Laurel Innovations Launches UK Operations with London Marathon Events-Backed Friday Night Lights

August 4, 2026

The U.S. race technology platform will power real-time athlete tracking at every kilometer, the On Speed Zone, live segment leaderboards, company team leaderboards, and immersive fan engagement and AI-powered athlete storytelling experiences.

LONDON, AUGUST 4TH, 2026 /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – Laurel Innovations, the race timing, tracking, and storytelling platform behind some of the largest running events in the United States, today announced the launch of its UK operations as technology partner of Friday Night Lights, the London Marathon Events backed running series billed as the UK’s healthiest night out.

It is Laurel’s first expansion outside North America.

Laurel’s UK debut comes at Run The Wharf on Thursday 3 September 2026, Friday Night Lights’ 5,000-person evening 5K with Canary Wharf locked off for the night. The race starts and finishes at Canada Square Park and runs through the glass towers and gardens of Europe’s largest urban regeneration project, with live DJs on course, LED batons after dark, and a festival village after party running into the evening. Second and third ticket releases have already sold out, with general release now on sale.

Friday Night Lights was built on the idea that a race should be more than a race – making it a natural fit for Laurel’s technology. Founded by Charlie in 2021 and backed by London Marathon Events, the series has grown from a seven-person run in southeast London into one of the UK’s fastest-growing running communities, welcoming more than 50,000 participants across events in London, Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester, and Southsea. Combining live DJs, festival-style production, immersive lighting, and a strong community atmosphere, Friday Night Lights has created a race experience that extends well beyond the finish line. Laurel’s technology builds on that experience with live athlete tracking, interactive leaderboards, and real-time storytelling that keeps participants and spectators engaged from start to finish.

Turning Race Data into Race Storytelling

At most races, only a handful of athletes are competing for the overall victory. For everyone else, months of training are often distilled into a single finish time.

Laurel was built on a different idea: every runner has a story worth telling.

By combining near real-time athlete tracking, live leaderboards, personalized insights, segment competitions, and automated race recaps, Laurel transforms race data into experiences that participants can follow, celebrate, and share. Every kilometre becomes another chapter of the race, creating more moments for athletes, spectators, and organizers from the starting gun through the finish line.

“Race timing has become incredibly accurate. The opportunity now is to make every athlete’s experience just as meaningful,” said Phil Dumontet, CEO of Laurel. “Every participant invests weeks or months preparing for race day, yet most leave with little more than a finish time. We believe race technology should do more. It should create moments, tell stories, and give every runner something they’re proud to share. Friday Night Lights has built one of the most innovative running experiences anywhere in the world, making it the perfect place to introduce what we’ve built.”

Laurel’s platform is already deployed at major running events across North America, including Bay to Breakers, where it delivers live athlete tracking, interactive race experiences, and personalized post-race storytelling for more than 30,000 participants.

The Laurel Stack

• Near real-time tracking with checkpoints every kilometre. Runners are picked up at dense, evenly spaced intervals across the course, so spectators and teammates see position updates continuously rather than at a handful of widely spaced mats.
• Live pace, splits, and positioning. Every athlete’s current pace, segment splits, and place in the field update live and are shareable in a single tap.
• The On Speed Zone. A marked 400m stretch of the course where every runner is individually timed, with a live leaderboard for the fastest split of the night and prizes from On. It gives the crowd a single place to gather, gives the DJs and hosts a live storyline to call, and gives every participant a result that is not just their finish time.
• Leaderboard segments. The course is divided into named segments, each with its own live leaderboard, so runners compete on the fast stretch, the turn, or the closing kilometre rather than only on overall time.
• Cheer leaderboards by company team. Colleagues follow their entire company roster on one screen, with team standings that update as the race unfolds. In a field drawn from the desks of Canary Wharf, the firm-versus-firm race becomes the main event.
• Redundant infrastructure built for reliability. Laurel’s timing architecture runs with hardware, power, and connectivity redundancy at every checkpoint, with independent capture paths so results are protected in any conditions.

“Deciding to work with Laurel took me only the first few minutes of meeting with Phil and his colleague Austin. Their enthusiasm for the future, innovation, and hearing they were trying new things.. I was sold in a moment. The customisation, commercial upsells, and CX that we can level up to using Laurel’s new tech with their team will help level Friday Night Lights up. I have thrown challenges and obstacles time and time again at the Laurel team and instead of batting it away as not possible; we hop fences and navigate stormy seas together and create solutions to open up new ways of experiencing races for our runners and partners. It will undoubtedly be an exciting number of years working with Phil, Austin and the team,” said Charlie, Founder of Friday Night Lights.

About Laurel

Laurel Innovations is a next-generation, AI-powered race timing, tracking, and storytelling platform that powers more than 500 endurance events annually, including premier races such as Bay to Breakers, the Surf City Marathon, the Boston 10K for Women, the Houston Half Marathon, and Run the Wharf. Serving hundreds of thousands of athletes each year, Laurel delivers accurate race timing, real-time athlete tracking, live spectator experiences, AI-powered race storytelling, and advanced race operations.

By replacing traditional timing mats with patent-pending micro-checkpoints deployed throughout the course, Laurel captures richer race data while providing enhanced safety insights, true real-time course visibility, and more accurate athlete tracking. The platform gives race directors unprecedented operational awareness while creating more engaging experiences for athletes, spectators, broadcasters, and brand partners.

Learn more at www.laurelt.com.

About Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is a UK-based running and events company redefining the running experience through immersive night races, live DJs, festival-quality production, and unforgettable community experiences. Founded by Charlie, the brand has built a passionate following with events across London and Manchester, is expanding into Europe, and is preparing for international growth beyond the continent.

Run The Wharf 2026 is supported by On and Reign Storm, along with a collection of the UK’s best and brightest start-ups in the space, including Cano Water, PrimeTime Lager, Swypes, All In A Box, SAP, and Beat The Boys.

Friday Night Lights is only the sum of its parts: our people, our partners, our suppliers. By focussing on creating an environment of top-shelf partners and suppliers, like Laurel, we hope Friday Night Lights can continue to win awards, gain more recognition and help grow our event format and brand to new heights.

Its sister brand, Run Social, hosts free weekly community runs across the UK, bringing thousands of runners together through inclusive, social experiences that inspire movement and connection.

Learn more at fridaynightlights.run.

About London Marathon Events

London Marathon Events is a world-leading event organizer and social purpose organization, best known for delivering some of the world’s most iconic mass-participation events, including the TCS London Marathon and RideLondon. Together with its parent charity, the London Marathon Foundation, the organization is dedicated to inspiring people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to become more active through world-class running, cycling, and swimming events, as well as community initiatives and outreach programs across the United Kingdom. Each year, London Marathon Events donates its surplus through corporate gift aid to the London Marathon Foundation, helping fund projects that improve health, wellbeing, and access to physical activity in communities throughout the UK.

Media Contact

Phil Dumontet
Chief Executive Officer
Laurel Innovations
press@laurelt.com