Ex-Disney TV exec predicts youth sports to balloon to $70B by 2030
NY Post
Ben Sherwood, a former senior Disney TV exec and president of ABC News, has drawn inspiration from his sons’ sports teams for his next big media venture. He founded Mojo Sports, an app and tech platform that broadcasts youth sports games in 2019 and sold it to the sports management platform TeamSnap on Dec. 14.
The Post sat down with Sherwood and TeamSnap CEO Peter Frintzilas to talk about the youth sports market, which is expected to balloon to $70 billion by 2030.
Q: How did you get into the youth sports industry?
Ben Sherwood: While working at Disney, I coached my two sons in four different sports. I didn’t know much about coaching and I searched far and wide for the best resources and tools. I even spent a lot of money on a famous Dutch youth soccer program with around 20 DVDs and a big notebook of Xs and Os but my team of 5-year-olds didn’t respond very well to such an advanced system.
When I left Disney in 2019, I thought there was a wide-open opportunity to build a consumer tech and media platform for 500 million to 700 million families around the world that love youth sports and want the best experiences for their kids. With my co-founder and partner Reed Shaffner, an innovative tech and product leader, we tried to sprinkle some Disney-style magic on youth sports with world-class consumer technology.
Q: What is the age range for the sports and which sports are the most popular on your platform? Do you feature both boys’ and girls’ teams?
