High school sports are steadily coming back to the fore of America’s consciousness. Summer travel teams are packing up their equipment for the long school year ahead. And in the midst of all of this, SI Play is expanding its audience and becoming an all-in-one youth sports management platform.
The Time Inc.-backed youth sports venture is today releasing a next-generation free mobile app that will allow youth team managers, coaches, players, and parents to use the SI Play app regardless of their league affiliation, if any, according to SI Play CEO Jeff Karp. Previously, the app was open only to teams that operated within certain leagues, such as the Babe Ruth League.
The app, originally released last year, functions as a one-stop shop for youth team management — managers and coaches can set rosters and schedules, receive real-time scoring and in-game updates, dole out snack duty, and communicate with players, parents and each other. Teams, players and parents can also share content on social media and other distribution channels.
“Previously, software to build a website, register your team, navigate payments, help with scheduling, store photos and videos, was disparate,” Karp said, “and with SI Play, which is really unique, what we’re offering is the technology that combines that, and with the SI Play app, it essentially comes to a mobile-first environment.”
With around 17 million monthly users, according to a press release, the SI Play app is extremely popular. Aside from the team management functions mentioned above, it also gives users access to a number of integrated services provided by Sports Illustrated’s partners — among them, college recruiting services with Next College Student Athlete; team travel solutions with Hilton; and registration insurance provided by AIG, Karp mentioned. iScore, another application through SI Play, tracks live game statistics down to the pitch-by-pitch level.
The partnership with Hilton, announced in June, functions primarily within the SI Play-branded mobile app Tourney Machine, according to the press release.
But the app goes beyond pure management functions and creates a community among the players and their parents. “You have 15 or 20 players on a team, and 30 or 40 parents, that’s kind of a social ecosystem that cares about that specific team,” Karp said. Players and their families can share photos and videos, and chat within the app to make postgame plans at a restaurant.
Naturally, SI Play also has content partnerships with Sports Illustrated and SI Kids, whose platform SI Play used to stream information from the recent Babe Ruth League World Series, Karp mentioned.
“It’s really this mindset of creating this youth sports ecosystem that helps navigate your world and then transforms that world to celebrate arguably some of the most memorable moments in family lives,” Karp said.
The platform is available for all sports, and SI Play has relationships with the governing organizations of 14 sports, including field hockey and lacrosse. Now that SI Play is available to a mass audience via the free mobile app, Karp says he has seen adult leagues use the system, as well as groups not involved with sports at all. Karp added that many people — including public figures and celebrities — who are downloading the SI Play app are using it several times a week.
When the app launches Thursday, it seems likely SI Play will only continue to grow in popularity as coaches and league administrators realize its logistical capabilities, parents continue to discover its social value, and players see it as a tool to advance their athletic careers.