SYRACUSE, N.Y. – SIDEARM Sports and Athlete Network announced today a new relationship to deliver innovative digital engagement solutions to college athletic departments. As a leader in collegiate athletic digital solutions, SIDEARM brings further validation for the Athlete Network software product in a crowded marketplace – providing athletic departments with a simplified platform to organize, promote, and track the programs and services offered to their current and former student-athletes.
“This alignment allows us the opportunity to advance our tech roadmap, enabling more collegiate athletic departments to substantially improve engagement with their student-athletes, generate increased revenue and fundraising, and gain valuable data analytics and reporting,” said Chris Smith, CEO of Athlete Network. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with SIDEARM Sports in offering our engagement software to their partners.”
Athlete Network currently provides software to Olympic committees, athletic associations, and to various collegiate institutions representing the ACC, American, Big 12, Big East, Big Sky, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12, Sun Belt and the WAC. Athlete Network also works with member schools representing the MIAA and NAIA.
“There’s tremendous value in their software, and we’re proud to be in a natural position of introducing it to our collegiate clients not yet familiar with Athlete Network,” said SIDEARM Sports President and CEO Jeff Rubin. “There are many ways Athlete Network can be a significant extension to athletic departments through their various offerings such as job networking, fundraising, and centralized services designed ultimately to benefit current and former student-athletes.”
SIDEARM Sports, founded in 2001, has been part of Learfield IMG College since June 2014. The company has experienced organic growth from delivering quality service, reliability and customization. Its easy-to-use interface allows schools to customize their content streams and digital presence, and SIDEARM’s software and technology powers websites, mobile applications, live stats, social presence and video streaming for its school and conference partners.
Founded by former college athletes, Athlete Network is the #1 engagement solution for current and former student-athletes with proven results. Unite powered by Athlete Network is a branded technology platform that allows collegiate athletic departments and athletic associations to organize, promote, and track the programs and services offered to their current and former student-athletes in an exclusive network. Through Unite, athletic departments and athletic associations substantially improve engagement with their athletes, generate increased revenue and fundraising, and gain valuable data analytics and reporting. The goal of Athlete Network is simple, keep athletes competing by uniting them in an ecosystem built by athletes for athletes through connections, resources, mentoring, and careers.