This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
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Details on how to join in the newsletter today.
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In the email today:
🏈 Brand Velocity Group Acquires RCX Sports
BVG — which counts Eli Manning among its partners — has acquired RCX, the licensing partner and operator of NFL Flag and the other major sports leagues’ official youth platforms.
Terms were not disclosed. RCX — previously owned by The Raine Group — will maintain its brand with CEO Izell Reese and its management team staying on.
This is a notable deal for the obvious reason — RCX is a major “base of the pyramid” player due to not only NFL Flag, but also MLS Go, NHL Street, MLB Pitch, Hit and Run and the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA.
But it is also the first major private equity move since the Let Kids Play Act was introduced.
This deal was obviously in the works well before the bill was unveiled, but BVG and RCX were clearly signaling to Washington with a rollout that was just as much about what won’t happen as what the plans are.
“It’s very much more access, keeping the prices low and just growing this,” Manning told CNBC. “The fact that you’re working with the professional leagues, they don’t want this to be a heavy cost to kids. They want more kids playing sports, being active, being out there. So our goal is to bring in capital so they can scale that, they can expand that.”
BVG has the majority stake, but there are a slew of individual and institutional strategic investors - Darco Capital, Hamilton Lake, St. Cloud Capital, Three Oceans Partners, Larry Fitzgerald, Emmitt Smith and Jameis Winston.
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (RCX) and Sidley Austin LLP (BVG) were the deal's legal advisors; The Raine Group LLC was RCX's financial advisor while CohnReznick Advisory LLC was BVG's accounting advisor.
Three more quick notes:
1) This is not BVG’s first youth sports play. The firm acquired Score Sports, an apparel, equipment and uniform distributor, in 2022. There is no talk of any synergies between the companies so far.
2) The reaction to the deal was overwhelmingly positive. And understandably so. People trust Manning, BVG is clearly sincere in its goals and the pro leagues’ involvement also instills confidence.
But BVG, and every other PE firm in the industry, would still be on an automatic two-year divestment clock if the LKPA were to pass — a reminder of how the bill’s narrow focus on one type of capital structure remains a colossal flaw.
The bill says PE firms can prove they have not engaged in “vulture practices” to stay in the industry, but that still seems likely to be a fraught — and highly litigious — process.
3) I covered a wild game at the Superdome where Manning and Drew Brees combined for 11 TD passes early in my career. And now they are both headline names on my current beat — the BVG/RCX deal comes eight months after Brees and Unrivaled Sports launched a flag partnership.
📆 EventConnect Exists To End Tournament Chaos— For Organizers And Families*
Tournament weekends have become mini supply chains: teams register, rosters change, schedules shift, hotels fill, and parents scramble.
Too many events still run things on spreadsheets, portals, and last-minute calls.
What we do (and why it’s different):
Centralize the weekend workflow: registration, rostering, payments, lodging, and real-time reporting.
Organizers can run end-to-end on EventConnect or integrate the systems they already use— no rip-and-replace required.
Either way, the data lands in one place so operators aren’t stitching together reports from multiple tools.
The “moment that changes outcomes”:
HousingConnect embeds hotel booking directly into checkout— capturing rooms at peak intent instead of sending families to a separate portal later.
Results can be up to 30% more room-night reservations and 24% savings on team hotel costs.
Proof of scale:
EventConnect powers 5,000 events and connects 30,000 hotels across 800 destinations.
Learn more about how EventConnect can help power your tournament right here.
*Sponsor
👥 Buying Sandlot Premium Community Launch
The Buying Sandlot premium community aims to serve as an extension of the energy, conversations, and networking that took place at the Buying Sandlot Summit, digitally.
The revamped Buying Sandlot community will offer:
Peer Networking
Investment Opportunities
Data and Reports
At launch, I’d like to highlight the ability of Buying Sandlot to bring you data you won’t find anywhere else. Full stop. Period. End of this sentence.
Our Youth Sports Consolidation Report is one of 5 reports or data sets available out of the gate. It features:
18 pages sourced from over a year of Buying Sandlot reporting on acquisitions, funding rounds, trends, and what comes next in youth sports— for some, it alone is worth the price of admission
The 2 market-setting events in youth sports to watch out for this year
Which strategic capital is entering the space in a big way
Which areas of the market are seeing the most investor demand
A database of 70 deals and partnerships in youth sports over the last 14 months
The top 10 strategic takeaways for investors
And much more
Premium members also get access to first-party data sourced directly from our community.
Click here for more information:
🏐 Bringing Volleyball Into The Digital Age
You learn something new every day in youth sports.
Like every sprawling volleyball tournaments still uses paper scoring.
“It is as archaic as it comes,” Eugene Tichenor, the GM of Otto Sport AI’s SportWrench volleyball management platform, told Buying Sandlot with a laugh.
Maybe not for much longer, though, after Otto announced an integration partnership with Polish data and tech firm VolleyStation yesterday.
Scorekeepers, officials launch match with QR code
SW’s match context, rosters, safety compliance flow into VS
VS provides real-time scoring, substitutions
Results then flow back into SW
Matches start, finish faster; courts maintain schedules
Event operators have complete visibility wherever they are
“I had it on our road map, a ‘If we get to it, we get to it’ sort of thing,” Tichenor said. “Obviously it’s the future, it’s where the sport needs to go for event operators, for the kids, for the parents, for the coaches. And then VolleyStation came along, did it really well and it got approval from the governing bodies. So we said, ‘Heck yeah, let’s integrate.’”
This is the first major foray in the U.S. youth ecosystem for VolleyStation after establishing itself at the collegiate, professional and international levels. The platform also has analytics and scouting tools, broadcast integrations, websites and more.
Otto will also integrate VolleyStation into its University Athlete volleyball recruiting platform later this year to make event scouting more efficient for college coaches.
“It’s going to revolutionize their world because they will be able to plan their day out,” Tichenor said. “They’re going to be able to make real-time live decisions on who and where they go to see based on this live scoring data.”
🏉 Equip Sports Launches In U.S.
The free play platform — profiled here in January — has partnered with the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation to make Miami Gardens, Florida, its first hub city in America.
Equip — think Citi Bike, but for sports equipment — will have 30 self-service locker stations in the city. Users access the shared equipment via a free app.
The six sports supported in the launch:
Basketball
Football
Soccer
Volleyball
Pickleball
Fitness equipment
"That mix -- a broad platform with a locally curated selection -- is core to how we operate," Equip CEO Vincent Borel told Buying Sandlot. "Our mission is to unlock play for all, so community engagement is our north star -- sessions, repeat usage, the sports people actually reach for, the times of day they show up."
Borel declined to get into specifics, but said more U.S. launches and partnerships are planned.
Equip — based in Switzerland — has over 500 active stations worldwide, including about 100 in Canada. It says it over 350K active users and has had 1.5M lifetime plays on its platform.
🚨 Another Background Check Debacle
The New Orleans Recreation Department failed to properly vet its youth sports volunteers last year, according to the city’s inspector general.
About half of volunteers in random sample had no background check
Limited background checks out of fear coaches wouldn’t pass full ones
At least two volunteers had disqualifying criminal records
At least one volunteer had an active arrest warrant
Parents were in dark about lack of safeguards
NORD had no formal vetting policies
NORD’s CEO resigned right before the findings became public.
Some unvetted coaches were also entrusted with handling registration fees and other funds, according to WWL-TV.
NORD says it will follow through on the IG’s numerous recommendations to overhaul its vetting procedures.
Not to always go full capitalist, but the Let Kids Play Act and general disdain for private and for-profit companies in youth sports continues to break my brain.
Here you have a city-run program completely whiffing on its obligations to protect kids. At a minimum, I think even the most hardline anti-PE folks would acknowledge that for-profit companies have a real incentive - you know, liability - to make sure safety and compliance are handled properly. And yet, this week you have a govt-run organization and a non-profit in USSSA falling flat on their face.
🏟️ Facilities Arms Race: Major Sponsorship Money
On a better note in the Big Easy … a long-anticipated new high school stadium has landed a seven-figure naming rights deal.
Raising Cane’s will pay $2M and local health system LCMC Health will kick in $600K for the Raising Cane’s 9th Ward Stadium at LCMC Health Field.
The $15M facility will hold close to 4K fans and is set to open next year.
📝 Youth Sports Quick Hitters
The Good Game has partnered with Kansas Athletics and will power all of KU’s youth camps, clinics and events; the platform will also allow Jayhawks to earn money training youth athletes.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul launched a $6M initiative to make youth soccer more accessible and affordable in the state; the bulk of the funds will go toward grants for field construction, expansion and enhancements.
Team USA women’s flag star Ashlea Klam — who has a partnership with Unrivaled Sports — has signed with Cal Poly’s new D1 program. She previously played at NAIA school Keiser University.
MINI USA has partnered with Soccer Shots on the MINI Match Day activation campaign in select dealerships.
Perfect Game announced that heralded high school baseball star Striker Pence has reclassified to be eligible for the 2027 MLB draft. Pence and his family were profiled by Bloomberg last year.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.