Modernizing the chaos: The next evolutionary phase of youth sports technology
Technology has transformed the way youth sports are organized, played and consumed. From sports management registration platforms to video streaming to wearables, technology has enabled new possibilities and opportunities for young athletes, coaches, parents and fans.
While much focus has been given to the technology advancements in professional and collegiate sports over the last decade, it is impossible to ignore the growing momentum of the youth sports technology landscape. Investors have put well over $1 billion of disclosed capital to work over the last five years across youth sports tech, according to Pitchbook and our own research, and even more in undisclosed funding. This is plenty of gasoline to hypercharge the next cycle of this market’s evolution. According to Maia Research, today youth sports is a $37.5 billion market globally, which significantly rivals the size of the NFL at $17 billion.
The scale of the market is staggering -- with an estimated 60 million youth athletes (ages 6-17) in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health, playing multiple sports across roughly 2 million school, community, and club teams in over 150,000 leagues, compounded by family and friends attending and traveling to these events. Add to that the employees and volunteers providing the sports programming, and youth sports is a market that touches well over 50% of the entire U.S. population on an annual basis.
The past decade of youth sports tech saw the digital transformation of manual processes propel many of the leaders in the space -- think converting paper-driven registration to digital payment processing, phone chains to real-time mobile communications, and sharing VHS tapes to AI-enabled video analytics. The winning formula in the next evolutionary phase of the youth sports tech market will be driven by scale and maturity.
Scale in the distribution and breadth of product portfolios to maximize the value brought to users; maturity of operations to build self-sustaining software businesses that are not dependent on outside capital to fund their growth. The question will not be how many thousands of sports organizations are you reaching, but how many tens of millions of end users are you reaching daily — and are you doing it efficiently?
As the youth sports tech market moves into this next phase of evolution, there are several primary submarkets and trends that will contribute to its growth. Here are a few examples.
Sports management and registration platforms
One of the most foundational aspects of youth sports is registration. Whether it is for a league, a tournament, a camp or a clinic, registration is the process of collecting information, fees and waivers from participants and organizers. Traditionally, this process was done manually using paper forms, checks and spreadsheets, which was time-consuming, error-prone and inefficient.
However, with the advent of online sports management and registration platforms such as SportsEngine, LeagueApps and TeamSnap, registration has become easier, faster and more convenient. These technologies also extend to the team, where coaches and parents can use software for team management, communication, training and development. These platforms are well positioned to provide more business services and consumer technology across the entire sports organization’s operation.
Video analytics and streaming
Another technology that has revolutionized youth sports is video analytics and streaming, allowing youth sporting events to be broadcast to a wider audience, and analyzed with tools previously only available to professional and collegiate teams.
Hudl and Pixellot are leading advancements in AI-enabled video and analytics to capture and learn from the game. BallerTV and GameChanger are platforms that score and stream thousands of youth sporting events across the country every day of the week, from anywhere to anywhere in the world. These technologies help create the pathway to young athletes’ careers by easily showcasing their skills and talents to college recruiters, while also allowing families to watch their children’s games.
Wearables and biometrics
Another fascinating technological development we are seeing within competitive youth leagues is the use of biometric-tracking wearables, such as watches, rings and chest straps to analyze and improve the performance of the athletes. Indeed, there are 11-year-old athletes wearing biometric gear, having cameras measure their speed velocity across the field. This provides a complete statistical breakdown of their performance on and off the field, as well as helping to prevent injuries and overtraining.
Social media and NIL
A growing trend is the rise of social media and digital platforms that enable athletes to build their personal brands, showcase their talents, connect with fans and peers, and access new opportunities. With recent name, image and likeness (NIL) decisions, young athletes can now monetize their online presence and influence by endorsing products, creating content, selling merchandise and more.
This can create new revenue streams for athletes and youth sports organizations alike. Social media can also democratize access to youth sports by allowing financially disadvantaged players to access training content or to showcase their talent. Leaders in our industry engaged in these practices must remember to balance the benefits and risks of social media, and help young athletes navigate this complex landscape.
The future of youth sports technology
The primary question is this: Why hasn’t a technology company cracked the code in building the one tech platform for all? Simply answered, despite the technological advancements of the past decade, youth sports today is still a complex and extremely fragmented space. It demands technology providers facilitate tens of millions of data transactions daily, orchestrated across tens of thousands of hyper local organizations, being accessed by millions of unique mobile users concurrently, all while maintaining an advanced level of data security and privacy.
Compare the demands of supporting a couple thousand professional and collegiate sport programs to that of over 150,000 local organizations made up of small- and medium-sized businesses to volunteer-run teams and associations, and you can begin to see the challenge for any technology or service provider entering the space. The sports tech leaders of tomorrow will be the ones that connect all of the infinite dots within youth sports and offer end users a seamless solution and engaging experience.
The youth sports technology market is undergoing a significant evolutionary phase and technology will continue to enhance the youth sports experience in innovative ways. Our industry should remain focused not only on finding new ways to simplify all things youth sports for all participants involved, but doing so in a way that provides equal access across the ecosystem. Together we can help level the playing field, making a tremendous impact in the lives of so many youth athletes.
Peter Frintzilas is CEO of TeamSnap, a sports management platform for coaches, administrators, players and parents and over 19,000 sports organizations across more than 100 different types of sports and activities. Peter is a former high school athlete and a proud father of three young boys.
