The future of pitch heating has arrived.
Now in pilot · Patent pending · commercial launch early 2027
Pitch heating that learns. Every frost, every thaw, every session it has ever run on your ground is remembered and used. It heats only when the pitch truly needs it, at the lowest temperature that will do the job, and it gets sharper every winter.
Self-learning. Up to 70% less energy. Fits the heating you already own.
The problem
No two nights are the same.
Fixed heating treats them all alike.
Most pitch heating runs one of two ways. A thermostat: one sensor in the ground or the air, and the heating fires whenever that number drops. By the time the sensor feels the cold the pitch is already behind, so it over-runs to catch up and keeps firing long after the danger has passed. Or a hand on the switch: low, medium, high, on when the forecast looks bad, off when someone remembers. Neither knows when the most efficient moment to start is, when it is safe to stop, or how hot the water really needs to be.
But a pitch never has the same night twice. Wind strips the heat off it. A clear sky drains it. Wet soil carries the heat up from the pipes quickly; dry soil smothers it. The sun arrives at a different hour in March than in December. The same pitch can take four hours to get ready one night and a day and a half the next, and cools just as unpredictably once the heat goes off.
Set it for the worst night and you burn money on every other night. Set it for a normal one and you lose the session the day it bites. It is rare for one heating session to look like the last. The only answer is a system that learns your pitch for itself. That is SmartPitch.
Why we're doing this
Heated pitches shouldn't be
a top-flight luxury.
Plenty of grounds have heating under the pitch and can't afford to switch it on. The running costs have kept it a privilege of the biggest clubs, while everyone else loses winter fixtures, training weeks and kids' matches to frozen ground.
SmartPitch exists to change that. By heating only when the pitch truly needs it, it brings the running cost down to where a lower-league club, an academy, a community ground or a school can live with it. Fewer postponements, fewer wasted journeys, more sessions played, and a lot less gas burnt doing it.
Lower-league and non-league
The clubs that feel a lost home fixture most. Heating they already own, finally affordable to run.
Academies and youth age groups
A winter of cancelled Sunday mornings is a winter of lost development. Keep the pitch playable and the kids playing.
Not just football
Rugby, hockey, racing, any surface that freezes. If there is a heating loop under it, SmartPitch can run it.
If your ground has heating it can't afford to run, talk to us.
How it works in 30 seconds
You book the session.
SmartPitch does the night shift.
You book the session
Pick the day and the kick-off time. That is the only thing SmartPitch ever asks of you.
It watches, remembers, and heats at the last safe moment
Forecast and soil sensors around the clock, and the frost camera in daylight, all checked against every night it has seen on your pitch. When the learning engine is sure the pitch will be fine, it holds off and tells you why. When it isn't, it works back from kick-off and starts as late as it safely can, at the lowest water temperature that will do the job.
The pitch is ready, and you see what it saved
Playable on time. Every decision and every kilowatt-hour on the record, explained in plain English. Then it grades itself, so the next night like it is sharper.
The saving
Heat for as long as it takes.
Not a minute more.
Frozen ground can take a day or more to lift, so SmartPitch starts early when it has to. When the learning engine decides heat isn't needed, it holds off, and tells you why. A fixed schedule can't tell the difference.
Scroll to play the week.
First winter
Saves from night one
It skips the nights the pitch doesn't need and starts later than a fixed system would, from the very first frost.
Second winter
Saves more
A full season of your own data trims the front of every heating session and the water temperature behind it.
Third winter on
up to 0%
Dialled in. Heating only runs when your specific pitch needs it.
Real savings versus a traditional fixed-flow system. Your exact result depends on climate, pitch and how your old system was being run.
Self-learning
It learns your pitch.
Every night makes it sharper.
Nobody types in the answers. SmartPitch measures the seven things that decide a night, every night, and learns how your pitch, on your site, actually responds to heat. Then it leans on that more and more, night by night, to run the next one.
Before every session it finds the nights on your pitch that looked most like tonight, in all seven, and asks what worked: how long the pre-heat took, how hot the water had to be, whether the morning sun finished the job. It plans tonight on that evidence, at the latest safe start and the lowest water temperature that will do it. Afterwards it grades itself against what actually happened, so the next similar night is sharper. It learns where the morning sun warms your surface, and takes that off the pre-heat. It learns which nights your pitch can skip entirely. And it never heats on a guess: the soil sensors have the final say.
Outside temperature
How hard the night will bite, hour by hour, from a forecast pinned to your exact position.
Cloud cover
A clear sky pulls heat out of the surface far faster than an overcast one. Same temperature, different night.
Wind
Wind strips warmth off the grass. Minus two in a breeze is a harder night than minus two in still air.
Soil temperature
Where the ground is starting from decides how long the lift will take: hours, or more than a day.
Soil moisture
Wet soil conducts heat far better than dry, so warmth from the pipes reaches the surface faster, but it takes more energy to lift and loses it faster too. The sensors are in the ground, so it knows which it is dealing with.
Time of day
When the sun will arrive and start helping for free, and how much of the pre-heat it can replace.
Time of year
A March frost is not a December one. Sun angle, day length and ground warmth all change the answer.
Every past session on your pitch
Each night it has heated, or skipped, is kept with the conditions it happened in and how it turned out.
Starts careful
Runs on the standard heat curve with cautious lead times, and watches how your pitch really behaves.
Borrows what worked
Finds past nights on your pitch that look like tonight and plans on them, telling you how many it found.
Trims the waste
Lead times and water temperatures come down on the evidence, night type by night type.
Runs on your data
Entirely on your site's own learned data, and it still grades itself after every session.
It keeps you in the loop
You'll hear about it
days before it happens.
SmartPitch doesn't just act. It tells you what it expects, what it plans and how it did, by email and on the dashboard, in plain English. And when it plans to skip a night, one click in the email overrides it.
SmartPitch · three days aheadEmail
SmartPitch — Training Ground: Academy Sat 09:00 may start with white grass
Likely to start white: Academy, Saturday 09:00. The pipes keep the soil warm, but they cannot thaw the blades once a clear sky and cold air have set in. The blades should be clear by about 10:40. If the start time matters, consider moving the session later. We check again every hour and will tell you if it changes. This warning has been right 7 times out of 8 at this site so far.
SmartPitch · 18:00 the evening beforeEmail
SmartPitch — Tonight's heating planned to skip (Training Ground)
Conditions look favourable for the pitch to clear leaf frost naturally before your session at 10:30. SmartPitch is planning to skip heating. Latest expected clear: 09:20. Confidence: High. Not happy? One click: Cancel — heat tonight
SmartPitch · 07:00, every morning it mattersEmail
SmartPitch — Morning Briefing for Training Ground
Overnight: heating 6.5 h, 5,460 kWh, about £300. Low −2.4 °C, one frost event. Now: soil 7.8 °C, monitoring. Today: Academy 14:00, forecast low 1 °C, frost risk: no. Issues: none.
- Pre-heating started: the moment heating begins for a session, with the water temperature it's aiming for, the soil now, and when it expects to be ready
- Frost alert: when it heats to protect the pitch with no session booked, with the forecast low and how long it expects to run
- Severe cold forecast: three or more freezing nights on the way, listed night by night
- Weekly briefing every Monday: last week's sessions, hours and frost, the week's forecast, and a heads-up for cold snaps or snow
- Faults: critical ones straight away, day or night. The rest batched, never in your quiet hours, with a note when they're resolved
- On the dashboard: every session in the week ahead carries a verdict, Looks clear, At risk or Likely white, and a track record shows how often the early alert was right at your site
The kit
Four parts.
Nothing ripped out.
A brain in the cloud, a controller in the panel you already have, a camera on the pitch and sensors in the ground. Grass or artificial, one pitch or a stadium site. Portal in English, German, French and Dutch.
- Cloud learning engine. Holds the model of your pitch. Takes the readings in every few seconds and sends the next heating move straight back.
- Frost camera. Watches the surface in daylight and spots frost by the colour it takes from the grass. Tells the engine the moment it is clear.
- The playing surface. Grass or artificial. The thing you actually care about: playable, on time.
- Root zone, 8 cm down. Wireless soil sensors. Temperature and moisture, live, so the engine sees what is happening in the ground, not just the air.
- Your existing heating pipes. Nothing new here. SmartPitch drives the valves and pumps you already have, at the lowest water temperature that does the job.
- Controller in your existing panel. A small controller that fits in the cabinet you already have. Up to 4 pitches and 12 heating circuits. Building Protect runs inside it.
Grass care In development for launch
It looks after the grass,
not just the frost.
The same camera that watches for frost can watch the turf itself. SmartPitch reads the colour and vigour of the sward in every area of the pitch, day after day, so the groundsman sees sward health at a glance: where it's stressed, where it's recovering, and what last week's cold did to it.
And when a harsh spell leaves the sward stressed, Recovery mode gives it a gentle warmth to grow back, capped at a budget you set, at the lowest possible cost. Growth when it matters, not a penny more.
Every area, every day
A sward health score per area of the pitch, from the pictures the camera already takes. No extra kit.
This week against last
See the trend, not the guess. Know whether the pitch is pulling through a cold snap or going backwards.
Warmth to grow back
After a hard spell, a little soil warmth to help the turf recover, with a spend limit you choose.
Insights from the health score
“The far goalmouth health score has dropped a fifth since the cold snap. Three nights of recovery warmth should bring it back, inside your £300 cap.”
“The shaded wing is recovering slower than the rest of the pitch. Worth a look at drainage or light before the next fixture.”
“Sward health is back to October levels across the pitch. Recovery mode can stand down. Total spent: £180.”
Single pitch, single zone · example install
Dashboard
Your whole site,
live on one screen.
Soil, energy, heat, the next sessions and the camera's read of the surface, all in one place, with the Advisory reading back what the system is thinking.
- Soil, energy, heat status and mode, live
- Camera read of the surface beside the numbers
- Next sessions and frost risk on the same screen
- The Advisory: the system explains itself, in the first person
Schedule
You set the sessions.
SmartPitch does the rest.
One click on the day you want the pitch ready. SmartPitch plans backwards from kick-off, for every pitch on the site.
- Every pitch on its own calendar
- The kick-off time is all the system needs to plan
- Copy a week of fixtures and paste it forward
Reporting
Every kilowatt-hour
on the record.
A chart your finance team will actually understand. Pull a day, a week, a season, and show the board what it saved.
- Day, week, month and season views, kWh and £ side by side
- Per-pitch totals or the whole site
- PDF report and CSV download for the board or the auditor
- Every heating decision logged against your baseline
Forecast
Tomorrow's coldest moment,
in writing.
The forecast SmartPitch controls from, for your exact position, with the coldest moment and the sessions at risk called out.
- Forecast pinned to your site's exact position
- Coldest moment called out, with the time
- Early alert up to three days before a session at risk
- Snow in the forecast: sees it coming and warms the pitch ahead of it
Frost protection
It sees the frost form.
Pixel by pixel.
An on-pitch camera takes a fresh picture every few minutes and looks at the playing surface itself, not the air. SmartPitch watches each marked area of the pitch lose its colour to frost against a clear picture from the same time of day, and tells you the moment the surface is clear again. Grass or artificial. After dark the camera stands down and the soil sensors and forecast take over. It only looks when the forecast shows a frost risk, and it stands down under floodlights, so the lights can't fool it.
- Pixel-level analysis of the actual surface, every few minutes in daylight
- Areas marked once at commissioning
- Confirms the moment the surface is clear, so heating steps down early
- Soil sensors and forecast cover the night
- Only looks when frost is forecast, and stands down under floodlights
Water going back to the boiler
Reacts within seconds · last engaged 4 days ago
+ 30 more alarms watching · all clear
Peace of mind
Looks after your heating
so you don't have to.
SmartPitch watches every pump, valve and sensor on your site, day and night. If something looks wrong it puts the heating into a safe state on its own and sends you the reason in plain English. Critical faults come straight through, day or night. Everything else is batched and waits out your quiet hours.
Behind the alarms sits Building Protect. Many grounds run the pitch off the same boiler as the building. If the water going back to the boiler runs too cold, SmartPitch closes the pitch valve so the building's heating isn't starved, then opens it again by itself once the boiler has recovered.
- Every pump, valve and sensor watched around the clock
- Safe state the moment anything looks wrong
- Building Protect closes the pitch valve before the building's heating is starved
- Critical faults straight away; the rest batched, never in your quiet hours
- A pitch maintenance switch for the summer: sensors out, no false alarms, and a reminder if it's still on when frost approaches
The Advisory
Never wonder what it's thinking.
The worst thing about an automatic heating system is not knowing what it will do. SmartPitch tells you, in the first person, live on your dashboard: when it will start, how hot, when it will stop, why, and how sure it is. It will even tell you when moving a session a couple of hours would dodge a cold window, and roughly what that would save.
“Nothing's running and nothing needs to. Since your next session isn't until Saturday, I'm planning to hold off and let the frost pass.”
“Frost ahead for your first-team session. I'm planning to start heating at 23:10, aiming to have the pitch ready by 10:30. I've completed 47 similar sessions with a 96% success rate, so I'm running entirely on your site's learned data.”
“Strong morning sun tomorrow, around 2°C of solar gain, so I can start about 2 hours later. This pitch runs about 1.5°C colder than its forecast on clear nights, and I've allowed for it.”
Questions people ask
Before you call.
Do we have to replace anything?
No. A small controller fits inside your existing heating panel and drives the valves, pumps and heat source you already have. A camera and a handful of wireless soil sensors complete the kit.
Does it work with our boiler, CHP or heat pump?
It is designed to sit in front of whatever heats your pitch loop today. SmartPitch only ever asks for the water temperature the pitch needs, which suits heat pumps especially well.
What if the night turns colder than the forecast?
The soil sensors read the real pitch all night, not the forecast. If the ground is heading for freezing, SmartPitch heats on what they read. At first light the camera checks the grass itself. Every decision is logged so you can see what it did and why.
What happens if the internet drops?
The controller is in your cabinet and Building Protect runs inside it, so your building's heating stays protected even with no link. You get an alert if the controller is offline for 30 minutes, and a critical one within five minutes if it drops out while heating.
Can we still take control ourselves?
Yes. You can change the mode, the targets and the schedule, and silence any alarm. The dashboard tells you in plain English what it is doing and why. SmartPitch runs the night. You stay in charge.
What does it cost?
It depends on the site: how many pitches, how many heating circuits, what is already in the panel. Register your interest and we will talk it through for your ground.
Who sees our data?
Your data is held on UK servers, backed up in the EU, and used only to run your system and show you your own results.
Built in the UKPatent pendingData held in the UKNothing ripped out
Pilot programme · commercial launch early 2027
Be one of the first
with SmartPitch.
SmartPitch is in active field testing right now, with commercial rollout scheduled for early 2027. We're shortlisting the grounds that get the technology first. Leave your details and we'll be in touch with the next steps.
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Installer programme
Controls engineer?
Become an approved SmartPitch installer.
We're building a network of approved SmartPitch installers ahead of the early 2027 launch. If you're a controls engineer and want to install and commission SmartPitch systems, with the training and certification that comes with it, get in touch.