HITIQ Limited announced the extended agreement for its exclusive partnership with Bupa Dental with up to 184 clinics set to offer the `smart mouthguards' to junior and amateur athletes in 2023. As a result of the expansion of clinics, Bupa Dental will have more than tripled the number of clinics that can offer the HITIQ mouthguards Australia-wide. The extension follows a positive retail roll-out in 2022.

Concussion is a growing concern at amateur sports levels with recent reports suggesting four out of ten amateur players suffer from some level of trauma linked to repeated head injuries and blows to the head1. HITIQ smart mouthguard data has revealed that across the major Australian contact sports codes, players sustain an average of 13 head impacts per game. HITIQ smart mouthguards are currently used by the AFL and other professional contact sports codes.

The smart mouthguards are embedded with force measuring sensors that log head knocks as well as the accumulation of force from hits sustained during a game. Paired with an easy-to-use mobile application, the system provides an alert following the detection of any significant head impact using HITIQ's concussion injury screening tool. The announcement comes ahead of the busy Autumn/Winter amateur and junior sports seasons (such as Australian Rules Football, Rugby League and Rugby Union) with around 13 million adults and 3 million children taking part in sport each year.

The Company is unable to reliably estimate the level of sales to be generated from this partnership, but the Board is pleased that Bupa continues to support the Company's product into its expanded clinics and hopes to leverage off the timing moving into winter sports in the Southern Hemisphere.