#DigitalTransformation

United World Wrestling together with N3XT Sports begins the digital transformation process

Monday, July 18, 2022 - 11:26 By United World Wrestling Press

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COSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland and BARCELONA, Spain - United World Wrestling (UWW) and N3XT Sports today announced a new partnership under which N3XT Sports will support UWW to accelerate its digital transformation by creating a digital-first approach in the organization and transform the sport using digital tools.

UWW has already prioritized digital transformation as one of five strategic pillars for the governing body’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which was presented and approved at the UWW Congress in 2021.

UWW aims to create new value for its ecosystem, grow the sport itself, and modernize and digitize its processes and operations. By embarking on this journey, UWW will future-proof the organization, optimize internal processes, generate sustainable financial revenues, provide support to all the national federations and the entire wrestling ecosystem. 

The partnership between UWW and N3XT Sports aims to accelerate this transformation process and ensure maximum efficiency and benefit through a multi-year investment. N3XT Sports has been supporting UWW since early 2021 as UWW recognized the need to create new sources of value to the sport. As such, UWW’s digital transformation journey, with the support of N3XT Sports, touches on both revenue maximization and cost optimization, increasing efficiency and providing shared services within its national federations and event organizers.

Nenad Lalovic, UWW President, said: “One of the key areas of the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, built together with our National Federations, is to embrace and foster digital transformation in order to modernize and digitize our organization. In order to achieve this, we have partnered with N3XT Sports, a leading digital transformation agency in the sport industry, that is guiding us to continuously create value for fans, wrestlers, and the global wrestling ecosystem, to ensure a sustainable and independent UWW through digital, data and innovation.”

UWW has modernized as an International Federation ever since rejoining the Olympic Program in 2013. The next stage of transformation for the federation is aimed at increasing the focus on a direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy that delivers excellence in digital content and data to fans, media and marketing partners, as well as best-in-class shared digital, innovation and data tools to the National Federations (NF), local organizing committees, coaches, and wrestlers in order to ensure sustainable financial growth.

As part of the agreement, N3XT Sports will help design and develop the project through its digital arm, N3XT Labs. This will support on the creation and monetization of best-in-class data analytics tools and digital assets, as part of a reimagined UWW commercial portfolio, including a new UWW mobile application for fans and internal stakeholders, and Customer Data Platform (CDP) aimed at collecting and engaging data from all UWW digital audience touchpoints.

In addition, drawing on N3XT Labs’ digital expertise in sports and cloud architecture, the creation of a robust project governance structure will support the digital monetization of the UWW’s wider business strategy, whilst also developing new D2C revenue streams across the federation and its entire ecosystem.

Hisham Shehabi, COO of N3XT Sports, said: “We are thrilled to work with UWW and guide the federation through its digital transformation. To make this new digital strategy possible, UWW is committed to developing and launching various digital and data products to reach fans directly, without intermediaries, thus gaining a better understanding of their tastes and habits, and fundamentally, building the global home of wrestling and wrestlers. Our focus at N3XT Sports is to accelerate the construction and operation of this digital and data ecosystem that caters to UWW fans, internal stakeholders, national federations, and athletes.”

ABOUT United World Wrestling

United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling for men and women, as well as others.

ABOUT N3XT Sports

N3XT Sports is an end-to-end digital transformation agency that works with international sporting organizations in football, basketball, and the Olympic Movement, to identify and address their most critical challenges, enabling them to achieve sustainable competitive advantage within the rapidly changing sports landscape. 

N3XT Sports was born in the world’s epicenter of innovation in Silicon Valley, has its operational HQ in Barcelona and its team is spread in different countries in Europe such as France, Italy, England, Spain, and Switzerland as well as in the United States, Morocco and Canada. 

Contact information

N3XT Sports - bea@n3xtsports.com
United World Wrestling - Eric.olanowski@uww.org

#WrestleZagreb

Zagreb Open Flashback: Iran, U.S. opened season with success

Monday, January 19, 2026 - 10:21 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (January 18) -- United World Wrestling's 2026 season will kick off with the Ranking Series in Zagreb February 4. The recent memories of Zagreb may be the September World Championships but the 2025 season also kicked off with the Ranking Series in the Croatian capital.

Iran and the United States had strong performances in the first of the four stops of the Ranking Series, a theme which continued throughout the 2025 season as the U.S. dominated Freestyle while Iran dominated Greco-Roman.

Women's Wrestling participants were less in numbers but still saw U.S. and UWW wrestlers share gold medals.

Here's a trip down memory lane of the 2025 Zagreb Open Ranking Series before the 2026 season kicks off:

WATCH ZAGREB OPEN 2025 TOP BOUTS HERE

Freestyle

A young Iranian team snapped four gold medals in Zagreb with Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) winning gold at 61kg, Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) winning at 65kg, Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) became champion at 92kg and Amirreza MASOUMI (IRI) winning the 125kg gold.

For the U.S., Spencer LEE (USA) kicked off the season with 57kg with gold, Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won at 86kg and Kyle SNYDER (USA) at 97kg. Both Valencia and Snyder went on to win gold at the World Championships later in the season.

Azerbaijan, Slovakia and France won one gold each, with Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) winning at 70kg for Azerbaijan, Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) winning gold at 74kg, and Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA) winning at 79kg for France.

Iran dominance began when Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) won gold at 61kg, beating the likes of Nuraddin NUVROZOV (AZE), Nashon GARRETT (USA), Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and Ebrahim KHARI (IRI). Javan would later win a silver medal at the World Championships. At 65kg, Ebrahim held his own in a thrilling final against Joseph MCKENNA (USA) to grab the second gold for Iran.

Young superstars Firouzpour and Masoumi put up a show to win gold medals at 92kg and 125kg respectively.

Lee was making a returning to competition six months after winning the silver medal at the Paris Olympics. He won the Zagreb Open gold with rather ease. For the U.S., Valencia saw himself win gold at 86kg outscoring his opponents 35-4 in four bouts. In the final, Valencia defeated world bronze medalist Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0.

Snyder opened his season with a 33-1 scoring run in three bouts at 97kg in Zagreb. In the final, he easily defeated Abolfazl BABALOO (IRI).

Heybatov gave early warnings to the 70kg field by winning gold in Zagreb, a run which included wins over Austin GOMEZ (MEX), two back-to-back wins over Iranian wrestlers including a 12-1 one again Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final. The two would wrestle again towards the end of the year at the U23 World Championships. Heybatov won that final with a 9-4 score.

Two veterans, Salkazanov and Khadjiev, were at their best in the opening Ranking Series tournament. Salkazanov blanked everyone, including winning 4-0 against David CARR (USA) in the final, to win 74kg gold.

Khadjiev had a tougher bat but managed to win the 79kg gold with a 5-3 win over Mahdi YOUSEFI (IRI) in the final. The French wrestler would later win silver at the European Championships.