8th August 2023– Prevent Biometrics, provider of the world’s most independently validated head Impact Monitoring Mouthguard Technology (IMM), and OPRO, a Double Queen’s Award winner for Enterprise: Innovation and the global leader in manufacturing technically advanced mouthguards, today announced a strategic partnership to combine Prevent’s sophisticated Version 2.0 sensor technology with OPRO’s internationally renowned custom and instant custom-fit mouthguards.

“Combining the latest technology in Instrumented Mouthguards from Prevent Biometrics, with OPRO’s reputation for providing comfortable custom-fit mouthguards will increase further the number of elite players wearing Instrumented Mouthguards during contact training sessions and matches. This will help accelerate our understanding of the number and magnitude of head acceleration events related to head impacts experienced by players. This is a key step in our ambition to reduce head acceleration event exposure in both matches and training.”

Simon Kemp – RFU, Medical Services Director

With over 25 years of experience and having supported over 10 million athletes to date, OPRO is a trusted name and global leader in the world of sports protection. By leveraging OPRO’s world-class manufacturing operation and expertise, the partnership aims to offer a top to bottom safety device, with head impact safety becoming an option for all athletes at all levels of sport. OPRO’s manufacturing capabilities immediately accelerates Prevents’ growth and distribution capabilities in the rugby market, with the collective goal of bringing the cost of Prevent’s iMM down to an affordable level to ensure adoption at all levels of sport.

“Prevent is seeing rapid expansion of demand for accurate Head Impact Monitoring across sports and age groups, especially with our expanding roll out at the highest levels of Rugby.  Our partnership with OPRO assures that the growing global demand for Prevent’s instrumented mouthguards is achieved via their world class manufacturing. The combination of OPROs mouthguard capabilities, with our head impact monitoring will help drive expansion of head impact safety.”

Mike Shogren – CEO, Prevent Biometrics

Prevent & OPRO clients include leading rugby clubs, over 500+ prominent schools, major cup tournaments, and top-flight professional leagues in Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, United States and Wales. Top Rugby Leagues and Governing Bodies across the globe are using the Prevent IMM to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the number, magnitude, and total head acceleration workload experienced by each athlete during training and matches.

“At OPRO we have built a reputation for providing the most comfortable fitting mouthguards, with the highest safety standards. Incorporating Prevent’s revolutionary and market leading head impact monitoring technology into our mouthguards will provide a safety solution from top to bottom for any sport.”

Anthony Lovat – Chairman, OPRO Group

About Prevent:

Prevent Biometrics®, a Cleveland Clinic spin-off, was established in 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Prevent was founded to be a positive solution to head impact risks at all levels of sport. The Prevent IMM is the most independently validated and broadly used accurate head impact monitoring system, and its data have been featured in over a dozen peer-reviewed publications. Objective, data-driven insights from the Prevent IMM are supporting the majority of current research into understanding head impact exposure across sports and age levels.

World Rugby is a leader in advancing the understanding of head impacts across the sport and is committed to reducing the head forces experienced by players at all levels of the game.  Prevent’s data is being used by rugby stakeholders in making recommendations to further inform rugby’s injury-prevention strategies as the sport continues its research-led drive to protect players at all levels of the game. Prevent’s IMM is used to monitor contact workload in matches and training. In support of World Rugby research and player welfare projects, over 3,000 players have used Prevent Biometrics IMM’s in the community and elite professional rugby union game in the past two years. Over the same time, over 900 players have used the IMM in rugby league to advance similar initiatives.

For additional information visitPreventBiometrics.com

About OPRO:

Founded more than 25 years ago in 1997 by Dr. Anthony Lovat BDS., OPRO is the world’s most technically advanced mouthguard company and a leading pioneer in oral protection. From its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hertfordshire (UK), OPRO is dedicated to creating the ultimate in dental protection by using innovation and technology for the good of athletes at all levels of sport.

Over the years, OPRO has been privileged to supply gum shields to some of the world’s leading athletes and are proud to be the official sports mouthguard supplier to many international teams and associations. To name just a handful, OPRO are proud to supply England Rugby, Wales Rugby, New Zealand Rugby, GB Taekwondo, the UFC, USA Wrestling, the GAA and England Hockey with premium-level mouth protection. These athletes trust OPRO because they know that when they wear an OPRO mouthguard, they can concentrate on their sport and be certain that their teeth and gums are protected by the best-fitting, most comfortable mouthguard in the world.

Since its launch, OPRO has supported over ten million athletes around the world with their range of patented custom-fit and self-fit mouthguards. In recognition of its ground-breaking work in the field of oral protection OPRO has twice been honoured to receive the Queen’s Award for Innovation (in 2007 and 2019), awarded at Buckingham Palace.

For additional information visithttps://www.opro.com/