Skip to main content

SportsEngine Play adds streaming video for parents and pros

A promo image of SportsEngine Play.
NBC Sports Next

There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re a parent with a kid in a youth sports program, you’ve at some point come across SportsEngine, which is software that’s used to manage teams and leagues. Today, the NBC Sports Next-owned entity is announcing SportsEngine Play, which brings a new era of streaming video to the service.

SportsEngine Play can be thought of in a couple ways. It can be used to record and share video of any sporting event, whether it’s taken with a parent’s cell phone or a dedicated system installed at the venue. Those videos can be served up live, or are available later on demand. In addition to games and other live events, Sports Engine Play will be home to all sorts of on-demand developmental and training content from world-class athletes including for starters, Michael Phelps, Larry Fitzgerald, Shaun White, Maria Sharapova, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and Justin Jefferson.

“We’re thrilled to introduce SportsEngine Play to the more than 30,000 youth sports organizations and the millions of players and families we serve through our NBC Sports Next technology platforms and applications,” Brett MacKinnon, senior vice president and general manager of youth and recreational sports at NBC Sports Next, said in a press release. “Given our sports and media DNA, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver this product to the sports community — a preeminent streaming platform for all youth and amateur sports, with personalized video content, the best instructional and player development videos, and much more to come as we continue to grow.”

The SportsEngine Play website.
Screenshot

There are three tiers of access.

  • The free plan lets you capture and view live-streamed content.
  • The Premier plan costs $10 a month or $80 a year (that’s a 20% discount from its regular annual price) for live and on-demand games, plus access to create highlight videos.
  • The All Access plan costs $10 a month (that’s a 50% discount) or $80 annually (a 60% discount) and gets you all that, plus hundreds of hours of content from the aforementioned pro athletes, plus other instructional and developmental content from athletes and organizations, as well as access to premier amateur sports competitions.

“It’s a powerful thing to create opportunities to learn, grow and inspire within a deserving community, such as youth sports,” Walsh Jennings said in the press release. “I’m proud of the work my fellow champions and I have created with The Pros and so happy our content has found such a great home. My goal is to forever inspire and empower as many people as I can, and this partnership will allow for great and positive impact.”

Other content will be offered from organzations like USA Hockey, Diamond Allegiance Baseball, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s TrueSport program.

It’s not going to be anything like Netflix streaming live sports — at least not until these kids grow up and turn pro.

Editors' Recommendations

Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
How we test streaming video devices
The box for the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

One of the benefits of being Digital Trends is that we get to test a lot of things that simply aren’t easily available or replaceable should they not work out for the average person. That’s why we put so much work into testing TVs, for one example. Or full soundbar setups, for another.

Other times it’s because we’re able to take products for a test drive before they go on sale. Like video games, or computers and phones. That’s good because it helps you make a relatively expensive and important purchase decision.

Read more
DirecTV Stream will have NFL RedZone, for what it’s worth
DirecTV Stream app icon on Apple TV.

One of the most exciting things about the 2023 NFL season is that NFL Sunday Ticket is going to be available to a lot more people — basically, everyone, since it'll be streaming on YouTube TV and YouTube proper. This raises a good question: Does DirecTV have anything left for football fans?

Today, the NFL answered that question: NFL Network and NFL RedZone will be available on the legacy satellite service, on the DirecTV Stream streaming service, and on the old U-verse DSL service, keeping the dream alive after two decades. NFL RedZone is a channel that shows scoring opportunities as they're about to happen, hoping from game to game in the process. And NFL Network has the occasional game and plenty of news and features beyond that.

Read more
Formula E adds Roku for streaming and expands on CBS
Formula E is coming to The Roku Channel in 2024.

Formula E is coming to The Roku Channel in 2024. Roku handout photo

The next big event horizon for streaming is, of course, live sports. That's not particularly new, but all of the players are finally realizing just how important live sports are (and have been) for bringing in — and keeping — subscribers. To wit: Roku is now getting into the game with its first live sports deal for Formula E.

Read more