Horizon League

What Horizon League does

Horizon League is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference founded in 1979 and headquartered in Indianapolis, USA. The League organizes and governs intercollegiate athletics for its member universities and colleges, coordinating competition scheduling, officiating, and championships across multiple sports. Its primary product surface is a unified digital platform — the official website at horizonleague.org — which delivers news headlines, event schedules, standings, athlete awards, and campus headlines to member institutions, fans, and media. The website is built on the Sidearm Sports content management system, a shared platform used across many NCAA athletic properties, and the League also operates the Horizon League Network YouTube channel for video distribution including game highlights and interviews.

Horizon League's business model is structured as a member-driven collegiate athletic conference rather than a commercial enterprise. Revenue mechanics for such conferences typically derive from member institution dues, NCAA distributions, and media/broadcasting rights, though no revenue figures are disclosed in the available data. The League employs between 11 and 50 staff to administer conference operations and serves member institutions geographically concentrated in the U.S. Midwest. Pricing information is not applicable in a conventional commercial sense, as the conference does not sell products or services to end consumers.

The League's technology footprint is limited to standard sports information infrastructure — a Sidearm Sports-hosted website and a YouTube media property — with no proprietary technology, AI/ML capabilities, or third-party integrations documented in the source data. A leadership transition occurred in October 2025 with a staff departure to Pacers Sports & Entertainment, but no acquisitions, funding rounds, or major restructuring events are recorded. The organization is privately held, with no parent company, subsidiaries, or public market activity identified.

Name

Horizon League

Website

https://horizonleague.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Horizon League is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference, founded in 1979 and based in Indianapolis, that organizes and governs intercollegiate competition for member universities in the U.S. Midwest. It operates the horizonleague.org website and Horizon League Network YouTube channel as its primary digital properties.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Collegiate Athletic Conference

NAICS

Spectator Sports (71121)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Collegiate Athletic Conferences & Associations (MPAKACAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Intercollegiate Athletics (Varsity Sports Programs) (EDALAIAA)

Keywords

• Collegiate athletic conference
• NCAA Division I
• Intercollegiate athletics
• Conference championships
• Athletic governance

Headquarters

HQ city

Indianapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Horizon League operates an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference that organizes and governs intercollegiate athletic competition among its member universities across multiple sports including basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, volleyball, cross country, and diving. It provides scheduling, officiating coordination, conference championship tournaments, governance administration, and media exposure through its official website and Horizon League Network YouTube channel.

Product overview

Horizon League is a collegiate athletic conference operating a single unified website platform that serves as the central hub for member institutions. The primary product is the Horizon League Website (horizonleague.org), which provides news headlines, event schedules, standings, athlete awards, and campus headlines. The league also maintains the Horizon League Network YouTube channel for video content distribution. The offering is a straightforward sports league information platform built on the Sidearm Sports content management system, without modular add-ons or separate product lines.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Horizon League Conference Membership and Championships

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Pacers Sports & EntertainmentminorOthers · 16 October 2025Personnel movement: A staff member (Lach) departed from Horizon League to join Pacers Sports & Entertainment. This represents a talent/employee transition rather than a formal partnership agreement.

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Southern Conference: Long-established NCAA Division I conference organizing comparable multi-sport championships and competing in the same mid-major media and sponsorship ecosystem.
• Summit League: Another NCAA Division I mid-major conference based in the Midwest with a comparable member-institution profile and multi-sport offering, making it the closest geographic and structural peer to Horizon League.
• America East Conference: NCAA Division I mid-major conference with a comparable membership composition and multi-sport championship model targeting similar institutional profiles.
• Patriot League: NCAA Division I conference operating with a similar governance model and multi-sport competition structure for member institutions of comparable profile.
• Sun Belt Conference: NCAA Division I conference with a comparable mid-major status and multi-sport championship footprint, competing for similar institutional partners and media positioning.
• Colonial Athletic Association: NCAA Division I conference of comparable scale that organizes competition across a similar sport portfolio and competes for sponsorship and broadcast value in the same mid-major segment.
• Conference USA: NCAA Division I conference of similar size and multi-sport scope that competes in the same tier of mid-major intercollegiate athletics and media rights.
• Missouri Valley Conference: Historic NCAA Division I mid-major conference with a similar basketball-centric brand and comparable membership scale; competes for the same institutional profile of mid-major schools.
• ASUN Conference: NCAA Division I mid-major conference organizing similar sport portfolios for member institutions; comparable in scale, governance structure, and digital broadcasting footprint.
• West Coast Conference: NCAA Division I conference of comparable mid-major scale with a strong basketball identity and multi-sport championship structure paralleling Horizon League's operating model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/HorizonLeagueNetwork
• Xx.com/HorizonLeague
• Facebookfacebook.com/HorizonLeague

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Horizon League