DENVER, CO, UNITED STATES, September 22, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — (Note to Journalists: Photos/videos available: press.sportsthread.com) Sports Thread today announced several major youth basketball event organizers in Southern California will now require athletes to verify their age using the Sports Thread Play Safe software to participate in sporting events. These companies include SoCal Aces which hosts the annual Coca-Cola Nationals, Focus Basketball, Gameday Sports Academy, Cali Elite, West Coast Warriors, and BlackTop 24/7. These companies have each made the decision to eliminate the problem of athletes “playing down” or playing in age divisions below their actual age to gain an unfair advantage over their competition by playing younger, less physically developed athletes. Many of these companies will also utilize Sports Thread’s team registration, scheduling, and eTicketing services to teams attending their events. The first events using Sports Thread for age verification will commence on October 1, 2022, with West Coast Warrior’s October Hoopfest and Focus Basketball’s “Best of the West Showdown”.

National news headlines recently highlighted the story of a 19-year-old male who was caught using a fake birth certificate to enroll at Montclair High School to play football. “This is an issue that is prevalent at all levels of youth and high school sports. Our service has identified athletes in their twenties trying to play against seventeen-year-olds, and athletes who are eight trying to play against six-year-olds. Companies who use our Play Safe product can rest assured they are providing an environment of safety and high integrity,” said Sean Leary founder and CEO of Sports Thread.

Sports Thread provides the first totally automated software solution to combat athletes “playing down” in youth sports. Play Safe allows parents or athletes to capture a photo of a birth certificate, driver’s license, state ID, or passport which is instantly scanned, digitally checked for forgery, and verified as part of a sporting event registration process. Sports Thread then issues QR codes into each athlete’s profile for check-in at the events. This process also enables companies to track rosters of teams to eliminate athletes’ “jersey swapping” or playing for multiple teams during an event.

Prince Cassell, the founder of SoCal Aces, said: “We have chosen to use Sports Thread because of our commitment to provide events with the highest level of integrity and cutting edge technology.” SoCal Aces will utilize all of Sports Thread’s features and functionality for its digital support in hosting events.

ABOUT SPORTS THREAD

Sports Thread, based in Denver, Colorado, offers a free social media-based, self-promotion, and communications software platform for the 160 million student-athletes, coaches, parents, and fans in the youth sports market. The company was founded by 29-year-old Sean Leary, a former Division 1 college pitcher who was featured in USA Today as one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs of 2021.” The Sports Thread app is consistently a Top-100 ranked sports app in the Apple App Store out of more than 40,000 sports apps. The Sports Thread network, including its mobile app, Software-as-a-Service platform, and social media sites, is used by more than one million individuals in the youth athletic community annually.

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Haley Collings, Sports Thread, 219-363-0741 haley@sportsthread.com

Sean Leary, Founder, and CEO of Sports Thread, 720-544-3828 sean@sportsthread.com

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Haley Collings
Sports Thread
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