Silbo's AI-Driven Sports Officiating Marketplace is Changing the Face of Amateur Sports

RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Silbo, Inc., the trusted provider of the Go Silbo™ platform, the first digital marketplace connecting sports officials to amateur sports contests, announced $1.3 million in funding from IDEA Fund Partners; Erik Troan, serial entrepreneur and Pendo co-founder & CTO; and Dantes Investments. Addressing an enormous need for bringing quality officiating back to amateur sports, Silbo is tapping into the shared economy to address the dwindling supply of officials nationwide.

"Amateur sports are facing a very real crisis. The number of officials is dropping at an alarming rate. Sports contests are being canceled or filled with unqualified individuals, putting a chokehold on the growth of amateur sports. It's dramatically increasing the cost to families to participate in athletics and has had a significant effect on the quality of play in virtually every sport," said Brendan Szulik, co-founder and CEO. "In our short time in the market, we believe Silbo is already reversing this trend by becoming 'Uber for sports officiating'. We're making officiating attractive to a much wider audience, making it easier for qualified individuals to access more games and enabling them to earn a decent wage providing higher caliber officiating."

By applying advanced AI, mobile and cloud technologies, Go Silbo addresses many of the inefficiencies hampering amateur athletics, providing simplified payment processing, automated scheduling, and bi-directional referee communications and feedback. With the Go Silbo mobile app, sports officials simply decide the games they want to work, how often they want to work, for the wages they deserve. Teams, leagues, and clubs easily post their game schedules to Silbo's marketplace, watch their games get filled by qualified officials, and automatically and conveniently pay officials electronically with zero paperwork. Silbo gives the power of choice to the officials, democratizing the world of sports officiating.

Major League Baseball & Hall of Fame umpire Joe West added, "What these guys at Silbo are doing is incredible. Silbo gives men and women easy access to sports officiating at a time when all sports are seeing a massive decline in new officials. It's about time someone invested in sports officials. Without officials, it's just recess."

IDEA Fund Partners' Lister Delgado said, "100 million amateur sports games are played in the US every year. Silbo is an innovator in a marketplace previously devoid of technology. As an athlete, it's really frustrating to compete with an unqualified official on the field. Or worse, having no official at all."

About Silbo, Inc.: Based in Raleigh, NC, Silbo is the trusted provider of the leading managed marketplace, Go Silbo™, connecting amateur sports games with qualified sports officials. Silbo's mission is to improve the amateur athletics experience by enabling sports officials and game providers with simple, convenient technology. The Go Silbo™ app can be found on the App Store and Google Play.

CONTACT: Brendan Szulik, (774) 326-0114, [email protected]

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SOURCE Silbo, Inc.