The SportTechie sports technology information portal has named FC Barcelona as the most Outstanding Sports Team of 2018 at its annual awards. According to the SportTechie site, "The SportTechie Awards highlight the teams, executives, sports technologies, venues, investors and leaders that most deserve recognition for their work in pushing our industry forward."

Barça competed in the Outstanding Sports Team category with two clubs from the United States—Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers and the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights.

"At a time when teams around the world are relying on technology to gain a competitive edge, FC Barcelona stands out as an organization for not only using technology to its own advantage, but also as a means of elevating the entire sport of soccer, and perhaps sports in general, too," SportTechie said.

The portal highlighted the role of the Barça Innovation Hub in transferring and sharing innovation in sports, and working with different organizations, companies and startups to consolidate and evolve the Club's excellence, especially regarding the first team.

Projects such as the one set up with FIFA to create a standard format for collecting data from athletes during matches; like the one with Gatorade for optimizing player hydration during physical activity, and the holding of conferences and symposia related to sports-related scientific research were some of the initiatives mentioned by the jury as justifications for the award.

The SportTechie Award won by FC Barcelona helps the Barça Innovation Hub gain international exposure and bolsters FC Barcelona's vision of using research as a way to help the sports world further evolve.