The Ministry of Sport and Misk support startups in building technological solutions, testing them within the sports ecosystem, and reaching investors

Riyadh | BETH

The Ministry of Sport is participating in the tenth edition of the Misk Launchpad program, in partnership with Misk Entrepreneurship, one of the tracks of the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation “Misk,” to support startups operating in the sports and technology sectors.

The program works to move ideas from their initial conception to testable products, verify their market fit, and enhance the readiness of companies for growth and investment attraction.

The ten-week program will run from September 6, 2026, until January 2, 2027, while registration remains open until the end of Friday, July 31, through Misk Launchpad.

Four Stages

Participating companies progress through four interconnected stages:

Idea Design

Identifying target customers, conducting actual interviews with them, and validating the problem the project seeks to solve before beginning to build the product.

Product Development

Developing a minimum viable product “MVP” and refining it weekly under the supervision of specialized mentors, with a focus on user experience and product-market fit.

Testing and Validation

Testing the product with real users, measuring its commercial viability, and developing customer-acquisition mechanisms and market-entry plans.

Preparing for Growth

Preparing the highest-performing companies to meet investors and improving their financial models, investment plans, and ability to scale after the program ends.

The program is delivered in English and combines live online learning with optional in-person sessions, while the Misk Foundation covers all participation fees.

Sport Becomes a Laboratory

The importance of the Ministry of Sport’s participation is not limited to supporting startups with knowledge and guidance. It also gives them access to the integrated sports ecosystem, including federations, clubs, educational institutions, and related programs.

This access gives companies an opportunity to test their products in a real environment, instead of building technological solutions based on assumptions without knowing the extent to which the market needs them.

A company developing a system to analyze players’ performance needs a team to test it.

A fan-management platform needs a stadium or club to measure its effectiveness.

Solutions related to ticketing, broadcasting, injuries, training, and operations need users, data, and partners before they can become investable products.

Sports organizations thus move from being beneficiaries of technology to becoming partners in its innovation and development.

The Program’s Record

Misk data indicate that previous editions of the program supported more than 3,200 entrepreneurs, contributed to developing more than 950 prototypes, and served over 30 sectors.

Participating companies also created more than 1,000 jobs, demonstrating that the program does not measure its impact solely by the number of trainees, but by what their ventures can produce after the training ends.

Applicants are not required to be Saudi nationals, but they must demonstrate a serious commitment to testing and launching their projects in the Kingdom. Teams of two or three founders are preferred, although individual founders may also apply.

BETH Commentary | Beyond Training

The Ministry of Sport’s participation comes at a time when the Saudi sports market is expanding beyond competitions and clubs to include stadiums, entertainment, broadcasting, data, and the fan experience.

This expansion creates needs that sports organizations cannot address through traditional solutions alone. It also opens the way for startups to build specialized products in the Kingdom and later export them to other markets.

However, the program’s success will not be measured by the number of ideas registered or workshops delivered.

The true measure is the number of products actually tested, the partnerships established with clubs and federations, the investments secured by companies, and the solutions transformed into sustainable businesses.

The program does not need to graduate companies that merely know how to present their ideas, but companies that possess products whose value the market clearly understands.

In the new sports economy, a successful company does not begin with the question:

What technology can we create?

It begins with an earlier question:

What real problem inside the stadium, club, or fan experience deserves to be solved?