Breaking: PlayOn Acquires MaxPreps

🥎 The business of youth sports

Author

Kyle Scott
April 02, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hello, Deal City!

MaxPreps was put on the market by parent company Paramount (CBS) last June along with other assets, as the company sought to raise money to pay off its debt.

Today, it was acquired by PlayOn, the high school sports platform which offers ticketing, live streaming and other services.

Here are the details, what it means for all stakeholders, and my off-the-cuff reaction to the deal.

📄 Details

For those who are unaware, MaxPreps is a (the?) leading high school sports digital media site, including rankings, schedules, standings, and content.

It’s a go-to for basically any fan, player or coach in the high school ecosystem.

According to Sportico, Inner Circle Sports, LionTree Advisors, and Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP worked on the deal.

The Deal:

  • Financial terms were not disclosed.

    • PlayOn CEO David Rudolph told Sportico: “Like most deals … they probably would have loved for us to pay more, and we probably would have loved to pay less, which says it probably landed about where it’s supposed to.”

    • Max Preps was acquired by CBS in 2007 for $43 million.

  • CBS will keep its other high school properties, 247Sports and Scout Media

  • MaxPreps will round out a compelling stable of fan-centric brands for PlayOn, which include:

    • GoFan— a ticketing, concession and fundraising platform (think a digital wallet for high school sports)

    • NFHS Network— live streaming of high school games

  • There are no immediate plans to combine the brands into a single super app, though integrations are expected

  • The deal is part of a trend of consolidation in the highly-fragmented youth and amateur sports space

  • Private equity firm KKR and VC firm Panoramic Ventures are significant investors in PlayOn

  • All 32 MaxPreps employees will join PlayOn, bringing their headcount total up to 450

“Now everything you love about high school sports is easier, faster, and more connected.”

That line from the video sums up the acquisition… and basically everything else having to do with consolidation in youth sports.

😶‍🌫️ My Thoughts

A no-brainer type of acquisition here.

PlayOn’s President B.J. Pilling described MaxPreps to SBJ as the “front porch” of high school sports— the entry point upon which fans can find scores and schedules, among other things.

From there, they can now be pushed to PlayOn’s other offerings to stream the game or buy tickets.

The offering is analogous to a pro league’s website.

Take MLB.com for example:

You can visit the website to see scores and schedules → click on links to live stream and watch archived versions of the game on MLB.tv → and of course buy tickets to upcoming events.

PlayOn had the streaming and ticket portion of the user flow, but not the top-of-funnel, “front porch” that MaxPrep offers.

While not without competition - Hudl, Stack Sports and others are coming for specific areas of the business - PlayOn is building a robust moat of B2C media and services combined with B2B (or B2School) must-haves, like streaming and ticketing.

What’s left for PlayOn?

Well, if we strain the pro league website analogy, you can transact and buy apparel through their websites. Feels like an opportunity for the PlayOn platform.

Though Youth Inc. might have something to say about that…

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Articles on the deal:

Good game.