By Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Two former Intel executives have teamed with sports industry veterans to launch an online platform designed to help amateur athletes catch the attention of college recruiters and professional scouts.
Renée James, the former Intel president who co-founded and sold Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, on Tuesday launched Rule42 Sports Technology Group. Also joining is Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who left Intel earlier this year after serving as chief executive of Intel Products.
Their business model is straightforward: give aspiring athletes a free digital stage to showcase their abilities, and charge college recruiters and professional scouts to identify the next standout prospect.
In an interview with Reuters, James said the idea grew from experiences with her son, who was drafted this year by the Toronto Blue Jays. The process required expensive travel to reach the right scouts at the right time.
“That’s the problem I want to solve. I want to solve it for the kid that’s in El Paso, Texas, whose parents work to get by and is not spending $1,000 to fly to Florida and then another $1,000 to stay for five days and another $1,000 to be in the tournament,” James said. “That kid might be the greatest outfielder in the history of mankind, but you’re not going to find him.”
The company, which James self-funded, is launching with baseball and softball before expanding into other sports. It has recruited Tara Henry, a former collegiate champion softball outfielder and current coach of Great Britain’s women’s national softball team, as well as Jed Lowrie, a 14-season Major League Baseball veteran.
James is adamant that Rule42, named for the answer to the ultimate question of life in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and for Jackie Robinson’s jersey number, will neither be a social network nor a sports gambling platform.
She sees particular opportunity in women’s sports, where scholarship opportunities are growing faster than time-strapped coaches can fill them.
“We can be a tremendous assistance to the growth in women’s sports because there’s really no infrastructure for women at all,” James said.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Shri Navaratnam)
