Otto Sport AI’s hot streak continues.
Otto Event will become AAU Volleyball’s official event management partner beginning with the 2026-27 season.
The multi-year deal provides Otto’s complete suite of tools to all AAU National-owned events, including the AAU Junior National Championships, the AAU Volleyball Classic and the Grand Prix and Super Regionals.
It is the latest major partnership for Otto, which has grabbed a stranglehold on the volleyball industry since formally launching in January. CEO Luke Zaientz previously projected it would have 70-80% market share by this season.
“It's a gigantic accomplishment for us,” Otto Event GM Eugene Tichenor told Buying Sandlot. “It’s something we've been working toward. We knew when we talked in product meetings, we were building stuff for organizations like this, and we were just waiting for the opportunity to get in front of [AAU] and show how powerful our technology is, how great our customer service is. We got the opportunity to do that this summer, and it culminated in formulating this partnership.”
So how wide is Otto’s reach now? Some projected numbers from Tichenor:
175K total teams registered
2.1M athletes competing in at least one Otto event
1.75M tickets processed — up 40% YoY
1.8M parents engaged
The AAU Junior National Championships played a big role in the partnership. The multi-week event, held annually in Orlando across June and July, features a combined 8K boys and girls teams.
“They said, ‘We’ve had issues in the past where registration did not go that smooth on other systems. That cannot happen again,’” Tichenor said.
“That’s the guarantee that we’re proud of, and it’s easy to make, because of all the time we’ve spent on the backend developing the infrastructure that’s going to take these 8,000 teams and fly through everything on Dec. 1 and give everyone an easy registration, an easy checkout.”
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