🩸 Upside Analysis: The Blood Analysis Market in Elite Sports: Full Ecosystem Breakdown (Key Vendors, Use Cases) & Future Outlook

Elite sports is in the midst of a physiological data revolution. While wearables and motion tracking have dominated headlines, blood analysis has quietly become one of the most powerful tools for unlocking performance, managing recovery, preventing injury, and optimizing player health.

Unlike other data sources, blood biomarkers offer a direct window into internal load, hormonal balance, muscle breakdown, inflammation, and nutritional status. With advances in micro-sampling, at-home diagnostics, AI-driven analytics, and female-specific testing protocols, blood analysis is rapidly shifting from lab-dependent, reactive testing to real-time, actionable, field-side intelligence.

This report provides a deep dive into the blood biomarker ecosystem powering elite sport — covering vendors, technologies, use cases, adoption barriers, growth outlook, and strategic recommendations.

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📊 Market Size, Trends & Investment Growth

Global Sports Biomarker Testing Market (Estimates)

• 2025: $250M–$400M (sports segment of broader blood testing market)

• CAGR (2023–2028): ~18–22%

• Total Addressable Market by 2030: $1B+ (includes personalized health + prosumer market)

Key Growth Drivers

• Demand for real-time, individualized readiness data

• Shift toward preventative care & injury risk prediction

• Growth of remote testing and recovery personalization

• Expansion of women’s health & menstrual cycle monitoring

• Better integration with wearables and AMS platforms

• Team-wide load and fatigue management mandates

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🧪 Core Use Cases in Elite Sports

Source: Upside Global, June 2025

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🏃‍♀️ Adoption in Professional Leagues

• NBA: Widespread adoption of Orreco, Thorne, and InsideTracker to monitor fatigue and readiness during congested game periods.

• NFL: Focus on testosterone, CK, and hydration biomarkers post-game. Teams are integrating blood data into recovery protocols and injury prevention.

• MLS / Premier League: Use during pre-season, travel blocks, and for player-specific plans. Some teams use menstrual cycle-specific testing.

• Olympic Federations: Use blood to complement VO2max, lactate threshold, and sleep data in endurance and combat sports.

• F1 / WSL: Heavy adoption of jet lag, hormonal, and immune marker tracking to support travel-intensive schedules.

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🧬 Leading Vendors in Elite Sports

Here’s a closer look at the top companies shaping the blood biomarker landscape in elite sport:

1. Orreco

🔗 www.orreco.com

Orreco is the original science-based performance analytics company using AI and blood biomarker insights to manage fatigue, recovery, and readiness. Orreco support both venous analysis (Haematology, biochemistry, Immunology and Endocrinology) and point of care - Inflammation and Oxidative Stress.

Picture: Orreco (Blood test)

Their FitrWoman and FitrCoach apps are widely used to support the unique physiology of female athletes. Orreco serves teams in the EPL, Champions league, NBA, WNBA, NFL, Saudi Pro League, WSL, NWSL, ATP, WTA, Olympic federations, Americas Cup and F1. NFLPA Harvard Football Study.

Picture: Orreco’s dashboard

• Tech: Blood + AI

• Core Strength: Athlete-specific readiness and fatigue modeling, Bayesian inference.

• Point of care support real time results <5mins to support rapid decision making. Help teams rapidly identify athletes who may require additional support. Help teams assess the impact of their recovery modalities eg Cryotherapy, Heat, Contrast, Compression,

• Supports nutritionists measuring the impact of nutritional programs, impact on immune function, recovery.

• Inflammation measurement and mapping to training volumes and intensity.

• Edge: 10+ years of analyzing elite biomarker data, proprietary data sets, dynamic adaptive ranges rather than static ranges.

• Female athlete health via FitrWoman & FitrCoach apps

• 300+ Peer reviewed scientific papers, 19 PhD’s on staff.

• Clients: Pioneers and early adopters including Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Chelsea FC, Benfica, Club Brugge WSL, Olympic bodies, F1.

• Value Prop: Translating blood data into performance insights with predictive alerts, hyper personalized reports to support recovery and reduce illness and injury risk.

• Part of recovery program where Orlando City reported 97% player availability across a full MLS season.

Here is a video about Orreco products (Biomarkers 3.0):

Here is a podcast interview we did with Orreco CEO Dr Brian Moore:

2. Thorne x Drawbridge Health

🔗 www.thorne.com / www.drawbridgehealth.com
Thorne HealthTech is a personalized wellness company that partners with Drawbridge Health to deliver convenient dried blood spot testing. Together, they offer at-home biomarker testing kits for athletes and teams, focusing on performance, stress, and nutrition. Used by the UFC Performance Institute and USA Swimming.

• Tech: Dried blood spot testing + diagnostics

• Focus: Recovery, micronutrient health, stress

• Clients: UFC, USA Swimming, MLB teams

• Value Prop: Supplements + blood testing + enterprise dashboard = closed-loop wellness ecosystem.

3. InsideTracker

🔗 www.insidetracker.com
InsideTracker provides personalized health and performance optimization using blood tests, AI, and lifestyle recommendations. Athletes can either go to a lab or use at-home phlebotomy, with insights delivered through a user-friendly dashboard. Olympians and pro athletes across NBA and endurance sports use their platform.

• Tech: AI-powered analytics from venous or at-home blood tests

• Use: Personalized nutrition, sleep, aging, recovery

• Clients: Olympic athletes, NBA players

• Value Prop: Athlete & prosumer crossover with clear, personalized plans.

4. Athlete Blood Test

🔗 www.athletebloodtest.com
Athlete Blood Test offers athlete-specific blood analysis designed to optimize endurance, performance, and recovery. Their system benchmarks results against elite athlete ranges—not general population norms—providing customized recommendations for training, nutrition, and health. Used by Olympic teams, endurance athletes, and university programs.

• Tech: Sports-specific blood biomarker analysis with performance-based reference ranges

• Use: Training readiness, nutrient optimization, fatigue tracking

• Clients: Olympic athletes, endurance athletes, NCAA programs

• Value Prop: Tailored biomarker insights built specifically for athletic populations, not gen pop baselines.

5. Function Health

🔗 www.functionhealth.com
Function Health provides comprehensive health testing via 100+ lab markers across key systems (hormones, inflammation, heart, liver, etc.), empowering users with physician-guided insights and long-term health tracking. Their model is more longevity- and wellness-focused but is gaining interest among athletes and execs prioritizing preventive care.

• Tech: Deep lab testing + longitudinal data dashboards + physician oversight

• Use: Preventive health, longevity, early risk detection

• Clients: Wellness-focused prosumers, executives, and emerging athlete adopters

• Value Prop: Full-body health testing and long-term tracking for performance-adjacent users focused on future health

6. Levels (in partnership context)

🔗 www.levelshealth.com
Levels is primarily known for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) but is expanding into the broader metabolic health space, integrating blood biomarkers with sleep and training data. Their platform empowers elite athletes and health-optimized individuals to correlate lifestyle choices with real-time biological responses. Used by pro athletes, tech founders, and biohackers seeking granular performance insight.

• Tech: CGM + partner-integrated blood biomarker analysis

• Edge: Metabolic health dashboard that blends glucose, sleep, nutrition, and blood insights

• Use: Endurance athletes, pro sport users, high-performance longevity community.

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💡 Emerging & Adjacent Vendors to Watch

• Supplements + blood = personalized recovery stacks (e.g., Thorne, Momentous)

• DNA + blood combo vendors (e.g., Genelite) show potential for epigenetics + biomarker pairing

• Glucose + blood insights vendors (e.g., Levels, Veri) integrating real-time data with sleep and fueling strategies

• Startup labs like Biolytica, Function Health, and Base starting to explore elite market opportunities

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🧱 Infrastructure + Integration Layer

• AMS integration (Smartabase, Orreco, ActionApps, Genetrainer): Still limited, though some vendors like Orreco and Thorne offer dashboards with export features.

• API partnerships: Minimal at scale. Expect vendors to add integrations with WHOOP, Oura, Catapult, and athlete wearables in 2025–2026.

• Data Lakes: Forward-thinking clubs use Snowflake or AWS-hosted platforms to integrate biomarker data with GPS, sleep, wellness surveys.

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🚧 Key Challenges

1. Actionability

   • Raw biomarker data is meaningless without interpretation. Teams need AI tools or human experts to translate results into training adaptations.

2. Cost & Access

   • High cost per test (especially for large squads) can be prohibitive. Micro-sampling is helping reduce cost and frequency burden.

3. Compliance

   • GDPR and HIPAA laws restrict how blood data is stored and shared, especially across borders.

4. Female Athlete Research Gaps

   • Few vendors have validated menstrual-specific blood models or non-invasive hormone tracking.

5. Adoption by Coaches

   • Performance staff are sometimes hesitant to incorporate new biomarker data into daily load management.

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🔮 Future Outlook and Trends

Source: Upside Global, June 2025

It is worth point out that pro teams are moving away from simple CK measurements and are now using Inflammation monitoring - high sensitivity CRP and also Oxidative stress. In addition, in US, biomarker analysis is regulated by the CBA’s, while in Europe it is regulated by GDPR.

Another new trend is the importance of having both athlete-facing and team-facing portals. These interfaces bring the data to life in a meaningful way.

Giving athletes access to their own performance data—both current and historical—not only empowers them but also turns that data into a long-term personal asset. When athletes can see their metrics in the context of GPS data, game stats, and match performance, it enhances understanding and engagement.

On the team side, integration with a centralized platform enables support staff to deliver personalized content and insights directly to each athlete. For example Orreco has built both the @thlete and Te@m platforms with secure LLM (Large Language Model) integration to support this two-way flow. Orreco is currently the only provider offering this kind of dual-access ecosystem with built-in secure AI capabilities.

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✅ Recommendations

For Elite Teams

• Choose vendors with dashboard support + micro-sampling for in-season use.

• Incorporate blood data into your integrated data model (GPS, RPE, sleep, wellness).

• Prioritize vendors with validated protocols for female athletes.

• Use testing to support decision-making, not replace coaching instincts.

For Startups

• Build API layers and AMS compatibility to plug into pro team workflows.

• Focus on real-time diagnostics, not just static tests.

• Lean into female health, personalization, and remote testing.

For Investors

• Look at tech-enabled diagnostics, not just lab-based players.

• Prioritize startups with AI + services + hardware integration.

• Invest in companies bridging elite sport and consumer longevity/wellness.

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🌍 Conclusion

Blood analysis is no longer the exclusive domain of lab coats and post-season checkups. It’s becoming a real-time, strategic lever for training, recovery, and longevity in elite sports. With startups innovating on micro-sampling, AI interpretation, and female health, and teams integrating biomarkers into performance dashboards, the future of sports science is flowing through the bloodstream.

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