The Information — a tech business publication — became the latest major outlet to cover the youth sports industry last week with an in-depth look at the proliferation of apps.
The newsiest note: Reporter Sara Germano has “heard chatter” about Hudl going public. And COO Matt Mueller did not exactly deny it.
“There’s a chance that we go public, but I would never say guarantee. We want to have the optionality, if it makes sense for us and our investors.” -- Mueller to The Information
Fun fact: Matt is scheduled to be on our podcast this Thursday.
Hudl took on investment from Bain in 2020— the report said the streamer has received over $225M in funding.
Hudl also appeared in a recent Motley Fool article about financial services company Nelnet, which owns a 22% stake in the streamer:
“Both of these wholly owned businesses should provide steady cash flow for the Nelnet parent company. But that is not all the company owns. It has a small stake in a private start-up called Hudl, which dominates the sports film and coaching software sector. Nelnet's roughly 22% ownership stake in Hudl could be worth hundreds of millions, if not more, which could be monetized if Hudl ever goes public. With Nelnet having a market cap of just $4.7 billion, the Hudl investment could drive significant value for shareholders.”
Hudl would be the first stand-alone youth sports tech company to have an IPO (GameChanger is a subsidiary of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is publicly traded).
Two other nuggets that stood out:
The youth sports app market is estimated to be worth $12B a year, according to Boston Consulting Groups
Fastbreak.ai CEO John Stewart said his company has stopped trying to keep track of competitor apps due to the explosion of options in the space
As everyone who reads Buying Sandlot knows: The youth sports streaming space is extremely fragmented.
So much so that the state of play stands out in an overarching industry that itself is quite fragmented.
Hudl going public would be a fascinating wrinkle. The platform’s market share is, like almost all of its competitors, small in the grand scheme.
A report this summer said GameChanger had a 9% market share and everyone else, Hudl included, was no greater than 3%.
But Hudl says 99% of high schools use its services. So if you subscribe to the theory that adoption, not acquisition, is the path to consolidation in streaming … Hudl seems to have the inside track to best compete with GameChanger. And going public could help that push.
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