What is the Play Safe System?
Sports Thread Play Safe is an age verification system that ensures fair play at youth sporting events. Parents, coaches, or athletes submit a birth certificate or Government ID which is verified as part of a sporting event registration process.
How do you verify the age of a student-athlete?
We use proprietary technology which runs more than a dozen checks to authenticate a birth certificate or government ID (including Driver’s License, Permit, Visa Residence Card, Passport, or Passport Card).
How do you protect student-athlete information?
Sports Thread has the highest level of privacy and security features built into the Play Safe system.
How do you support organizations that use the Sports Thread Play Safe system?
Organizations that use the Play Safe system receive phone and online support from a dedicated Sports Thread representative.
How many children between the ages of 6-17 participate in organized sports on a regular basis in the United States?
According to the Aspen Institute Project Play (https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/) there are approximately 40 million children who participate in organized sports on a regular basis.
How prevalent is age fraud in youth sports?
Based on our experience, approximately 1.5% of event participants attempt to “play down” (in a lower age division) at various sporting events by submitting a birth certificate or Government ID which disqualifies them to play in a certain age bracket (1.5% of 40 million = 600,000).
Recent cheating highlighted:
California HS football player arrested on suspicion of using fake birth certificate
Under what circumstances would a player/athlete not be approved?
Players can be declined for one of two reasons. Firstly, if a player is too old to be playing in the division they are trying to sign up for. Or, if unreadable or blurred images were uploaded.
Who is your competition for age verification?
Zorts Sports and National Sports ID. However, neither of these companies has fully automated player age verification.
Have there been any high-profile cheating cases?
There are several notable stories of teams trying to get a leg up on their competition by using an older player. Most notably is Danny Almonte, a 14-year-old who played in the 2001 Little League World Series, which has a 12-year-old cutoff. This was national news covered by Sports Illustrated and several other media outlets. More recently, was the Bishop Sycamore Football team who played the national powerhouse football program IMG Academy on ESPN. It was reported, after the game, that Bishop Sycamore had players as old as 24 years old playing on their team.
How does Sports Thread ticketing work?
Sports Thread ticketing is used for fans to purchase tickets online which alleviates the lines at check-in. You will receive a Sports Thread ticketing link before the event or you’ll be able to scan a custom QR code at the event gate.
How do you use the QR codes?
You will login to your Sports Thread account and go to “My Profile & Tickets”, then select the “Tickets” option on your profile and click on your purchased ticket. This will pull up a QR code which you will present at the tournament gate.
How does Sports Thread ticketing help events?
Ticketing allows for online presale, increased marketing efforts to help sell more tickets, and allows you to go cashless.
How does it stop ticket fraud?
Once you purchase a ticket, you receive a QR code, which can only be scanned once. This stops people from screenshotting QR codes and trying to reuse tickets.
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