Perfect Game Launches Global Expansion Strategy

One of the largest youth sports organizations in the United States is setting its sights globally with a plan to expand its baseball and softball brand in new locations.

Perfect Game, which organizes nearly 10,000 events in the United States and oversees a significant scouting service for college coaches, has launched a Country Partner Program, which will invite select organizations in countries around the world to become exclusive Perfect Game partners through an annual licensing program. Under the plan, local partners would be responsible for managing local operations and growing the Perfect Game platform in their market, with an emphasis on building strong relationships with local baseball and softball organizations, teams, coaches, players and other key stakeholders.

In turn, Perfect Game will provide global marketing, public relations and social media support, DiamondKast streaming and scouting analytics, and PG Player Profiles for all international players. In addition, the company will provide global brand, sponsorship and media oversight, and instructional training for all chosen partners.

New Event Circuit

While Perfect Game has a large network of events and showcase tournaments in the United States, the new proposal will set the stage not only for new showcase tournaments for potential talent, but also an international event circuit where top players could compete by country in a flagship tournament featuring talent from around the world. Through the partner program, the company would create regional events and opportunities for players to compete locally before advancing to national events and eventually an international tournament.

The program is also designed to give international players the opportunity to be scouted and recruited by U.S. colleges, universities and professional teams, many of which use Perfect Game’s scouting platform within their player evaluation process.

Perfect Game will use is its own event management platform to run the events in countries where similar platforms may not yet exist.

“There are over 500 million baseball fans around the world, and 65 million people playing baseball and softball at some level around the world,” PG’s Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International Kash Shaikh told SportsTravel. “So there’s this huge untapped market of opportunity to create a competitive youth baseball and softball platform in the same vein and the same as we built here in the U.S. with Perfect Game.

“With all those people playing in different levels in different countries, there is no unified global platform for scouting services, for player development and advancement. There’s really no one organized way for teams to compete across regions, across countries at the amateur level from a competitive standpoint in the competitive space that we have here at Perfect Game.”

Shaikh’s very position has been created to help the brand expand. Hired in April to lead a new international push, he spent the previous four years building Baseball United, the first professional baseball league in the Middle East and South Asia.

New International Push

The new initiative is the latest of several international moves by the organization. Perfect Game has previously announced other key initiatives, including a plan to bring tournaments to Australia; a championship in Ontario, California, featuring U15 players from North America, Asia and Australia; and a plan to expand its overall operations in the Asia Pacific region.

As it expands its latest program, Perfect Game will look toward three types of destinations: Ones with highly developed baseball markets with strong economies in place; areas with a strong baseball history but in more emerging markets; and locations that have some level of bat-and-ball participation but are in growth markets such as India, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

“Our goal is to have about a dozen countries on board as official licensing partners within the next six to eight months,” Shaikh said.

And the potential for scouting opportunities is significant as well, he said.

“Now these kids are going to have the opportunity to have their own profile (on the PG platform),” Shaikh said. “And when you think about the 350,000 college commits that we’ve had through the Perfect Game system over the years, now giving that opportunity to kids in India or kids in the Philippines or kids in Japan, kids in the Dominican Republic to come through that way, that’s a pretty big deal.”

Perfect Game Chairman Rick Thurman said the new strategy is part of the organization’s plan to expand into markets where it has never been.

“The international growth of Perfect Game has been part of our vision for a long time,” he said. “We’ve always been focused on identifying talent and creating new pathways for athletes around the world. Now, we have the right team, structure, and plan in place to take things to the next level. Our new Country Partner Program allows us to bring that philosophy to markets around the world in a meaningful and sustainable way.”