RegattaCentral
| Subsidiary | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | |
| Founded 📆 | 1999 |
| Founder 👔 | Steve Lopez |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , U.S. |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
Key people | Steve Lopez (founder and president) |
| Products 📟 | Regatta and club registration and management platform |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| Parent |
|
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
RegattaCentral is an American software company that supplies online registration, entry management and results services for rowing regattas, clubs and national governing bodies. It was founded in 1999 in Columbus, Ohio, by Steve Lopez, and has been under corporate ownership since 2017, first as part of Blue Star Sports and its successor Stack Sports, and, following a 2025 merger, within PlayMetrics.[1][2]
The platform is used for entry processing at events including the Head of the Charles Regatta and for the World Rowing Masters Portal operated with World Rowing.[3][4]
History
Founding
Lopez began rowing in 1987 as a student at Ohio State University and later coached at the collegiate and club level. He worked for more than a decade as a systems engineer at Bell Labs before conceiving RegattaCentral in 1999, at a point when regatta entries in North America were still commonly handled by post and fax.[5][6] The company built a software as a service product aimed specifically at rowing, covering entry submission, event listings, heat sheets and published results.[1]
Acquisition by Blue Star Sports
On August 31, 2017, RegattaCentral was acquired by Blue Star Sports, a youth- and amateur-sports software group backed by Genstar Capital, Providence Equity and the NFL investment vehicle 32 Equity. Footprint Capital advised on the sale, and Lopez and the existing staff were retained.[1] The purchase was part of a rapid acquisition programme — Blue Star had bought roughly nineteen companies in its first eighteen months — and gave the group its first presence in the rowing market.[7] Blue Star Sports subsequently operated under the Stack Sports name.[2]
RegattaCentral acquired the club-management product iRowNow in 2020.[8]
PlayMetrics
On June 11, 2025, Stack Sports and PlayMetrics, a Morrisville, North Carolina–based provider of operations software for youth sports organisations, announced a merger. Genstar Capital supported the transaction and became majority owner of the combined business, acquiring PlayMetrics from Blue Star Innovation Partners; PlayMetrics chief executive Mike Doernberg took over as CEO of the combined company, and Stack Sports CEO Jeff Young moved to an advisory role.[9][10] Financial terms were not disclosed.[2] RegattaCentral passed to PlayMetrics through that merger and its branding was updated accordingly.[8]
The combined company subsequently divested several assets inherited from the Stack Sports portfolio, including the video-analysis product Steva and the Student Sports business, describing a narrowed focus on operations-management software.[11]
USRowing platform change
On August 18, 2026, USRowing announced a multi-year partnership with FOYS (Focus On Your Sport), a Netherlands-based sports-platform company, to serve as its membership and regatta-operations system from January 1, 2027 through mid-2032. USRowing said its existing agreements with its member and regatta management platforms were due to expire at the end of 2026 and that it had run a competitive request for proposal before selecting FOYS.[12]
USRowing stated that use of the new platform for regatta management would be optional, that it would publish a master calendar covering events registered on third-party systems including RegattaCentral, and that it would offer APIs for those systems.[12] In an interview published the following day, USRowing chief sport and membership officer Tom Rooks said the governing body was not seeking to compete commercially with existing providers.[13]
Products and services
RegattaCentral's platform covers regatta entry and payment processing, club and camp registration, volunteer sign-up, event calendars, heat sheets and results publication, together with a public developer API and mobile applications.[14][5] For USRowing-sanctioned events, the platform has also been used to run eligibility and compliance checks on participating clubs and athletes, and to automate qualification bids for national championship regattas.[15][16]
The company states that it serves more than 400 regattas and several thousand rowing clubs worldwide.[note 1][14]
Partnerships
- World Rowing — RegattaCentral was selected in 2016 as registrar for the World Rowing Masters
Regatta.[8] It later built the World Rowing Masters Portal, launched in 2024 and made mandatory for entrants at the 2025 World Rowing Masters Regatta in Banyoles, Spain. The partnership was extended through 2028.[4]
- Head of the Charles Regatta — RegattaCentral has acted as the event's registrar under
successive multi-year agreements, most recently renewed through 2030.[3] In 2025 the two organisations released a beta live-tracking feature in the regatta's mobile app.[17]
- Other events — publicly announced agreements include the Schuylkill Navy (through 2030), the
Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association, the San Diego Crew Classic, Head of the Hooch, Community Rowing, Inc., and Baylor University's Brazos River regattas (through 2028).[8]
See also
- Rowing (sport)
- USRowing
- World Rowing
Notes
- ↑ Figures are self-reported by the company and have not been independently verified.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "RegattaCentral Acquired by Blue Star Sports". Footprint Capital. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Murray, Lance (June 11, 2025). "North Texas' Stack Sports Merges With Youth Sports League Management Software Provider PlayMetrics". Dallas Innovates. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "RegattaCentral Partners with Head of The Charles and World Masters Rowing". Rowing News. March 20, 2026. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "World Rowing and RegattaCentral strengthen partnership and deliver first year of the World Rowing Masters Portal". World Rowing. February 4, 2026. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "About Us". RegattaCentral. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan (April 9, 2026). "Crews, Code, and the Rise of RegattaCentral". Steady State Network (Podcast). Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "Blue Star Sports Gains New CEO, Plans More Acquisitions". Dallas Innovates. September 19, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "News". RegattaCentral. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "PlayMetrics and Stack Sports Combine to Create Leader in Sports Software" (Press release). PlayMetrics and Stack Sports, via Business Wire. June 11, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "PlayMetrics Merges with Stack Sports". SGB Media. June 13, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "PlayMetrics Sells Student Sports to Elysian Park Ventures, Sharpens Focus on Operations Platform". Youth Sports Business Report. December 13, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "USRowing Selects FOYS as New Platform Partner to Modernize Member Experience and Regatta Operations" (Press release). USRowing. August 18, 2026. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ Tom Rooks (August 19, 2026). "row2k Interview: Tom Rooks on the New USRowing Member Platform". row2k (Interview). Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Powering Clubs and Regattas since 1999". RegattaCentral. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "Sanction a Regatta". USRowing. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "What's New for the 2025 USRowing Regattas?". USRowing. February 12, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
- ↑ "Head Of The Charles Regatta and RegattaCentral Announce Beta Launch of Live Track, a New Innovation in Rowing Engagement". row2k. October 16, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
External links
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