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⚡The Highlight
Breaking down the heaviest hitting topics in the Sports Business world
No Huddle has been shaped around several core theses, but the most overarching is the live entertainment landscape. Sports unlock outsized value for consumers, communities and businesses, and we are obsessed with that power and how it will morph over the next decade+. Sports – and sporting events – are the ultimate equalizer: you never know what will happen on the field, whether that is the Super Bowl or a YMCA t-ball game.
One constant across every level of sports is a schedule. Everything in the sporting world revolves around a calendar, even if it is not as complex as a pro arena juggling multiple teams, concerts and conferences.
For most fans and parents, scheduling is a black box; you simply get a schedule when it drops (unless you’re a LA Chargers fan, who started building top tier content around the NFL’s schedule release…). How does this all really go down behind the scenes? Let’s dive in.
Why it Matters:
The Schedule is everything. And while 2025 Patriots haters are quick to point out that some have it easier than others, there is far more that goes into a schedule than a handful of out-of-conference matchups. These complexities only compound as you move down the funnel to college, high school and youth sports.
Professional leagues now write tens of thousands of rules into their scheduling engines just to produce a workable week, let alone an entire season. On the other side, youth leagues are forced to juggle fields, parents, coaches, referees, weather and more with far fewer resources and minimal technology support.
We have talked a lot about the fan experience here at No Huddle - from the event management side (VOW) to the stadium development surge to what actually happens when you enter the arena (Jump). The schedule also helps dictate:
Appointment viewing: Rivalry weeks, holiday games, and superstar matchups help drive hype, debates, eyeballs (ratings), and revenue
Ticketing and Travel: Fans (myself included) plan entire weekends and vacations around going to see their favorite team. At the youth level, many parents spend their non-working hours shuttling kids to tournaments all over for better competition and potential recruiting looks
Competition: To be the best, you have to face the best: power rankings and analytics constantly point to strength of schedule as a key factor in who is truly elite (Editor’s Note: doing my best not to upset ACC and Notre Dame fans)
Tournament brackets add yet another major layer: all-day events across the country with pool play that feeds into single elimination, while also allowing for player rest, field/court space, and referee assignments. Sound like a lot? It is.
The Big Picture:
The scheduling operations industry is outdated and fragmented. Picture a mess of spreadsheets, handwritten notes, group chats and phone calls and you are only at the tip of the iceberg.
At the youth level, this fragmentation leads to manual errors, double bookings and a lot of angry parents. At the pro level, a scheduling mishap could lead to an extremely unhappy media partner and fan - the last stakeholders you want to upset!
A number of vendors have popped up to try and modernize this stack. Companies like EZFacility, SportsEngine, TeamSnap, Stack Sports, and National Sports ID offer integrated suites that bundle registration, payments, scheduling, communication, and even live scoring into one platform. However, adoption is still divided and slow.
No Huddle sees real upside here. We have already covered the Youth Sports boom and expect more investment and innovation across the category. The winners will be the ones that embed deeply into the largest organizations and become so naturally integrated into workflows that teams, leagues, facilities and even Little League commissioners couldn’t operate without them.
Zoom In:
Different levels of sports introduce their own challenges.
At the NFL level, you are talking about 272 regular season games over 18 weeks and 576 possible game windows governed by more than 20,000 encoded rules around travel, divisional matches, stadium blocks and media requirements. The league uses an AWS-powered algorithm to sift through million of possible slates, then hands a short list over to humans to weigh matchups, storylines, prime-time inventory and media partner preferences. The format also allows late-season “flexing" to showcase the biggest games.
Keep a close eye on the NFL schedule’s evolution as the league continues to make an international push - now aiming for 16 international games a season where every team plays a game abroad.
For the NBA and NHL, the pain points get even more niche. Currently, 11 NBA and NHL teams share an arena in overlapping seasons, forcing schedulers to juggle arena changeovers, travel, rest parity, concerts and other events. Tools like Fastbreak PRO (by Fastbreak AI) are now being deployed as a direct solution to some of these challenges. I mean, check out some of these arena time-lapse videos to see how much goes down in just one week!
Arena | City | NHL Team | NBA Team |
Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | Rangers | Knicks |
TD Garden | Boston, MA | Bruins | Celtics |
United Center | Chicago, IL | Blackhawks | Bulls |
Crypto.com Arena | Los Angeles, CA | Kings | Lakers |
Scotiabank Arena | Toronto, ON | Maple Leafs | Raptors |
Wells Fargo Center | Philadelphia, PA | Flyers | 76ers |
Capital One Arena | Washington, D.C. | Capitals | Wizards |
American Airlines Center | Dallas, TX | Stars | Mavericks |
Ball Arena | Denver, CO | Avalanche | Nuggets |
Little Caesars Arena | Detroit, MI | Red Wings | Pistons |
Delta Center | Salt Lake City, UT | Utah Hockey Club | Jazz |
In youth sports, the constraint set looks different but is no less brutal: limited fields/courts, referees, school calendars and weather all collide. Newer platforms now help operators detect conflicts, generate master schedules and live updates, build out brackets, and manage umpire or referee assignments, but the space still has plenty of room for further advancement and disruption.
We highly recommend this piece by Dr. Chirs Groer at Fastbreak AI for a deeper analysis on scheduling.
By the Numbers:
The Bottom Line:
There are really two markets in one here: the massive pie of pro sports (we can include the NCAA in that bucket for now), and the grassroots engine of youth sports. Both have enormous potential and ever-growing wallets. The demand is not going anywhere, but the winners in this surging category will be the ones who can:
Secure top tier partnerships: Once you are embedded with a major league, conference, governing body, or national organization, you are effectively “in”. Change is hard for these groups!
Think strategically to what stakeholders really want:
For pro teams and leagues: generating the best matchups and ratings that keep media rights partners and fans happy
For youth sports: simplifying logistics so kids can enjoy playing instead of playing 8 games back-to-back to back in a weekend with no refs!
Offer real customization under a simple UI: products must flex across leagues, sports, formats and tournament structures while still feeling intuitive for overworked admins, volunteers and parents
Listen closely to users: the best platforms will co-build with the people who actually use the product. The tighter the feedback loop, the better the product
📺 The Watch List
A mini investment memo on the most innovative sports tech companies
The Company: Fastbreak AI
The Business in a tweet: Fastbreak AI is the leading AI-driven sports operations software company. By streamlining scheduling, tournament management and brand activation for leagues and organizers across the globe, Fastbreak AI helps the sporting world run as smoothly as possible.
The 101:
Industry: Sports Technology | Sports Operations Software
Headquarters: Charlotte, NC
Year Founded: 2022
Founding Team/Current Leadership:
John Stewart, CEO
Co-Founder and CEO of MapAnything (acquired by Salesforce)
Proven leader with a track record of success across multiple startups as an operator, advisor, and investor
Dr. Chris Groer, Chief Product Officer
An expert in vehicle routing and schedule optimization with a PhD from the University of Maryland
Former Vanderbilt tennis player with deep expertise in algorithm development and operational efficiency
Dr. Tim Carnes, Head of R&D
A specialist in scheduling, mapping, and routing with a PhD from Cornell University and postdoctoral research at MIT
Recognized leader in hospital scheduling, sports scheduling, and optimization technology
Employees: 75
Fundraising Status:
Raised a $40 million in Series A in November 2025
Total funding to date: ~$50mm+
Investors include:
Business Model:
Fastbreak AI operates on a SaaS model with tiered solutions for specific market segments:
Professional Sports:
AI-powered scheduled creation for leagues and clubs
Integration across registration, ticketing, communications, event operations and management as well as travel
Software licensing fees based on league size, feature utilization and overall complexity
Youth Sports (Fastbreak Compete)
End-to-end operations platform for youth sports organizations
Scalable pricing to allow regional and local stakeholders to use software
Expanding into complementary services
Core Revenue Drivers:
SaaS subscriptions
Professional services and implementation consulting angle
Data analytics and optimization insights
API integrations with third-party ticketing systems, fan engagement platforms and CRM systems
Traction:
Professional Leagues:
Powering the calendars for more than 60 leagues worldwide, including the NBA, NHL, MLS, AFL and Serie A
Clearly demonstrated ability to navigate complex scheduling restrictions and roadblocks (i.e. travel minimization, venue optimization, broadcast windows, revenue maximization)
WNFCFootball IG
Over the past year, Fastbreak has extended this momentum into the amateur market:
Rapid adoption to date from national governing bodies and youth sports organizations to manage competitions more efficiently
Working with USA Taekwondo and a number of youth tournament organizers
Fastbreak’s latest funding round will support continued product innovation for the pro market, while fueling expansion across the youth and amateur segments
Deep Dive:
Pros:
Enormous market opportunity disrupting an outdated, necessary industry
Ever-growing TAM (Sports operations software x Professional Sports x Youth Sports). Youth levels especially lack operational infrastructure
Digital sports transformation still at an early stage
Defensible technology moat
Strategic partnerships and investor alignment
Proof of concept at scale - already entrenched in 60+ leagues with minimal churn
Founding team credibility and PHD level technical depth
Cons:
Incumbents in industry - broader league management platforms (see comp set below)
Complex industry and tech stack that they must integrate with, youth sports especially is very fragmented
Working across lots of sports with many different scheduling goals, constraints and requirements. Have to be extremely-customizable
Comparables:
📶The Signal (No Huddle’s Take):
Fastbreak AI operates at the intersection of technology and sports, and a few things clearly differentiate them from the rest of the pack
Technical expertise and founder background: the team is littered with PhDs to help optimize every facet of such a complex system. Fastbreak is also led John Stewart, a serial entrepreneur with a passion for sports and an exit under his belt
A customizable and flexible product: Fastbreak’s platform is designed to handle different leagues, formats and constraint sets from pro leagues down to multi-day youth tournaments. It has tools for bracket formats, blackout windows, rest rules and custom aspects
Proven market traction with top leagues. Like we said above, the winners here will be the ones who can get in the door and stay there. Once you are implemented in the biggest leagues and organizations, they tend to be very sticky. Fastbreak is already powering scheduling for the NBA, NHL, NWSL, MLS and more
Strategic use of capital: because Fastbreak already has top logos in the professional sporting world, they are now thoughtfully growing into the youth space in the same way. Their name brand and credibility should give them a huge advantage in these discussions
No Huddle sees the Fastbreak vision - a technically sophisticated engine now moving across the sports world. We are thoroughly impressed at both the traction and the product in such early stages of the company and are excited to see how Fastbreak reaches its next phase of growth in the youth sports world - another space we have been especially bullish on.
No Huddle is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice. The content in this newsletter does not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity, or sponsor.