🔊 Inside The Startup That Just Raised $40 Million To Take Over Youth Sports

This week, Fastbreak.AI, the leading AI-driven sports operations software company, announced it has completed a $40 million Series A funding round.

The round included notable investors such as Greycroft, GTMfund, the NBA, the NHL, and TMRW Sports.

Professional athletes, including current PGA Tour golfers Patrick Cantlay and Kurt Kitayama, former NFL players Larry Fitzgerald Jr. and Luke Kuechly, and top venture capital and growth equity investors, also participated.

The funding will go towards expanding into the youth sports market and the growth of Fastbreak Compete, an all-in-one platform for amateur sports operators that handles scheduling, registration, team travel, ticketing, communications, and event execution.

Why Does This Matter?

It’s easy to think of Fastbreak.AI as just a scheduling solution.

After all, that’s how it started.

But the vision here is much bigger: owning the entire youth sports ecosystem.

The company began as an enterprise scheduling platform for professional leagues and organizations that needed efficient, data-driven operations.

Once that model was validated at the highest level, the next logical step was to move downstream, into the $40 billion youth sports space.

And that’s where the biggest opportunity lies.

Youth sports is one of the most fragmented markets in America.

Parents, coaches, athletes, and tournament operators juggle a dozen different platforms for travel, payments, ticketing, and communication.

There is no single company that owns the entire layer…yet.

Fastbreak.AI wants to change that by building a vertical platform that unifies everything under one roof:

And much more…

By consolidating all of these components, Fastbreak.AI is building the infrastructure for a new generation of sports participation, monetization, and engagement.

In other words, they’re not just scheduling games.

They’re becoming the entire stack for one of the fastest-growing verticals in all of sports.

Disclosure: Vetted Sports Ventures is an investor in Fastbreak.Ai.

• Cynosure/Checketts Sports Invests $200M In ALK Capital. Cynosure Checketts Sports Capital, a newly launched private equity fund co-founded and managed by experienced sports investor David Checketts, has acquired a stake in ALK Capital, the parent company of notable soccer teams Burnley FC and RCD Espanyol. Checketts, the co-founder of Real Salt Lake (RSL), is now investing $200 million into ALK Capital’s soccer operations, having previously worked with ALK’s founder, Alan Pace. Alongside RSL, Checketts co-founded the St. Louis Blues and served as president of the Utah Jazz (more here).

• The Icon League Raises €15M. The Icon League, a Germany-based five‑a‑side football competition, raised €15 million in Series A financing. The round was led by HV Capital, with participation from existing investors Jürgen Klopp (via his family office), Thomas Hagedorn, and Luigi Berlusconi’s H14. In conjunction with the investment, HV partner David Fischer was also named as group CEO. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and grow across Europe (more here).

• IDL Raises $7M. IDL, a Los Angeles-based professional sports dance league, raised $7 million in Seed funding. The round was led by Elysian Park Ventures with participation from KB Partners and APEX, as well as angel investors Nick Tran (President of CÎROC and Lobos 1707, former CMO at TikTok), Tammy Henault (former CMO at NBA), and Taryn Crouthers (CEO of SPCSHP, former President of ATTN). The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the buildout of IDL’s core technology and event production infrastructure, which powers the league’s global ecosystem and live competition experience (more here).

• Monarch Collective Acquires 38% Stake In Viktoria Berlin. Monarch Collective, a global investment platform dedicated to women’s sports, announced an investment in FC Viktoria Berlin, acquiring a 38% stake in the German second-tier club. Viktoria Berlin women’s team was founded in 2022. The focus of the investment is to help build sustainable structures, enhance professionalism, and strengthen the visibility of women’s football across Germany. Monarch Collective’s portfolio already includes Angel City Football Club, San Diego Wave Fútbol Club, and Boston Legacy FC (more here).

• Ari Emanuel’s MARI Acquires IMG’s Arts & Entertainment, Action Sports From Endeavor. Ari Emanuel’s new events and experiences company, Mari, has acquired two more businesses previously owned by Endeavor Group Holdings. Mari has purchased IMG’s arts and entertainment portfolio and action sports events portfolios. The latter includes properties such as the US Open of Surfing and the Nike Melbourne Marathon, expanding Mari’s presence in mass-participation athletic events. Financial terms were not disclosed (more here).

• Lone Star Sports & Entertainment Acquires LOVB Houston Volleyball Team. Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, the sister company of the Houston Texans, has acquired the Houston LOVB volleyball team, which debuted last season in League One Volleyball. Texans Chair and CEO Cal McNair and Vice President of the Houston Texans Foundation Hannah McNair led the deal. The league will kick off its second season in January. Financial details around the acquisition were not disclosed (more here).

• ESPN & DraftKings Announce Partnership. ESPN and DraftKings have announced a sports betting agreement that will make DraftKings the exclusive Official Sportsbook and Odds Provider of ESPN beginning December 1st, 2025. This follows the mutually agreed-upon ending of the network’s partnership with PENN Entertainment. The multi-year deal unites two of the most recognizable names in sports and entertainment, positioning DraftKings at the center of ESPN’s rapidly expanding sports betting strategy while giving ESPN a trusted partner with established digital reach and consumer loyalty (more here).

• Proofpoint & TGL Announce Partnership. Proofpoint, an enterprise cybersecurity company, has become the latest founding partner of TGL, the new innovative indoor golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIllory, ahead of the league’s second season. Proofpoint will also be TGL’s official cybersecurity partner. The multi-year deal includes national ad spots, digital and social media content, and in-venue hospitality. It also incorporates sponsorship of ‘The Hammer,’ TGL’s in-game scoring modifier, which increases the value of a hole by a point (more here).

• Angel City & Football Manager Announce Partnership. The NWSL’s Angel City FC and Football Manager, a football management simulation published by Sports Interactive, have agreed to a content and database partnership to help the club’s fan engagement and on-field activities. Angel City FC will use Football Manager’s database to inform the coaching and recruitment process. The database will be critical to women’s soccer clubs moving forward, while leagues and teams will also be able to use Football Manager 2026 as a vital tool for engagement. Football Manager-themed content will also be shared across Angel City’s social channels (more here).

• IBM & Agassi Sports Entertainment Announce Partnership. IBM and Agassi Sports Entertainment, tennis star Andre Agassi's sports company, are collaborating to bring AI to racquet sports. IBM will provide Watsonx.ai’s computer vision to Agassi's company to create tools for analyzing athletic movement using video footage. The technology will provide coaching directly to players' mobile devices and serve as a hub offering commercial features, content, entertainment, and community-based experiences for players and fans. This would include opportunities to connect with Agassi and other athletes (more here).

• Sense Arena & NHLPA Announce Partnership. The NHLPA announced a partnership with Sense Arena, a global leader in virtual reality sports training, allowing images and likenesses from hundreds of NHL athletes in NHL Sense Arena ’26, the latest iteration of the game. Sense Arena originally launched its ice hockey VR technology in 2018, providing a cutting-edge off-ice training platform for skaters and goalies of all ages to train in confined spaces, and is the only licensed NHL and NHLPA virtual and mixed reality hockey platform (more here).

• Global Sport Group Launches Athlete Advisory Board. The Global Sports Group (GSG) division of private equity investment giant CVC Capital Partners has announced its athlete advisory board. Through a collab with Roc Nation Sports International (RNSI) agency, the three-person athlete board has been launched to "ensure the voices and perspectives of athletes sit at the centre of the group's planning, league inputs, and long-term strategy." The trio of athletes is South African men's rugby union captain Siya Kolisi, Spanish former soccer star David Villa, and Skylar Diggins, a prominent WNBA women's basketball player (more here).

• JPMorgan's Billionaires Are Buying Sports Teams Over Art. JPMorgan’s ultra-wealthy clientele is pouring their money into sports, according to a new report from the bank. Out of 111 families surveyed, about 20% of them now own a controlling stake in a sports team, its 2025 Principal Discussions Report said. That’s an increase of almost 14% from 2023, when around 6% of families were part of the sports team ownership bandwagon. About a third of the families surveyed this year, who have a combined net worth of more than $500 billion, invested more broadly in sports teams or stadiums, making it their top specialty asset class ahead of art and cars (more here).

• Disney & Penn Entertainment To Shut Down ESPN Bet Venture. Penn Entertainment and ESPN announced that they have mutually agreed upon the early termination of their exclusive online sports betting agreement (OSB), effective December 1st, 2025. Under the terms of the original deal, announced in August 2023, ESPN agreed to provide PENN with media and marketing services, and the exclusive right to the ESPN BET trademark for OSB, in exchange for $150 million per year in cash payments to ESPN and warrants to purchase PENN's common stock. The agreement had an initial term of 10 years, with either party having the right to terminate after the third year if specific performance thresholds were not met (more here).

• Kalshi, Polymarket & FanDuel Are Ushering In A New Era Of American Gambling. The modern explosion of gambling in America began with the Supreme Court's 2018 decision to strike down a federal law prohibiting sports betting, leading to its proliferation across dozens of states. Now, much of the conversation is being dominated by another type of wagering: prediction markets. These platforms, which allow people to put money on a wide range of outcomes, have recently taken advantage of lax federal regulators and what they say are legal loopholes to offer their services in a growing number of states (more here).

• JuJu Watkins Joins Boston Legacy FC Ownership Group. USC guard JuJu Watkins has joined the investor group for NWSL expansion team Boston Legacy FC, becoming the first NCAA athlete to invest in a pro women's sports team. She becomes the latest to join the list of investors in Boston Legacy, including the Indiana Fever's Aliyah Boston, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, and actress Elizabeth Banks. JuJu’s stake in the team was not disclosed (more here).

This week’s guest on the Vetted Sports podcast is Ben Levin.

Ben Levin is Co-Founder & COO of Crux Football, a European women’s football multi-club platform focused on scaling the women’s game.

Before Crux Football, he was the Vice Chairman of Crawley Town Football Club and a strategy consultant.

In this episode, we discuss:
‣ Ben's first investment in sports
‣ Joining Crux Football and the strategy behind the firm
‣ The future of women's multi-club ownership in European football

Check out the full episode here: Apple | Spotify | YouTube