MLS names Sportec as new VAR provider

Sportec has built a new facility in Arlington, Texas, where it will operate its video review, medical sideline review and match data for the league.

MLS

Sportec Solutions is replacing Hawk-Eye as MLS’ VAR technology provider in a deal that runs through 2030 and encompasses the league’s medical sideline review (MSR) operations. In the role, Sportec, which signed on as MLS’ data provider last season, will integrate its FIFA-approved VAR system for MLS and Leagues Cup competitions, as well as the MLS All-Star game.

The league’s VAR, MSR and match data gathering processes will now be managed from a new 12,000-square-foot operations center in Arlington, Texas. The center is a multimillion-dollar project which Munich-based Sportec, with a $1M performance grant from the Arlington Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) to establish a U.S. headquarters in the city, broke ground on in October and completed in January. The facility will consist of 15 workstation VAR and MSR areas, a 60-workstation live data collection area, and staff 13 full-time employees, according to Sportec, bringing multiple key workflows under one roof.

That dynamic fits squarely into the vision of a connected tech ecosystem MLS saw when it began working with Sportec one year ago.

“The world is getting more and more and more interconnected, and [data] systems are playing a bigger and bigger role in almost every aspect of soccer,” said Chris Schlosser, MLS’ SVP of emerging ventures, of the league first deciding to work with Sportec. “Having unbelievably high-quality, super low-latent sports data feeds coaches on the sideline, it feeds broadcast with Apple, it feeds sports betting with IMG Arena, it feeds, now, refereeing in all sorts of new ways… When it came time for video review – this same future is really impacting the refereeing space, where the data side, the cameras that we’re installing in the stadiums, can help generate better refereeing decisions.”

MLS

MLS carried familiarity and a strong working relationship with Sportec, and ultimately expanding their partnership to include video review was a “natural fit,” said Jeff Agoos, MLS’ SVP of competition of medical administration.

“The real benefits here and the efficiencies here are with our officials, with our medical staff, with our data staff, our technology staff,” Agoos said. “So if we do have a problem that arises we have immediate on-site action by league technology representatives or other people that can improve the system or resolve an issue very quickly, rather than having to try to piecemeal something together over the course of a 90-minute match.”

MLS began working with Hawk-Eye in 2017 and managing VAR reviews out of the latter’s Atlanta-based facility in 2022. The Sportec facility is the first permanent operations center the league will use for its video review services, and Sportec’s second overall; it also has a video review facility in Cologne, Germany where the company oversees VAR and goal line technology activity for Bundesliga (goal line technology is not in Sportec’s scope of work for MLS).

Arlington was one of more than 30 locations considered for the facility, according to a Sportec spokesperson. Schlosser noted the latency advantage of operating video review from a North American facility, while Agoos pointed out Arlington’s proximity to Dallas (where the Professional Referee Organization hosts camps), central geographic positioning (to manage matches on both coasts) and the 2026 World Cup coming to North America as reasons MLS favored the site.

“Our hopes are that we can partner, or at least support the efforts of FIFA and the World Cup, by having the center in Dallas,” Agoos said. “Time will tell on that aspect.”

MLS announced ahead of its season opener this week that, considering the ongoing lockout of the league’s referees and labor negotiations between the PRO and the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PRSA), it will postpone the planned implementation of in-stadium VAR announcements. Those, as well as broadcast “look-ins on certain reviews or match decisions,” may come later in the season, Agoos said. Replacement officials were used for the season opener on Wednesday.