This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.
Big acquisition news today.
Let’s get to it.
In the email today:
🪪 LeagueApps Makes A Big Move
We can officially retire the Sale-o-Meter.
LeagueApps has acquired background screening platform National Center for Safety Initiatives from Versant. The deal comes two months after the Comcast cable spinoff company sold SportsEngine to PlayMetrics.
Terms were not disclosed. NCSI will operate as a separate division, LeagueApps President Jeremy Goldberg said, and retain the leadership team helmed by VP of Safety Kate Quattlebaum.
NCSI is the only provider named in U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee policy. It works with over 50 NGBs and thousands of youth sports organizations. Buying Sandlot previously reported that NCSI was a profitable part of SportsEngine prior to Versant selling the registration platform to PlayMetrics.
NCSI’s services will still be available to customers that do not utilize the LeagueApps platform.
"We've had a longstanding belief and conviction about safety and making youth sports better, as well as making it easier for things to be safe by supporting operators.
“We're really excited to be able to team up together with Kate and her team. They're providing critical background checks and safety solutions to organizations in the youth sports space and have really established industry leadership in that regard.
“The fact that they're trusted by the USOPC and work with over 90% of the sports national governing bodies, I think is a real signal of the kind of great work they do to manage those checks and provide those safety solutions." — LeagueApps President Jeremy Goldberg
Compliance is, like many things in youth sports, extremely fragmented, with varying standards by state, NGB, organization, etc. And the consequences for failures can be significant — safety is not an area where trying your best is sufficient, Goldberg said.
“If you don't do the right thing, that those could be ending factors for your organization based on the liability that you may face,” he added. “Especially with a lot of the things that have happened in the youth sports insurance markets. This is an opportunity to do the right thing, but also it allows those organizations to mitigate the risk that would change that to question the very viability of what it is that they want to do.”
Goldberg and Quattlebaum said NCSI and LeagueApps, which is backed by Accel-KKR, will invest in capabilities and technology. There will be a focus on improving background screening management and workflows for operators, as well as education on proper practices.
LeagueApps and NCSI will also help underwrite screenings for organizations that receive FundPlay Foundation grants.
"We are the one [consumer reporting agency] in the industry that is so deeply rooted in sport that we understand the complexities of national governing bodies all the way down to the grassroots level," Quattlebaum said. "We've seen how this space has changed, how the topic of safety has changed over the past two decades. And there's so much more that still needs to be done."
Lazard was Versant’s exclusive financial advisor on the deal.
⛑️ In-Person Safety Is Now Table Stakes In Youth Sports*
We recently reported on a youth sports bill up for consideration in Massachusetts’ state senate.
The proposed legislation would establish requirements for athletic trainers coverage -- the latest signal that in-person safety will soon become as prominent in the industry as background checks and SafeSport compliance.
Go4 can safeguard your event well before federal or state lawmakers — or insurance underwriters — make it mandatory.
The tech platform connects operators with certified athletic trainers for per diem, long-term and contract positions.
Over 26K certified ATs available in all 50 states
Works with 12K colleges, clubs, facilities, orgs, schools, tournaments
Emergency Action Plan creation, review, implementation
Risk intelligence, reduction
Injury evaluation, treatment
HIPAA-compliant injury documentation
All ATs carry personal liability insurance
You wouldn't ever play a game without coaches or a referee. You shouldn't ever play without an AT.
Go4 can help.
*Sponsor
🔥 Everyone Has Youth Soccer Takes
The U.S. Men’s National Team crashed out of the World Cup with a 4-1 loss to Belgium on Monday night in the round of 16.
Many licked their wounds by firing off missives about the state of youth soccer (and youth sports) in the country.
We have compiled a bunch of them here. Embrace debate!
It’s a big week for proponents of the Norway model - play-based discovery of sport over competition - and rightfully so as the small Scandinavian country advances on.
But it’s also worth noting that their leading scorer, Erling Haaland, a modern viking, has scored 7 of their 12 goals and in 14-straight competitive games for Norway. Haaland’s father played in the Premier League, and his mother was a champion heptathlete. Meanwhile, he set a “non-competitive” standing long jump record of 1.63 meters at the ripe old age of 5— the same year he started playing for a 100-year-old soccer academy program.
Sure, he played other sports too, but let’s not act like Norway - a country that pumps $400 million annually into sports for a population the size of South Carolina (this would be the equivalent of the US spending $25B in public money) and still hadn’t made the World Cup since 1998 or qualified for the Euros since 2000 - is successful because a group of kids discovered the joys of footy by kicking a spherical object on the banks of the Fjords. In soccer at least, it’s due to a once-in-a-generation cyborg whose athletic prowess has been measured since the time he was in kindergarten, or barnehage, as they call it.
💰 Hudl Acquires Fundraising Platform
The youth sports tech giant has bought TeamUp, which provides gamified fundraising tools for college and high schools organizations and teams.
The platform is designed to eliminate door-to-door selling and save time for athletic directors, coaches, booster clubs and parents.
Athletes earn badges and points for securing donations; Hudl said the average team on the platform raises over $8K per event.
Quick Take: Hudl’s march toward its reported IPO plans continues. While video/streaming and performance analysis remain its bread and butter, this acquisition is the latest effort to beef up its other offerings. Hudl’s suite of operations tools also includes communications, management, registration, scheduling and ticketing.
🏀 3Step Sports Adds To Basketball Portfolio
The multi-sport platform has acquired East Coast-based basketball operator Premier 1 Events.
Juggernaut Capital-backed 3Step aid Premier 1 will maintain its brand after the deal.
Premier 1 operates 27 events annually in the Mid-Atlantic region with over 55K athletes competing.
3Step said it now operates over 600 hoops events and leagues nationwide following the acquisition, serving over 815K total athletes and supporting close to 600 clubs teams.
3Step reportedly retained Goldman Sachs to explore a sale earlier this year. But Juggernaut recently launched a new sports investment platform with former soccer star Gareth Bale and signaled 3Step was part of its strategy. Fiume Capital also has a stake In 3Step.
🏐 Another New Sport-Specific School
Texas Sports Academy will open a girls volleyball-focused school this fall in the Dallas area, pairing with its recently-announced girls flag football academy.
Both will operate out of Elite Performance Training in Frisco. Year 1 volleyball academy enrollment will be limited to about 20 families in grades 6-12, the same as the flag academy.
Both academies will use Alpha School’s AI-powered, two-hours-a-day academic curriculum.
Jason Nicholson, the executive director of the prominent Texas Advantage Volleyball club, will be the founding advisor.
Texas women’s volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott — who has led the Longhorns to three national titles — will be a strategic advisor.
🎟️ Fastbreak AI Partners With Northern California Volleyball Association
NCVA -- USA Volleyball's sixth-largest region -- has tabbed the operations company as its official ticketing platform across all events.
The pact will include integrated digital sponsorship inventory with tickets to drive new revenue. Fastbreak's mobile ticketing is SMS-powered; users do not need to download an app.
NCVA will also become the first USAV region to adopt facial authentication for gate entry via Fastbreak's new Fastlane photo comparison tech. Users can provide a government ID or take a selfie photo at checkout.
NCVA has over 20K athletes, coaches and participants across 1.4K and 200 clubs, covering northern California and parts of Nevada.
📝 Youth Sports Quick Hitters
A nugget in The Athletic’s recent profile of RCX Sports founder Izell Reese: The platform’s licensing contract with the NFL runs through 2028. We had heard the length of the NFL Flag deal was a big factor for suitors In the process leading up to Brand Velocity Group’s recent acquisition.
NJ.com’s report on reclassification in the Garden State has piqued the interest of state legislators. Lawmakers say they want to take action on untraditional academies and suggested state law should prevent kids from repeating grades for athletic advantage.
Versant’s other notable move this week — it continued to invest big on its golf vertical by buying simulator company Full Swing for $530M. The firm makes commercial baseball and golf simulators.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly
A Las Vegas-area Little League president allegedly embezzled close to $65K, spending the money on — naturally — booze, casinos, strip clubs and male enhancement pills. He is also accused of forging documents in an effort to cover up the thefts.
Where this story gets timely: The man was convicted of robbery over a decade ago, but somehow passed a national background check according to a Little League official.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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