At Paddle Games, we are a little obsessed with the experience.

The experience of the athletes racing. The experience of the people standing next to the water. And increasingly, the experience of those following the racing from somewhere else in the world.

From the beginning, we have wanted Paddle Games to be a place where we can try things.

Not innovation for the sake of innovation. But asking simple questions: Can we make this easier to understand? More exciting to watch? More enjoyable for the athletes? Can technology help bring people closer to the racing?

This weekend in Palma, we are taking another step in that direction.

We are very happy to announce a new partnership with Memosoft, who have developed an exclusive digital solution for Paddle Games that brings competition management, timing, live results, real-time data and a completely new generation of TV graphics together into one connected system.

And people can already start using it.

The start lists for this weekend’s Paddle Games are available through the new platform, and once racing begins on Saturday, fans will be able to follow the results live as the competition develops.

But perhaps what excites us most is not simply having live results. It is how those results are presented.

Paddle Games has always been designed differently. Short races. Knockout rounds. Athletes progressing through the competition. Every race meaning something. That creates an opportunity to present canoeing in a way that feels closer to the professional sports younger audiences are already accustomed to following.

The technology developed by Memosoft allows us to show that journey much more clearly, from the progression through the rounds to live results, scoring and television graphics.

For Paddle Games founder Ekaitz Saies, it represents an important moment.

“This is a very exciting innovation for our sport. When I look at the way the results are displayed, the progression through the competition, the TV graphics and the overall presentation, it feels much closer to what we see in other professional sports.

“I think younger generations in particular will appreciate something that feels modern and more gamified, while at the same time it remains simple to use and pleasing to look at for everyone.

“Hopefully we will see this type of innovation used much more widely across canoeing in the future. But I have to admit, it fills me with pride that Paddle Games was the first place where we could bring all of this together.”

That is also one of the reasons Paddle Games exists.

We love canoeing. We love its history and its traditional competitions. We are not trying to replace any of that.

But we also believe there should be places within our sport where we can experiment.

Places where athletes, organisers and technology partners can try something different, learn from it and, when it works, share it with the wider sport.

As Memosoft put it, the ambition is to make complex technology simple to operate while producing something modern, efficient and professional for athletes, organisers, spectators, broadcasters and digital audiences.

Palma gives us the perfect playground to do that.

This Saturday will be another opportunity to race, to entertain, to experiment and to learn.

And hopefully, another small glimpse of what canoeing could look like in the future.

The start lists are already live. On Saturday, follow the Paddle Games and watch the competition unfold in real time.

Here you can access the PADDLE GAMES APP