Ever lost to your friend at FIFA or Formula 1 and want to beat them next time? London-based Titan Academy has raised $1.8m to help sports game players unleash their full potential through automated insights. 

The round is led by Blackstone-backed Superbet’s venture arm with further backing by Ascension, APX (Axel Springer & Porsche), Concept Ventures and various strategic angels such as Maria Scuri from ELS FACEIT, venture architect and pro racing driver Adrien de Leener and Titan user and Magnite CMO David Hertog.

Titan Academy launched its racing games coaching platform Track Titan in 2021 and – after starting to monetise in early 2022 – has already reached six-figure annual recurring revenues with users in more than 70 countries.

From geeky niche to the big screen

With celebrities such as producer deadmau5 and football legend Roberto Carlos passionately showing their skills on the virtual pitch and track, sports games now attract more than 500 million players globally.

Titan Academy founder Max Teichert is a former professional gamer and was scouted through a competition on Playstation to turn his passion for racing games into a real life racing career.

“Others shouldn’t have to grind it out like I did as a teenager. Our mission is to give players personalised insights at the right time so they can instantly improve,” he remarks.

Underlining the rapid rise of racing and sports games in general, the film Gran Turismo (launching in 2023) follows the story of the competition Teichert took part in. Starring Orlando Bloom and Stranger Things actor David Harbour, it shows that the category previously seen as a niche in gaming has hit the mainstream.

Titan Academy’s fresh funding will be used to expand their racing offering and to tackle the next big sports game category: football (soccer).

Sports as the next big opportunity in gaming

Whilst other automated gaming coaching companies are tackling titles such as CS:GO or League of Legends, Titan Academy is fully focused on sports.

Tech Lead Jack Gardner explains:

“The beauty of sports games is that they are extremely consistent over time, which means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a new game comes out.” Gardner joined the startup from Amazon and previously built Machine Learning models in Formula 1.

Quick insights rather than rocket science

Whilst some analytics tools from the sports world have been adapted to gaming, they often show raw data an engineer or coach might understand but not the average gamer.

This is where Titan’s proprietary tech comes in: by collecting raw data and turning it into simple insights such as “You need to brake later”, even beginners tend to improve after they receive their first suggestions on the platform.

“We have helped beginners nail the basics, amateurs beat their friends for the first time and esports pros win competitions at the highest level,” says the startup’s founder.

From coaching platform to insights engine

Whilst the firm’s focus is currently on coaching, there is potential in applying their data-based insights to other use-cases.

Investor and new Board member Paul Neagoe explains:

“The Titan team have built a highly engaging consumer coaching platform which is an incredible data generator. Looking at how such data is monetised for B2B use cases such as scouting, team performance analytics and betting in real-life sports, we are excited to support them to explore the same on the gaming side.”