Sony-owned Hawk-Eye upgrades optical tracking for 2026 World Cup

The deployment of Hawk-Eye’s upgraded pose-estimation stack at the 2026 World Cup marks a transition from human-led video review to data-first officiating. By bypassing the video assistant referee (VAR) booth to send automated alerts directly to on-pitch officials, the system addresses long-standing complaints regarding the broadcast delays inherent in manual replays. For the broader industry, this shift reinforces the dominance of optical tracking as a prerequisite for high-stakes sports rights. Watch for whether the 10-centimeter accuracy threshold leads to a rise in technically correct but unpopular marginal calls during the tournament's knockout stages.

Beyond its World Cup obligations, Hawk-Eye is aggressively expanding its footprint in professional tennis. Per The Guardian, July 2025, Wimbledon replaced its traditional on-court line judges with Hawk-Eye’s Electronic Line Calling (ELC) Live technology for the first time in the tournament’s 148-year history. This move aligns with a broader mandate from the ATP, which announced in April 2023 that all men's professional events would phase out human line judges by 2025 to ensure officiating consistency across all surface types, including clay. While the technology promises a 2.2mm margin of error, its initial implementation at SW19 faced scrutiny from players who questioned specific automated calls during high-profile matches.

Financial disclosures highlight the scale of the investment required to maintain this market position. Per The Irish Times, September 2025, Hawk-Eye Innovations reported a 27% decline in pretax profits to #14.76 million, despite a 4% increase in total revenue. Management attributed the profit squeeze to a near-doubling of research and development spending, which rose from #7.3 million to #13 million in a single year to support next-generation tracking capabilities. This R&D cycle is critical as parent company Sony Group increasingly integrates Hawk-Eye data with its wider entertainment ecosystem. For instance, per Sony Europe, June 2026, the company recently launched 'HawkAR,' an inclusive broadcast feed for Wimbledon that uses spatial audio cues and augmented visual overlays to make live matches accessible to blind and low-vision viewers.