Weekly News Roundup: The Biggest Headlines in the World of Youth Sports
Anwar Stetson
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🏛️ Youth Sports Bill Re-Introduced In Congress
Illinois’ Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip in the upper chamber, is promoting the Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act.
The act would focus on safety in game play and practice. Any youth athlete with a suspected concussion would be prohibited from competing for the remainder of the game/day, and states would be required to adopt a “when in doubt, sit it out” policy.
✅ Ankored Boosted By Rally Ventures Investment
Ankored, an AI-powered compliance and safety onboarding platform, has closed out a $4M seed round. The funding was led by Rally Ventures and managing director Justin Kaufenberg, a co-founder and former CEO of SportsEngine.
Ankored plans to expand product development and partnerships with the funding. Kaufenberg pointed to the evolution of best practices regarding youth sports safety, on and off the field, as an impetus.
“A background screening is a good start, but a totally comprehensive safety profile on a coach, a team manager, a locker room monitor, a bus driver, that’s really the standard now,” he said.
👨💻 Another Youth Sports Tech Deal
Accel-KKR has bought a majority stake in Arbiter, an athletics and schools management platform.
The company was created to book and pay sports officials, but it has since expanded its scope to handle other scheduling and payment functions as well as compliance, registrations, facilities management and website operations.
⚾️ MLB Team Donates $2.5M For Youth Sports in Flood-Impacted Areas
The Houston Astros have made a seven-figure commitment to build facilities in Ingram, Texas, a city hit hard by last summer’s floods in central Texas.
- 3 new baseball/softball fields
- 2 practice fields
- Batting cages
- Other amenities
The team will direct and manage the project; the expectation is the complex will be ready next spring.
