AI is being used creatively by numerous companies, but Aircast.Tech aims to improve fan experiences at golf tournaments and other sporting events.
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Penn. — Startup founders, technology experts and golf industry insiders from around the world gathered in a hospitality tent perched above the 17th tee at Aronimink Golf Club on Tuesday to not only catch a glimpse of the players as they practiced on the long par 3, but also participate in the third-annual Golfweek Tech Lab.
Think of the event as the “Shark Tank” of golf, with small companies from a variety of sectors trying to impress a panel of judges with solutions to challenges that face the world of golf and sports.
As you might expect, two words that were inescapable at the 2026 Golfweek Tech Lab: artificial intelligence.
Golf.AI is using the technology to create agents that can provide personalized answers when golfers call a club or resort. Bantee uses it to not only allow players to share their round on a customized social media platform, but also build customized buddy trips after picking a region, how much golf they want to play and where they want to stay.
After the judges had a chance to see and talk with each company, however, it was Aircast.Tech that emerged as not only the winner in the Media & Digital Solutions category, but also the Grand Prize winner.
Clubhaus won in the Business Solutions category and Groove Golf won in Player Performance. Piing.Events won in Fan Engagement.
Founded by Australian native Craig Horobin, Aircast is tackling a problem that almost every modern sports fan has experienced: live sports that no longer feel truly live.
Whether it’s a text message from a friend spoiling a touchdown before it appears on your screen or trying to stream video from a crowded golf course where the signal constantly buffers, delays have become an accepted frustration of the streaming era. Aircast is attempting to eliminate much of that lag by delivering synchronized video and audio feeds to mobile devices in less than a second, even inside crowded venues.
“It just gives fans added context to what’s going on,” Horobin said. “Not just right in front of them, but on other holes as well.”
For golf, the application is obvious.
Fans standing beside a green or tee could use a tournament’s existing app to instantly switch between featured groups, alternate camera angles, commentary feeds and replays happening elsewhere on the course without dealing with the 30- to 60-second delays that plague most streaming services.
Horobin said Aircast’s technology is designed to work quietly in the background through software embedded into existing apps rather than forcing fans to download yet another platform.
“What we want to do is be as frictionless as possible,” Horobin said. “If the PGA integrated our SDK into their app, once a fan got on site, geo-fencing would detect that they’re there and they would be able to access the feeds available over that network.”
The technology also addresses one of the biggest challenges facing live sports venues: overloaded cellular networks.
At large sporting events, even sending a text message or uploading a photo can become difficult once tens of thousands of fans are concentrated in one area. Horobin said Aircast minimizes bandwidth requirements by transmitting feeds in a one-way distribution model rather than relying on the constant back-and-forth data traffic of traditional streaming systems.
“It doesn’t congest or contend the network,” Horobin said. “We section off a small part of the network and make sure people can access those feeds directly from broadcast.”
While golf presents a natural use case because fans are spread across an entire property, Aircast has already gained traction in tennis, another sport where multiple matches happen simultaneously. The company has worked with the Australian Open and is preparing to support other tennis events this summer.
Horobin founded Aircast in 2017 while working in broadcast technology for major international events, including the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups and Commonwealth Games. What began as a side project became a full-time focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the shutdown of live events allowed him and his small team to fully develop the platform.
“There’s been companies in the past that have tried this and not been successful,” Horobin said. “For us, awareness is huge. It’s getting people to realize this is available.”
And if Aircast succeeds, the next evolution of watching sports may not involve choosing between being at home or attending in person.
It could finally deliver the best parts of both experiences at the same time.