‘I want to take Dutch Sport Tech
Fund to the next
growth phase’

Chiel Warners is a former top athlete and, as of recently, CIO, Chief Investment Officer, of Dutch Sport Tech Fund. In this interview, the new management team member talks about the importance of integrity, his ambitions with Dutch Sport Tech Fund, and what he believes is needed for the fund’s next growth phase.

Warners is no stranger to elite sports. He represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Olympic Games in the decathlon. As the Dutch information coordinator for match-fixing, he is still involved in top-level sports. He also worked at EY and ABN-AMRO.

Warners has been using this experience in the financial sector, elite sports, and integrity since the summer of 2022 to help Dutch Sport Tech Fund assess how ethically (potential) investments operate. “In the financial sector, it is normal to know what a client does and how they earn their money. The sports sector can learn from that. I am happy to bring the best practices from the financial sector and combine them with my knowledge of sports and integrity,” Warners said in an earlier article. Since January 2023, he has officially joined the fund’s Management Team.

“I am delighted with this appointment and look forward to using my experience with and knowledge of finance, integrity, and top-level sports in this role for the fund. I will mainly continue to focus on so-called due diligence (screening of new investments), so that we can be sure that our portfolio companies operate with integrity. Just as a bank screens its clients, it is important for an investment fund to do the same with its investments.”

“In addition, I am involved in the next growth phase of the Dutch Sport Tech Fund. Over the past two years, a solid foundation has been laid with investments in successful startups and scale-ups in sports technology. In the coming phase, we want to turn the organic growth of recent years and what we have learned from it into a more structured and optimized growth for the future. In doing so, we aim to strengthen and make the teams more effective.”

“In that role, I focus on tackling manipulation in sports. I try to encourage cooperation between governments, sports organizations, and law enforcement agencies to combat the manipulation of sports matches and competitions. Technology also plays a role here, as it makes it possible to bet on matches in Dutch sports competitions from almost anywhere in the world. This visibility and the associated sports data create a huge range of betting opportunities. All of this brings new challenges, which we try to solve through national and international collaborations.”

“At Dutch Sport Tech Fund, I am also involved with integrity. For example, there are many possibilities in the field of AI (artificial intelligence) and data. An ethical framework helps determine the short- and long-term consequences of those possibilities. Is a startup collecting data that we might regret later, and are athletes aware of this and do they have influence over it? In addition, for DSTF, as with other funds, it is important how our portfolio companies and we ourselves have and implement an ESG policy: together we want to have the right impact on people and the environment. Looking at investments through this lens makes us unique, and I believe that integrity will prove to be a growing asset in the future, a selling point.”

“In addition to the above, I want to help ensure that processes have more structure, are clear, and that everyone involved with Dutch Sport Tech Fund is empowered to perform at their best. Really, just like in a team sport. This is necessary for the next growth phase of the fund, where growth becomes more structured and predictable, and therefore more attractive to, for example, more institutional parties.”

“In ten years, I hope that several of our portfolio companies have matured and are making a positive contribution to the sports and vitality sector. Of course, they will do so with integrity. I hope the fund creates synergy benefits, that we are able to make one plus one equal three with the various participations. There is a lot of knowledge and expertise within our committees, and I hope that finds its way to our investors and investments. The network of experts we have built is so valuable, and I hope it will be fully utilized. And of course, I hope there have been some successful exits, so that the fund has fully realized the potential of the market for sports technology companies.”