Shorts: Red Roses, Avie, MLS

England’s national women’s rugby side will return to New Zealand for the first time since losing last year’s World Cup final after the country was confirmed as hosts of WXV1.

The new three-tiered global women’s tournament starts in October despite clashing with the men’s World Cup. The competition is the first global Test competition outside of World Cups, a format that has yet to materialise in the men’s game.

Scotland will head to South Africa to play in WXV2 but Ireland’s base for WXV3 has yet to be named.

Dates and venues for WXV1 are set to be confirmed by New Zealand Rugby Union soon, and it is thought broadcast deals are already in the pipeline.

Health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett has acquired Avie, a start-up FitTech company.

The move is described as part of strategy to extend its reach beyond retail through the creation of personalised wellness solutions.

Co-founded by Charlie Leggate and Kit Logan, and backed by Entrepreneur First, Avie uses ‘health and activity data and behavioural science to help users achieve their health and wellness goals. ‘

As part of the acquisition, Charlie and Kit will join the H&B Wellness Futures Team to build Avie’s technology into Holland & Barrett’s digital services and solutions.

Charlie commented, “Many people who want to be healthier constantly try to make positive changes, but the FitTech market is not accessible to all. We take a fresh approach by combining years of recorded health and fitness data with the details of a user’s lifestyle to create an entirely personalised experience.”

Professional rugby league club St Helens has extended its partnership with blood flow restriction (BFR) wearables brand Hytro. 

Hytro worked with the clyb through last season’s Super League and World Club Challenge championships by integrating the Hytro BFR shorts into daily training and recovery regimes, and this will now continue into the 2023 season.

The deal will also enable Hytro advertising and usage rights at games and online, as well as access to players and training staff for marketing content.

St Helens, Head of Strength and Conditioning, Matt Daniels, said,”We are delighted to continue our relationship with the Hytro team. The Hytro products provide us with a simple and effective squad wide solution to blood flow restriction for recovery and performance. We are proud to remain one of the ever expanding group of elite sporting organisations that benefit from the cutting edge technology and research provided by Hytro.”

Major League Soccer (MLS) has partnered with London-based technology company ai.io.

The new partnership will aim to provide football players with the opportunity to be scouted by MLS for free without having to travel. The new programme utilses AI technology to enable any player to use ai.io’s latest product, aiScout, to easily participate in a virtual trial program.

Available in December 2023, clubs across MLS, MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT will have access to aiScout and aiLabs, and starting in January 2024 aiScout will provide the opportunity for players across the globe to be scouted by MLS for free.

Fred Lipka, Technical Director, MLS NEXT, said, “At MLS, we believe this partnership is going to be a real solution for some of the most important issues faced in Soccer across North America namely, cost, geography, and accessibility.”

“It is critical that we provide all players with an opportunity to access MLS NEXT and MLS NEXT Pro programming, and ai.io has built a fantastic technology platform that enables us to eliminate these traditional barriers and increase opportunities for players at no cost to the player.”