HITIQ Ltd (ASX: HIQ) has secured an exclusive three-year partnership with Hockey Australia, positioning the company as the Official Player Safety Partner for one of the nation’s largest participation sports. The HITIQ Hockey Australia partnership represents a $20-25 million multi-year revenue opportunity and grants access to approximately 92,000 players aged 12+ across the country’s entire hockey pathway.
This marks HITIQ’s first national governing body partnership in Australia, providing validation of its PROTEQT™ technology at the federation level. The agreement integrates the company’s instrumented mouthguard platform across Hockey Australia’s 105,000 registered participants, spanning grassroots clubs through to elite high-performance programmes.
Hockey Australia already endorses mouthguards as essential safety equipment. The partnership elevates this standard by embedding technology-enabled monitoring tools, education resources, and longitudinal brain-health tracking capabilities across all competition tiers.
Revenue model built on hardware sales and repeat purchases
The partnership’s commercial structure generates revenue through two primary channels: initial hardware sales and ongoing replacement cycles. As players upgrade or replace PROTEQT™ units to maintain continuous tracking of head-impact exposure, the model creates recurring revenue streams rather than one-off transactions.
Revenue realisation is expected across the three-year term through unit sales, device refresh cycles, optional upgrades, and potential expansion of player-education initiatives. The longitudinal monitoring angle drives repeat purchases, as maintaining consistent impact data over time requires players to use current-generation hardware.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Partnership Duration | 3 years |
| Total Registered Players | 105,000 |
| Target Demographic (12+) | 92,000 |
| Revenue Opportunity | $20-25 million |
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What is PROTEQT and why does it matter for player safety?
PROTEQT™ is an instrumented mouthguard developed by HITIQ in partnership with Shock Doctor. Unlike traditional mouthguards that simply provide physical protection, PROTEQT™ collects real-time data on head impacts during training and competition.
The technology works by embedding sensors within the mouthguard that measure the force, direction, and location of impacts to a player’s head. This data is captured during play and transmitted to an analytics platform, where coaches, medical staff, and players can review individual impact profiles over time.
Longitudinal brain-health monitoring refers to the ongoing tracking of a player’s cumulative head-impact exposure across multiple seasons. By maintaining a continuous record of impacts, the system supports detection, assessment, and management of head-impact risk throughout an athlete’s career. This capability becomes particularly relevant in contact sports where repeated sub-concussive impacts may accumulate over time.
The technology targets players aged 12+, aligning with the age range where structured competition intensity increases and long-term impact tracking becomes most valuable. PROTEQT™ is designed to support detection, assessment and management of head-impact exposure, rather than diagnosing concussion directly.
The ability to track impacts over time creates ongoing data value for players, clubs, and medical professionals. This longitudinal approach supports the repeat-purchase revenue model, as maintaining consistent data records requires players to use compatible hardware throughout their participation.
Elite integration amplifies brand visibility
Australia’s national hockey teams will adopt PROTEQT™ technology across training and competition environments. The Hockeyroos and Kookaburras represent two of the most consistently successful national teams globally, providing a high-profile platform for demonstrating the technology’s application at elite level.
Integration at this tier delivers validation beyond the commercial opportunity. When national team athletes, coaches, and high-performance specialists adopt a technology, it creates a reference point for grassroots participants and club-level decision makers considering similar adoption.
National teams provide high-profile proof of concept
The rollout across both national programmes will provide coaches, high-performance specialists, and medical staff with objective data on individual and team head-impact profiles. This data supports informed decision-making around training load management, return-to-play protocols, and long-term player welfare.
Elite adoption also enables the development of educational content and player-facing engagement tools. As national team athletes discuss their experience with the technology, awareness of head-impact management practices flows through to the broader hockey community, potentially accelerating adoption at club level.
Hockey is a fast-moving, high-skill sport involving frequent close-contact scenarios where head impacts can occur. The physical demands of the game and the pace of play create a natural environment for PROTEQT™’s player-safety technology, particularly when tracking cumulative exposure across training sessions and competitive fixtures.
Hockey Australia on Player Wellbeing
“Player wellbeing is central to our mission. Integrating PROTEQT™ across our pathways empowers participants with better information, education and tools for managing head-impact risk. This partnership allows us to uplift safety standards across the sport — from grassroots to high performance,” said David Pryles, CEO of Hockey Australia.
Strategic template for national expansion
The Hockey Australia agreement establishes HITIQ’s first national governing body partnership in Australia, validating the commercial model at federation level. This creates a replicable blueprint for approaching other sports organisations with large participation bases and structured pathways.
The significance extends beyond the immediate revenue opportunity. By integrating PROTEQT™ across an entire sport’s infrastructure, HITIQ gains access to population-level data on head-impact exposure across different age groups, competition tiers, and playing conditions. These datasets become increasingly valuable for broader player-welfare discussions at national and international level.
Key strategic benefits include:
- Establishing credibility with Australia’s first national governing body partnership
- Creating a scalable model for replication across additional sports federations
- Building population-level datasets on head-impact exposure across age groups
- Supporting evidence-based player-welfare policy development nationally and internationally
The partnership unifies player-safety practices across hundreds of clubs and all performance tiers, expanding PROTEQT™’s visibility, adoption footprint, and data-collection capabilities simultaneously. This unified approach contrasts with piecemeal club-by-club adoption, accelerating market penetration while reducing customer acquisition costs.
Executive Chair on Partnership Milestone
“Partnering with Hockey Australia as their exclusive Official Player Safety Partner is a significant milestone for HITIQ. This agreement enables the deployment of world-class brain-health monitoring technology across one of Australia’s largest and most successful participation sports. With more than 92,000 players aged 12+ in the core target group, this partnership allows us to support safer participation at every level of the game,” said Earl Eddings, Executive Chair of HITIQ.
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Investment thesis
The HITIQ Hockey Australia partnership represents material commercial progress for the company, with the $20-25 million revenue opportunity spanning three years. For context, this figure is significant relative to HITIQ’s current operational scale and provides visibility over multi-year revenue generation from a single partnership agreement.
The validation extends beyond immediate revenue. Securing Australia’s first national governing body partnership in the player-safety technology category establishes a proof point for approaching additional sports federations. The model demonstrates how instrumented mouthguards can be integrated across entire sporting pathways, from community participation through to elite performance programmes.
Why this partnership matters for the investment case:
- Material revenue opportunity: The $20-25 million figure over three years provides substantial revenue visibility
- Commercial validation: First national governing body deal proves the federation partnership model
- Recurring revenue structure: Replacement cycles and longitudinal monitoring drive repeat purchases beyond initial sales
- Scalability template: Success with Hockey Australia creates a replicable approach for additional sports federations
- Brand amplification: Elite team adoption by the Hockeyroos and Kookaburras provides marketing and credibility uplift at grassroots level
The partnership transforms HITIQ’s domestic growth trajectory by proving national-level adoption is achievable within Australian sports. With 92,000 players in the target demographic and exclusive rights across the three-year term, the company has secured prioritised access to one of the country’s largest structured participation bases for safety technology.
The recurring nature of the revenue model warrants particular attention. As players maintain longitudinal impact records over multiple seasons, ongoing hardware compatibility becomes necessary for data continuity. This creates natural refresh cycles that extend revenue generation beyond the initial wave of adoption.
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