SI Play, SI's youth sports registration portal, is making its second broad retooling of its mobile application in 14 months, broadening the offering to make it free to any sports team or club. Previously positioned toward larger youth sports leagues and organizations, SI Play will now be available to any individual youth sports team, offering a wide array of functions including scheduling, scoring and statistics, interteam communication, payment processing, field directions and content sharing. The economic model for SI Play will now rest predominantly on positioning partner services such as travel assistance, custom team apparel and insurance to its user base. “We’re looking to address all facets of the youth sports market and make the suite of digital tools accessible to as many people as possible,” said SI Play CEO Jeff Karp. The repositioning of SI Play is discussed in an editor’s letter in this week’s print issue of SI that reads in part, “Our vision for SI Play is bigger than an admittedly great app. ... Look for SI Play’s message to be integrated into SI, SI.com, and SI Kids.”
