Hereford-Based Founders Grow Sports Tech Business Across Professional Football and Beyond
A sports technology business founded by three people with strong Herefordshire roots is now working with more than 70 squads across the UK, as it continues to grow its presence in professional football while beginning to move into rugby.
OPN was founded by former professional footballer Aaron Wildig, his brother Toby Wildig and Emily Fenton, with the aim of making technology and performance data more accessible and useful to athletes and the people working with them.
The platform is used across professional football, including by Hereford FC, St Mirren, Leyton Orient and Lincoln City, while OPN also works with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).
OPN has recently been named a finalist at the Sports Business Awards in the Sports Innovation Award category, with the winner due to be announced at the awards ceremony in London this November. The same award was won in 2025 by Warner Bros. Discovery for its coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
For Hereford-born Aaron Wildig, the idea behind OPN came from his own experiences during a 15-year career in professional football. Aaron came through at Cardiff City before going on to make hundreds of professional appearances during spells with clubs including Shrewsbury Town, Morecambe and Newport County. During that career, he experienced first-hand how the technology, data and resources available to players could differ significantly between clubs.
Aaron said: “Football has given me so much, and OPN really started from wanting to give something back.
“As a player, I saw how much information was being collected around performance, but also how difficult it could be for players and staff to actually understand and use it.
“I also saw brilliant clubs and staff who simply couldn’t afford the same systems and resources available at the very top of the game.
“We wanted to see if we could build something that could help.”
Together, the team turned those experiences into OPN. The platform brings areas including performance, medical, strength and conditioning, wellness, planning and communication together, helping clubs and their staff manage information about their athletes in one place.
Toby Wildig, co-founder of OPN, said: “Aaron had experienced some of these challenges first-hand as a player, but from the beginning we’ve tried to make sure we’re listening to the people working in sport every day.
“We spend a lot of time speaking to coaches, medical teams, performance staff and players, and their feedback continues to shape what we build.
“Having more than 70 squads using OPN is encouraging, but the important thing for us is whether we’re building something that’s genuinely useful and makes people’s day-to-day work a little easier.”
OPN has also been working with the Professional Footballers’ Association as part of its support for out-of-contract professional players. Through the PFA’s pre-season programme, players can build Digital Athlete Passports, creating enhanced digital profiles which sit on the PFA Transfer List, powered by OPN, helping players showcase themselves to clubs looking to recruit. The platform has also integrated Opta data, adding recognised football performance data to the information available through OPN.
Although football remains the main focus of the business, OPN is beginning to explore how its technology can be used in other sports and is partnering with Ultimate Sevens as it moves into rugby.
The story also has a connection to the support available to businesses starting in Herefordshire. Before attracting private investment, OPN received support through a Herefordshire grant, helping the founders develop the business during its early stages. OPN has since attracted investment and is currently raising further funding to support its next stage of development, including continued product development and expansion across professional sport.
Co-founder Emily Fenton said: “We’ve been fortunate to have support at different stages of the journey, including locally here in Herefordshire.
“Being based outside a major city hasn’t stopped us working with organisations across the UK. If anything, the way people work today means there’s an opportunity for more digital and technology businesses to be built from places like Herefordshire.
“We’re always learning and our main focus is on staying close to the athletes and practitioners using OPN so we can continue to build something truly valuable.
“If our journey also shows that you can start and grow a technology business from Herefordshire, then that’s something we’d be really pleased about.”
For Aaron, the journey has also created an opportunity to use his experiences in professional football to contribute to the game in a different way. And while OPN now works with teams and organisations across the UK, the business continues to have strong roots in Herefordshire.
