LeagueApps

Partnerships make us stronger, and that’s why we seek out the best organizations and leagues to join forces with and make us both better. We’re so excited to partner with Elite Academy League (EA), the national elite platform for top soccer clubs. With this partnership, we are one of EA’s official technology partners for the 2024-2025 season! The partnership is off to an excellent start—helping the league and its clubs operate more efficiently and expand their capabilities. Our team can provide value to you that no one else can, to help you avoid things slipping through the cracks—like hands-on collaboration, expertise in youth soccer, services, and more. EA chose to partner with LeagueApps because of our proven track record with high-performing youth soccer programs, and our shared commitment to delivering best-in-class tools. To learn more about what LeagueApps is doing to make EA Clubs like Futbol Academy of SoCal and DME Sports stronger, click here: https://lnkd.in/eq_8p65s

October's Volunteer Champion is Kara Lawson Kulkarni! Kara wears her passion for FundPlay on her sleeve. She’s an OG member of the FundPlay Foundation Advisory Board and leads our Product and Engineering Committee, which helps us advance FundPlay’s platform goals. Her orientation towards #openness and #sportsmanship drives real #results for the Foundation. Through her outreach, Kara was the LeagueApps leader in selling tickets to GameOn. Kara even recruited her husband to play on the FundPlay pickleball team for the 2024 Volo Kids Foundation Pickleball Tournament! She is not just the October 2024 Volunteer Champion, but a champion for all sports-based youth development. Thank you, Kara!

Earlier in the month, the FundPlay Foundation held its first-ever Game On fundraising event... and some of the awesome auction items are still available, only through TOMORROW! Prizes include - An Exclusive Barstool Sports HQ Tour for four in NYC - An accompanied round of golf for three at Winged Foot in NY - Two tickets to Billy Joel's New Years Eve Show at UBS Arena - Meet and greet with Julie Foudy at the US Women's National Team Game - Motivational talk with Paul Rabil and autographed books for fifteen (great for lacrosse teams!) - Virtual motivational talk by NBA Champion Shane Battier (great for basketball teams!) All $$$ goes to ensuring more kids have access to youth sports opportunities through the FundPlay Foundation. Click here to learn more and bid: https://lnkd.in/eXtAZzkK

NextUp 2024 is LeagueApps' SXSW, our INBOUND, our.... Eras Tour! ...And it was another overwhelming success! Youth sports is a multi-billion dollar industry—and the leaders of these impressive organizations absorbed two days of top-tier content that will help power the industry forward. The conference covered topics from parents, coaches, and referees to analytics, facilities, and social media... and everything in between. The roster of speakers included US Women's Soccer Legend Julie Foudy, Olympians Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, OLY and Melissa Ortiz OLY, WNBA champion and executive Swin Cash, and of course leaders from the youth sports organizations that are making a tangible difference in this world today. Stay tuned for the full archive of content including main stage sessions, recaps, social highlights, and more. Thanks for coming!

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Big news: LeagueApps announced a significant investment led by a leading technology-focused investment firm, Accel-KKR. We welcome sports investment firm Arctos to the team, and are excited to continue the journey with Contour Venture Partners, Hamilton Lane, and incredible sports and business leaders Julie Foudy, Shane Battier, Swin Cash, Dhani Jones, Derrick Dockery, Nancy Tellem and Arn T. This milestone is not just a LeagueApps story. It's a story of what we've been able to accomplish in partnership with every operator and organization we've worked with. It’s a story of all of the team members, investors, and advisors who have contributed to advancing our mission of delivering amazing sports experiences for all. We made this decision out of a conviction that we can be even more valuable to them and can deliver amazing sports experiences. It’s appropriate that NextUp is next week, as the future is bright for LeagueApps and the industry and there’s so much more we will do together. To learn more about why LeagueApps decided to go down this investment path, and what’s next for LeagueApps, read here: Blog post: https://lnkd.in/eT872Tnj Press Release: https://lnkd.in/ePxqhyyx Play forever!

Our September Volunteer Champion is Josephine Cunanan! Since moving off the FundPlay Foundation squad in her daily work, she has still gone above and beyond to serve our partners through her support of Game On. She volunteered to run photography, videography, and social media for FundPlay during Game On. In the month leading up to the event, she created a FundPlay TikTok and has built so many gorgeous videos that have increased our following and digital presence. We are so grateful for it! Not only is she majorly supporting the FundPlay team in our marketing efforts, but Josephine is baking 150 desserts to share with attendees at Game On! Did you know Josephine is a master baker? Ask her about her baking Instagram and Tiktok if you haven’t followed it already. Josephine, thank you for putting so much #passion and #grit into being a difference-maker.

?? SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT: The one and only Julie Foudy, one of the most accomplished soccer players in the world and?ESPN?commentator, is speaking at this year’s?#NextUp! We’re so excited to hear from Julie on what it means to be successful—as someone who has seen so much success on the field as Captain of the?US Women's National Team, in winning the World Cup (twice), winning two Gold medals ?? ?? and now as one of?ESPNW's primary voices. Visit leagueapps.com/nextup for more info!

Our partners are constantly giving us reasons to be proud of the work they're doing—and we love to see the impact they're making in their communities. TPH Academy is a partner that delivers impact through partnership, community, and growth and development. Their team is constantly impressing our team with how they innovate their programming—but most of all we're impressive by their value system and the strength of their relationship with us and all of their partners and stakeholders. The team at TPH just shared their 2023-2024 Impact Report with us—and to say we're impressed is an understatement. We're so proud of the small part we play in making this kind of impact happen. So, congrats to Alan K., Nathan Bowen, Francis Anzalone, and the entire TPH team on an impactful and meaningful 2023-2024. Here are some highlights from their Impact Report and the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eRd5NDRR

What makes #NextUp so different from other conferences of its kind? Well first of all, NextUp is the only youth sports management conference—and it brings together today's most impressive minds in youth sports. Second, it's not just youth sports leaders up on the stage—it's leading minds across every industry that can be helpful to organizers and coaches in taking their organization to the next level. With that said, we're so excited to announce our first round of speakers: Billy Welcome, the CEO & Co-Founder of All In Athletics Karl Rectanus—Entrepreneur & Founder of LearnPlatform by Instructure Adam Ewing—Vice President of Academics at TPH Academy To register for this year's conference, click here: https://lnkd.in/gjWinV8W