SBLive Sports and the Alabama High School Athletic Association launch AHSAA Connect, an advanced data management solution for high school sports content

The industry’s first open-access data hub for high school sports introduces streamlined content sharing, eliminates redundant data entry and gives the state association and athletic administrators the ability to work with more software partners than ever before

Montgomery, Alabama (January 9, 2024) – The Alabama High School Athletic Association and SBLive Sports today announced the launch of AHSAA Connect, a content management solution that will dramatically improve the access to high school sports content throughout the state. This is the first centralized data management solution to be deployed specifically for Alabama high school sports, allowing the AHSAA to provide a new level of services to member schools, as well as data and media partners throughout the state.

“The AHSAA Connect Data Hub powered by SBLive is an exciting new service that we are able to provide to our Alabama member schools, our technology partners, and our media partners,” stated Alvin Briggs, Executive Director of the AHSAA. “Starting today any company that works with our schools or the AHSAA can apply to sync data with us in order to eliminate the time consuming task of creating schedules and rosters or posting scores across multiple incompatible software applications and databases.”

AHSAA Connect will streamline the high school sports content and data ecosystem – opening up the market to allow more companies than ever to provide or receive high school schedules, scores, rosters and more, while simplifying workflows for their users. AHSAA Connect seamlessly facilitates the transfer of data to and from software partners, eliminating the need for companies to integrate with multiple platforms like they do today. Redundancies are also eliminated for athletic administrators and coaches, who no longer have to input the same data across multiple incompatible software applications. With AHSAA Connect, all AHSAA approved software platforms will always have the most up-to-date and accurate content in near real-time.

"Connect embodies our mission at SBLive Sports to provide innovative solutions that elevate the high school sports experience," said Dan Beach, CEO of SBLive Sports. "We are honored to partner with the Alabama High School Athletic Association and deploy this next-generation technology platform that will unite the high school sports community through data.”

INPUT ONCE, SEND TO EVERYONE

AHSAA Connect empowers athletic administrators and coaches to choose their preferred data input method, simplifying data management and saving hundreds of hours per year that is wasted on redundant data entry today.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

Each of the AHSAA-approved partners can elect to upgrade their products to send and receive data in near real-time with the AHSAA Connect. The goal is to get to a point in which all data sharing partners inside the market can handle near real-time updates.

STANDARDIZATION AND NORMALIZATION OF DATA

AHSAA Connect asks all partner platforms to comply with current technology standards, ensuring that data is shared efficiently and securely, which will optimize the experience for users while decreasing the amount of customer support needed within each organization providing or receiving it.

STATE ASSOCIATION CONTROL

The AHSAA now has the control to determine their own “sources of truth” for schedules, rosters, scores and more. And with AHSAA Connect Manager, association staff will have access to a secure administrative platform allowing them to view, edit and create shareable content themselves, including live scoring games if they choose.

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ABOUT ALABAMA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

The Alabama High School Athletic Association, founded in 1921, is a private agency organized by its member schools to control and promote their athletic programs. The purpose of the AHSAA is to regulate, coordinate and promote the interscholastic athletic programs among its member schools, which include public, private and parochial institutions. Currently, there are 416 senior high members and 336 junior high and middle school members with more than 150,000 student-athletes participating in the program. Major aims of the AHSAA are to serve the needs of its member schools in conducting their interscholastic athletic programs with fairness with an emphasis placed on health and safety and sportsmanship and to assist member schools in reaching the educational objectives as established by their school systems.

ABOUT SBLIVE SPORTS

SBLive Sports is a leading provider of high school sports coverage, data, and technology solutions. SBLive's mission is to enhance the high school sports experience for athletes, schools, and fans by delivering innovative technology-driven solutions.