BigTeams Secures Funding For Business Expansion, Names Clay Walker Chief Executive Officer
WASHINGTON, DC (PRWEB) April 21, 2014 -- WASHINGTON, DC – BigTeams, one of the fastest growing, easy to use and most comprehensive website and software systems for high school athletics programs today introduced industry veteran Clay Walker as its Chief Executive Officer and also announced an investment round, led by Capital Sports Ventures. Walker assumes his new role after spending over 20 years in the sports and entertainment industry, most recently at USA TODAY. Based in the Northern Virginia technology corridor, BigTeams originally launched its web platform in 2008 and now has clients in 41 states who use their innovative websites, fundraising tools, booster club systems, and fan interaction platforms.
“By any measure, high school athletics are a growing frontier and I’m thrilled to join an organization that has created an easy-to-use web platform that can be utilized by athletics departments to create and distribute content and engage local communities,” Walker said. “Today’s high school marketplace is full of millennials who understand the value of creating media; educators who are seeking new ways to engage students in the digital arts; and athletics administrators who are struggling to find ways to cover the growing costs and demands of managing high school athletics programs. The BigTeams platform is a comprehensive web solution for high school athletics coaches and administrators at a time when they need it most.”
The funding round was led by Arlington, VA, based Capital Sports Ventures, which also included SWaN & Legend Ventures (led by Monumental Sports & Entertainment Partners Fred Schaufeld and Tony Nader), Roger Mody, former CEO of SIGNAL Corporation and Scott Brickman, former CEO of The Brickman Group.
Capital Sports Ventures is led by CEO Greg Bibb, former Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Washington Wizards and Chief Operating Officer of the Washington Mystics. Bibb and Schaufeld launched CSV in January 2013.
Bibb and Nader will join the Big Teams Board of Managers as part of the investment.
Clay Walker most recently served as Vice President of Publisher Relations at USA TODAY Sports. Prior to joining USA TODAY Sports, Walker was Chief Affiliate Officer, GM and one of the co-founders Big Lead Sports, a successful digital sports marketing and media company start up that was acquired by USA TODAY in January 2012. Before co-founding Big Lead Sports, he served as the Senior Vice President of the NFL Players Association’s licensing and marketing division for 13 years, where he was named to the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list.
About BigTeams
BigTeams was founded by Matt Carson, Jeff Gilbert, & Steve Sutherland, who will remain with BigTeams as majority owners of the business. BigTeams develops the most advanced high school athletic websites and software available based on the belief that the less time an athletic director has to spend disseminating information, raising funds and creating a website, the more time he or she has to spend with coaches and students. The BigTeams goal is to build and support powerful school-branded websites for high school athletics programs that help the school with administrative work, fundraising and generate community engagement. The BigTeams product features industry-leading administrative tools, including scheduling, online athlete registration and booster volunteer management systems. BigTeams leverages the efforts of social media networks, local news outlets, selected fan input and professional photographers and videographers, and then combines these efforts into a one-stop-shop for fans to get school announcements, schedules and engaging content. The platform also helps high school athletics programs generate revenue through features such as local online ad sales, photo sales, e-commerce sales, mobile app sales and more. Big Teams has been a pioneer of the “school-first” approach with high school athletics websites since 2008 and has clients in 41 states. For more information, visit the Big Teams website at http://www.BigTeams.com
About Capital Sports Ventures (CSV)
Capital Sports Ventures is a sports and lifestyle properties accelerator that advises, manages and provides capital for sports and lifestyle properties and events. Along with actively investing in the sports and lifestyle industry, CSV offers advisory services to a select number of clients. CSV is a member of the SWaN & Legend portfolio of investments.
About SWaN & Legend Venture Partners
SWaN & Legend Venture Partners was founded in 2012 by Fred Schaufeld and Todd Klein. Along with CSV, SWaN & Legend’s portfolio of holdings includes Jose Andres’ Think Food Group, CustomInk, Kind Healthy Snacks, Social Radar and Quad Learning, among others.
Joe Favorito, Fatherknickerbocker PR, +1 (917) 566-8345, [email protected]
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