Beyond the thrilling game, the lively ambience, and the excited spectators, sports always carry risk of injuries for the athletes that should not be overlooked. As a solution, HITIQ (ASX: HIQ) has been striving to minimise head injuries on athletes through its transformative concussion management technology. Most recently, HITIQ has been appointed to exclusively manage all head injuries and impacts at the 2022 Rugby League World Cup

HITIQ has been working with major sports leagues worldwide such as the English Cricket Board, the AFL, and the German Ice Hockey Federation. HITIQ aims to provide a total concussion ecosystem which includes the identification, monitoring and management of sport related brain injuries. Adding the Rugby League to their portfolio will further amplify and showcase their concussion management technology to the global rugby league market.

“HITIQ is pleased to be selected as an exclusive technology partner at such an important global competition as the Rugby League World Cup”, said HITIQ CEO, Mike Vegar when commenting on the Rugby League World Cup partnership,

“We look forward to developing a close association where our concussion management technology can be used to positively advance player welfare at the world cup and more broadly in other rugby league competitions around the world.”

The fact that HITIQ technology can be applied to almost all sports will hopefully open up a future path targeting the concussion management market including elite and recreational sport, clinical practitioners, military, research, and combat sports. The market opportunity globally represents ~500k athletes within the elite market and ~10 million in the consumer market. Whereas the Agreement remains commercially sensitive, the financial impact of the contract is not considered material to HITIQ’s overall annual recurring revenues.

The Rugby League World Cup will run for five weeks from 15 October until 19 November 2022. HITIQ will be in charge of all participating men’s, women’s & wheelchair teams, managing approximately 750 players spanning 18 countries. All 32 competing teams will utilise HITIQ technology to record head injury events, capture details related to the incident, provide a consistent and defined structure for assessments and diagnosis, and then manage ‘return to play’ protocols.

Despite its revolutionary technology offering and extensive partnership portfolio with major leagues, HITIQ incurred a 37% further net loss from ($5,062,846) in FY21 to (6,947,448) in FY22. Despite HIQ shares reaching $0.30, a 50% premium to the Company’s issue price shortly after listing on the ASX, the company has traded at a significant discount ever since. HITIQ stated that its fragile position could be resulted by their niche target market of early technology adopters. However, some professional leagues are still yet to admit the seriousness of sports related head injuries.