Sports Illustrated started their Play platform last July. Yesterday they announced they will be ramping up their youth sports digital services in year two.
This July SI Play will launch the next phase of their digital and mobile youth sports products. Play provides digital tools and technology that help hundreds of thousands of youth sports leagues and teams around the United States run smoothly and efficiently.
In 2015 SI acquired SportsSignup, LeagueAthletics and iScore Sports to help start SI Play. SportsSignup and LeagueAthletics both provide online management tools for scheduling, statistics and much more to help everyone involved stay on top of all the moving parts. iScore Sports is a mobile app company that allows users to track the play-by-play of a youth sports games in real-time.
— SI Play (@siplaysports) July 8, 2015
The online services that SI Play provides for coaches, parents and a player are extensive. They make everything easy to use online including: registration, scheduling, roster management and organizing statistics. They also provide teams and leagues with professional easy to use websites, as well as streamlined communication tools through their mobile app, email, and text. Other important features include their background checks for coaches, as well as fundraising platforms.
SI is certainly not the only player in this market. We have covered a similar company Sport Ngin, to name just one, and their team and game management tools for youth sports.
Youth sports participation in the United States is extremely high. Families often have multiple kids playing more than one sport throughout the year. SI Play is able to make things a bit easier by allowing them to have everything in one place.
As a part of their 2016 reinvestment, SI recently acquired Tourney Machine to help them provide better management and scheduling for youth sports tournaments.
Their newest endeavors hope to enhance their mobile and social platforms, allowing users to be even more engaged. They currently have 10 million monthly users. This year they are releasing a more player friendly app. It will provide better scheduling. And more importantly it will provide better real-time updates and notifications, from live scoring to communication.
SI Play’s app will also focus heavily on sharing user-generated content socially. It will also include some stories from SI and SI for Kids. SI Play CEO Jeff Karp is very excited about the direction they are heading and the services they are able to provide.
“As our world goes through a massive digital transformation, the youth sports sector is still underserved by technology… SI Play is devoted to supporting the nearly 40 million US kids aged 5 to 18 who participate in youth sports. From participation to achievement, we are passionate about creating tools and technologies to engage, simplify and celebrate this experience for every participant who touches the youth sports ecosystem.”
Sports Illustrated Play now our "Official Club Management Software Partner" to assist clubs. https://t.co/SHJ8ceuUhu pic.twitter.com/5HqCTEgWkQ
— USA Volleyball (@usavolleyball) December 8, 2015
The success of SI Play has been bolstered by their partnerships with nine governing bodies across a wide range of sports including Babe Ruth League Inc. and USA Volleyball. Their platforms support almost every major sport that is played at the youth level in the U.S.
SI Play’s goal is to make youth sports more fun for everyone involved by streamlining the processes of all the time-consuming administrative duties that are required. Their updates in 2016 hope to provide even more options for parents, coaches and players.