UT Austin to Host Spurs AI Sports Hackathon
The two professional teams will gather innovators on October 22-23 to solve sports media challenges.
Updated on Oct. 7, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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The San Antonio Spurs and Tottenham Hotspur will bring their joint AI hackathon to the University of Texas at Austin campus this October. Students and tech participants will spend two days developing tools for automated content production and media compliance.
Why it matters
The event highlights the growing intersection of professional sports operations and Austin-based AI research. The initiative serves as a recruiting and development funnel for Tottenham Hotspur to find partners for its Hotspur Labs venture program.
The hackathon focuses on two distinct technical areas while engaging an unknown number of participants. The initiative remains a pilot effort to test how external developers utilize partner technologies.
The players
San Antonio Spurs
A professional basketball team based in Texas that co-organized this hackathon.
Tottenham Hotspur
A professional English football club that launched the Hotspur Labs venture program.
University of Texas at Austin
The local university hosting the hackathon at its business school.
ScorePlay
A media platform providing infrastructure for sports content automation.
TwelveLabs
A technology company providing video intelligence tools for the event.
The details
Participants will work out of the McCombs School of Business using specialized platforms including ScorePlay and TwelveLabs. Teams are tasked with building solutions that synthesize live game footage, social media sentiment, and automated production workflows. A panel of judges will review all final presentations on the event's second day to determine the winning submissions.
Timeline
The Spurs-Squared Hackathon takes place on October 22-23, 2026.
A judging panel will select the winning projects on October 23, 2026.
The Texas Context
This event builds upon the professional sports industry's growing reliance on the Hotspur Labs venture programme to scout new media technologies. It reflects a trend of global sports brands utilizing Austin's university infrastructure to pilot commercial AI applications.
Local students and tech professionals at the University of Texas will have direct access to professional sports data and AI platforms during the two-day event. Attendees should prepare for high-intensity collaboration at the McCombs School of Business throughout the competition.
The takeaway
The event demonstrates how major sports organizations are outsourcing technical problem-solving to regional innovation hubs. Watch for the announcement of winning projects on October 23 to see which AI solutions for sports production move to the next phase of development.
Further reading
Learn more about the local tech scene in our Artificial Intelligence section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Sport Industry Group.
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