🥎 Youth Sports Franchise Eyes U.S. Expansion

This is Buying Sandlot — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of youth sports.

The Buying Sandlot Summit is this week! Couldn’t be more excited to welcome over 400 speakers, sponsors, and attendees to Philly this week. If you are attending, please check your inboxes (or spam folders) for event communications sent over the last couple of days. We will send one more today.

We will not have a newsletter on Wednesday, but encourage everyone to view the live stream of interviews from the TeamSnap ONE Live Stream Stage on our YouTube channel (full panels will be available to premium members after the event).

Let’s get to it.

The earliest participation opportunity for youth sports families may be Sportball.

The Canadian multi-sport franchise platform's programming starts at 16 months -- a differentiation as it eyes expansion in the U.S. while the specialization trend appears to be whipping back toward varied participation.

"We like to consider ourselves the first introduction to sports for children," Sportball VP Jason D'Rocha told Buying Sandlot.

Sportball focused on the eight major North American ball sports -- baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, soccer, tennis and volleyball. It also offers cricket in India and rugby in Singapore.

D'Rocha said the company views itself as a feeder system to competitive play; programming does introduce some competitive aspects as kids age.

Coaches received training on an internal learning platform with a focus on developmentally appropriate programming. Sportball collaborates with academic institutions to make sure its curriculums and lesson plans are all evidence-based. It also views itself as preventative care by exposing kids to healthy habits.

"To introduce kids to sports at a very young age, once you start looking at it through the lens of a parent or an educator, it makes perfect sense," said D'Rocha, who has a background in cognitive behavior.

"Kids at that stage are still learning how to step and crawl. They're essentially pre-verbal, so they're developing their language skills. What we decided to do as an organization was introduce children to sports and take those skills that are fundamental to every sport like throwing and catching and stepping and kicking and jumping. Break them down into basic building blocks. Use very simple language and use very engaging ways to teach kids these skills."

Sportball franchise owners can operate multiple locations across wide geographic areas -- i.e. one franchisee has locations in both Canada and the U.S.

Sportball's biggest current U.S. footprint is in Texas; it also has locations in Boston, Brooklyn, Phoenix and the Los Angeles area. D'Rocha said it looks for communities with young families and a demand for healthy active living.

The franchise fee for a primary market is $60K; secondary markets are $40K.

Franchisees are also expected to have access to about $100K in liquidity for marketing, promotion, hiring and training.

Franchises do not need brick-and-mortar locations to launch.

"Any place where there's a gymnasium or a multipurpose room or any outdoor space or green space, we can operate Sportball programs," D'Rocha said. "You're not tied down to a lease."

Youth sports management needs differ. But Playbook365 reduces administrative burden for all players in the space -- clubs and travel teams, facilities, leagues and tournament platforms.

The automated and unified sports management system is built specifically for operators.

Playbook365 -- which consists of Playbook (registration) and Staybook (housing) -- increases revenue opportunities for operators while improving the participant experience.

Housing is integrated while optimizing fees and monetizing transactions. Participant experience is improved with streamline registration and booking, allowing families to focus on competition rather than logistics.

Operators have control and visibility; centralized data and reporting provides financial transparency across events and programs, making it easier to scale without increasing overhead.

Playbook365 also offers best-in-class customer service with account managers who have experience as youth sports operators. They offer personalized onboarding, training, support and more.

Playbook365 helps youth sports organizations operate more efficiently, generate additional revenue, and deliver a better experience for families, partners and teams on — and off — the court and field.

Learn more

*Sponsor

DSG Chairman Edward Stack said the youth sports platform is the retailer’s “secret weapon” during a fireside chat at J.P. Morgan’s annual Retail Round Up event.

Maybe not so secret moving forward.

DSG CEO Lauren Hobart acknowledged many consumers may not realize DSG owns GameChanger, but said it is “early innings in terms of overt brand recognition” and the brands are moving toward becoming more publicly connected.

Hobart used GameChanger Bat Lab recommendations at DSG locations as an example; she also said there are “long-term ideas” about linking GameChanger to the DSG loyalty program.

CFO and EVP Navdeep Gupta said bringing the brands together is a “careful” process, but called GameChanger a “hidden gem” and a “fantastic growth engine.”

The execs declined to update the previously-stated $150M annual revenue figure for GameChanger.

OT7 — Overtime’s 7-on-7 football platform — has partnered with NBC Sports.

The deal includes broadcast windows for OT7’s championship weekend; select games will be shown at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock on June 13-14.

OT7 will now be presented and promoted alongside the All-American Bowl; NBC has televised the senior high school football all-star game for over 20 years.

Overtime and the All-American Bowl will "begin partnering on sales and distribution assets during the annual All-American Bowl Week in January as well as the creation of original content," according to a release.

Quick Take: 7-on-7 is on the list of post-summit topics to explore. It’s mostly associated with elite recruits and there is much more contact than flag football (everyone wears protective head gear). But it also looks a lot more like the traditional sport than flag and there are more kids on the field. Could there be a lane there to cut into flag’s growth, especially with boys?

The scouting and streaming giant has landed an exclusive strategic partnership with Puma’s NXTPro platform.

All boys and girls NXTPro Pro16 content will be accessible and centralized with Hudl, including game film and individual player clips.

SportsEngine’s live streaming deal with Puma and NXTPro goes through 2030, according to an extension announcement last year. That also includes select games on Peacock.

The Hudl/Puma partnership will allow athletes to have their data and video discoverable for college programs and professional scouts — Hudl said it will have subscription options for schools and teams. Coaches will also be able to utilize Hudl Pro Suite tools.

The youth sports management platform has partnered with MLB on a series of educational “Pitch Smart” videos.

The videos will live in the TeamSnap app and focus on topics like avoiding Tommy John surgery, the risks of chasing velocity and the benefits of playing multiple sports.

TeamSnap also has practice plans, team drills and other baseball/softball resources on the app in partnership with MLB.

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Good game.