Why Lincoln City just built their own software team

Innovation Lab

Last year, TGG went behind the scenes at Lincoln to highlight how the club were innovating to bridge the gap with richer rivals in League One. One of their innovations was utilising AI to analyse set pieces.

This helped the Imps to score 30 set piece goals last season – the most in the whole Football League. This season – in which they have become the first team in England to earn promotion – more than a third of their league goals have come from set pieces. 

Chief Executive Liam Scully told TGG: “This is about what can we do in our context to try and shift the dial. We’re looking at everything from our carbon footprint to football boot technology to the lighting in and around the changing room and in the training ground. It’s a spectrum of objectives.

 “We want to be a Championship football club, unequivocally, but we’ve got to get there in an affordable manner and then when we get there, we’re going to have to be sustainable.

“Other clubs might have £3 and we might only have £1 – our job is to invest that resource into what is going to make the biggest difference. Fundamentally, what is going to improve performance the most with the resources that we have?”

In November 2023, Lincoln became the first English club to appoint a Head of Innovation, Jason Futers. His career had been in risk and technology across a number of start-ups.

Last summer, Futers launched the LCFC Innovation Lab, which aimed to use the club’s community roots in Lincolnshire to connect businesses, start-ups, academics, investors and tech partners.

The Lab’s goal is to identify, test and scale innovative ideas into real products and companies. In turn, the club gets a number of benefits:

• Faster delivery of usable tools, either on or off-pitch.
• Operational improvements, such as digital solutions.
• Commercial benefits through a shared-growth model, including equity stakes in partner companies, revenue sharing or advisory roles.
• Networks: over time the club will get more high-quality partners, more ideas flowing through and more chances for marginal (and bigger) gains.

In September, Neil Everatt was appointed as the club’s Entrepreneur in Residence – another first in English football – with a remit of helping shape the Lab’s overall direction and accelerate its work with ambitious businesses.

Everatt is a seasoned tech entrepreneur and CEO with a track record of building and exiting successful technology companies.

Three Lab partnerships

The Lab wants to partner with businesses in four main areas:

• Performance: Sports science, data and nutrition, with ideas getting tested with players and staff.
• Fan engagement: New matchday experiences, retail and commercial technology.
• Sustainability: Carbon reduction projects.
• Technology: Anything scalable in sport, commerce or community.

These are three companies the Lab is working with:

1. Ops-App

A fast-growing UK start-up that has built OPS, an app that helps users to schedule, manage and track trade jobs from start to finish.

The Innovation Hub acts as an accelerator and growth partner for Lincoln-based Ops-App. This is structured as a growth-sharing model, meaning both sides are aligned on scaling the company, while using the club’s reach and infrastructure to test and accelerate innovation.

Ops-App’s founder Simon Blades highlighted how the partnership had given his company access to expertise, networks and visibility. Everatt called it “exactly what the LCFC Innovation Lab was created to deliver.”

Lincoln City benefits: Marketing muscle + network access + shared-growth upside via in-house dev support.

2. Quambio Sports

A strategic joint venture with Swiss sustainability firm Quambio. Lincoln City own 50% of the venture (minimum three-year partnership), giving the club environmental impact and potential future commercial upside.

Quambio specialises in behaviour-change platforms that help organisations and individuals to reduce their carbon footprint. The app has been labelled the ‘Strava for sustainability’ and provides fan-focused monthly challenges encouraging sustainable behaviours like car-sharing and using public transport, while tracking anonymised data to encourage sustainable choices.

Dedicated software development capability

This club’s new software development arm is in partnership with Lincoln-based Stonefield Software Solutions, founded by experienced developer and former Chief Technology Officer Darren Newton.

Operating as a joint venture, the collaboration gives the Innovation Lab its own dedicated in-house development muscle. Businesses and entrepreneurs working with the Lab will be able to access end-to-end support, from initial idea and design through to full software and app development.

Work is already underway on live projects, including accelerating Ops-App from minimum viable product to working product.

Launching the new team on Friday, Futers wrote on LinkedIn: “A football club with a software development team? Whatever next?! A really positive step forward for the Lincoln City Innovation Lab.

“Our partnership with Stonefield means founders can move from idea to working digital product within a trusted ecosystem built around the club. Literally, all you need is an idea!

“We’re building an ecosystem that gives entrepreneurs access to a powerful range of assets—everything you need to turn ideas into reality.”

Everatt added: “With this new service we can now take your software idea, nurture it and bring it to life. We’re building an ecosystem that gives entrepreneurs access to a powerful range of assets—everything you need to turn ideas into reality.”

Innovation Accelerator

This month Lincoln also begin their Enterprise and Innovation Accelerator, in partnership with the University of Lincoln.

The ‘Kick-Off Accelerator’ is a programme for early-stage ventures across Greater Lincolnshire. It was first announced in December 2025, applications opened in January 2026 and the first cohort of 11 selected entrepreneurs and start-ups will start on the programme this month..

The Accelerator offers expert mentoring from both the University and Innovation Lab. There will be tailored workshops designed to accelerate business growth, as well as access to expertise.

The idea is to create a unique ‘business + sport + community platform’ that helps local innovators grow faster than they could elsewhere.

With the first cohort of founders arriving at the LNER Stadium this month, the Innovation Lab is no longer just supporting start-ups — it’s positioning Lincoln as a club that grows them.