Key Takeaways
- Affirmi, Inc. has renamed its youth sports platform from Affirmi AppSpace to TheMVP.ai and added Reddi, an AI agent that handles routine club operations.
- Club apps on the platform have booked nearly $1 million in registrations since June 2026 and serve close to 1,000 athletes.
- The company is bootstrapped, with no outside investment, and its current client base leans heavily toward Northern California grassroots basketball.
Affirmi, Inc. announced on November 13 that its youth sports platform, Affirmi AppSpace, now operates as TheMVP.ai. The San Jose company gives each club, school or league its own branded iPhone and Android app, and the rebrand adds Reddi, an AI agent built to take on the daily administrative work of running youth teams. Existing clubs keep their current apps, logins and data.
What Is TheMVP.ai?
TheMVP.ai is an all-in-one club management platform that puts each organization’s name, logo and colors on its own app in the App Store and Google Play, plus a club website with public schedules. The core features include:
- Registration and payments: in-app signups with payment plans, waivers at checkout and a parent billing page, with payouts going to each club’s own Stripe account.
- Schedules and team chat: tournament schedules that update automatically, with alerts to families when a game moves.
- Live streaming: single-phone game streams, saved replays and a watch code for relatives and fans.
- Player development tools: coach-approved highlights, a Film Room, playbooks and drills built from game film.
What Does Reddi Do?
Reddi answers family questions about schedules, loads tournaments from a single link, and helps club directors manage rosters, dues and forms. It puts TheMVP.ai in the growing group of youth sports software companies building AI agents into club operations rather than offering them as separate tools.
Who Is Using It
Founder and CEO Steven Ojo, an engineer and former basketball player at Crossroads School and the University of Puget Sound, said he built the platform after juggling his own kids’ schedules, payments and game film across disconnected apps. He described the goal as “the most valuable platform in youth sports management.”
Current clubs include Lakeshow 3SSB at Open Gym Premier in Oakland, Fury Hoops, All In NorCal and Nation Prep, with Bulldogs Hoops joining this season. The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale is piloting a Knights Basketball app as the platform’s first high school program. TheMVP.ai is also sponsoring the Westside Tip-Off Classic, Nov. 18-21 at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Calif.
Nearly $1 million in registrations across roughly 1,000 athletes in five months is an early but real signal for a self-funded startup competing against much larger club management platforms. The next test is whether TheMVP.ai can expand beyond its basketball base in California.
Source / Adapted From: Affirmi, Inc. via ACCESS Newswire / USA TODAY, November 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/press-release/story/57716/affirmi-appspace-becomes-themvp-ai-and-adds-reddi-an-ai-agent-for-youth-sports/
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How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
Who founded Youth Sports Business Report?
Youth Sports Business Report was founded by Cameron Korab, a sports marketing veteran with more than a decade in the industry and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Korab also co-founded Vertical Sports, a sports marketing advisory serving brands across youth, college, and pro sports.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
