: Rugby World Cup and Ryder Cup success for NI firm

Gareth Quinn and Kairos Sports Tech provided support to the European Ryder Cup team as they regained the trophy in Italy

A sports tech company co-founded by a former Ulster and Ireland rugby player has been hailed for its contribution to South Africa's World Cup success.

Kairos Sports Tech, based in Belfast, helps elite sport teams and academies centralise communications so coaches have all the necessary tools to enhance playing performance.

The company was set up by Andrew Trimble and former Digital DNA co-founder Gareth Quinn about six years ago.

It now has a raft of leading sports organisations on its roster including Liverpool FC, Manchester United, Aston Villa and the European Ryder Cup golf team.

"Kairos is a communications and operations platform for elite sports teams, we work with a couple of hundred customers across 15 different sports and 14 different countries at the moment," Gareth Quinn told BBC News NI.

"It is multi-lingual as well.

Andrew Trimble played 70 times for Ireland before co-founding Kairos Sports Tech

"Initially, we focused on rugby and football, but we are now in basketball, baseball, ice-hockey in the US, we have a team in every major league in the world.

"We are allowing those teams to communicate more effectively between staff and players.

"We are saving the staff huge amounts of time and streamlining while allowing the athlete to focus on what matters, which is performing."

Kairos is following in the footsteps of Newry-based company STATSports, which has provided performance-tracking systems and analysis software to leading sports organisations for many years.

That company is a supplier to South Africa, New Zealand, England and Argentina who all reached the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup.

South Africa defeated New Zealand in the final.

Kairos TV was used to communicate with players and staff at the 2023 Ryder Cup including European team captain Luke Donald (centre)

Rassie Erasmus, South Africa Rugby's director of rugby, has described Kairos technology as "a vital tool in our planning and preparation for test matches".

Gareth explained how the two organisations worked in partnership for the World Cup tournament.

"What they wanted to do at the World Cup, they [South Africa] wanted to be able to share content that was already on Kairos on screens within the hotel, on the training ground etc," he added.

"Kairos shares multiple things, but one of those things is the schedule for that particular day and they also wanted to be able to share video through our content as well.

"So we literally built out a content management system that was able to utilise a screen in a hotel or a training ground which had wi-fi and was able to display bespoke content on that.

"Our smart engineers here in Belfast were able to make that happen."

Rassie Erasmus, South Africa Rugby's director of rugby, has hailed the contribution of Kairos Sports Tech

Another example of the company's contribution on a global stage, was at golf's Ryder Cup held in Italy in September.

Gareth said it was a "phenomenal" experience to be allowed into the "inner sanctum" with the European team as they triumphed over their US counterparts at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

"It was an eye-opener, the planning, the preparation, the operational team and process behind the European Ryder Cup team," he said.

"In the end, there were nearly 250 users on the platform, so you had players, caddies, partners, you had managers of the players, you had performance support staff, then you had all the European Tour support staff on the platform.

"All using it for multiple ways, from retrieving information about on course nutrition for the players, right through to flight details.

"Kairos TV then was being used to be able to communicate the pairings for the next day to the players in their lounge right through to what the players needed to wear the next day."

Gareth Quinn said it was a phenomenal experience to be allowed into the inner sanctum at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome

Gareth said teamwork and a nuanced understanding of the market were crucial elements in attracting high-profile clients.

Barcelona boost

He also highlighted how persistence can be rewarded.

"There was a time we were trying to get to an English Premier League football team and we courted this guy and tried to meet up with him and he told us to go to a conference at the Nou Camp in Barcelona and we could meet him there," he added.

"We booked the flights and the hotel, and the day before the guy let us know that he wasn't going to make it.

"Andrew and myself licked our wounds and said we will go anyway and try and make the most of it.

"There was another Premier League team there, that we were really trying hard to get into, we were in a good place, but the conversation had gone very quiet over the Covid period.

"At breakfast at the Nou Camp, the main guy we were looking to chat to walks up and says 'hello'.

"We did the Irish thing, we went out that evening [with him] for a few drinks and a bite to eat and that was the start of that relationship where we now work with all the academy teams, the women's teams and the first team of that particular club."