Honest Game

Name

Honest Game

Legal name

Honest Game PBC

Website

https://honestgame.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. School/District Subscriptions: Annual subscription pricing model where high schools pay per student (under $5 per student annually). Districts can leverage Title Funds (Title I, II, IV) and other funding sources to cover costs.
2. Individual/Family Subscriptions: Direct-to-consumer subscriptions for students and families who purchase individually outside of school-sponsored accounts.
3. Enterprise District Contracts: Large-scale district-wide contracts covering multiple schools (e.g., Chicago Public Schools district-wide covering 87 high schools).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Honest Game provides a cloud-based educational software platform that automates real-time academic eligibility tracking for college sports across all five NCAA and NAIA divisions. The core offering is the CARE (College Athletic Report on Eligibility) system, which delivers individualized academic roadmaps based on verified high school transcripts, along with NCAA portal maintenance, eligibility reports, real-time dashboards, recruiting assistance, and analytics reporting for high schools, districts, community colleges, club teams, and individual student-athletes and families.

Product overview

Honest Game is a unified educational software platform that automates real-time academic eligibility tracking for college sports across all five NCAA and NAIA divisions. The core product is the CARE® (College Athletic Report on Eligibility) system, which provides individualized academic roadmaps based on student transcripts. The platform includes multiple integrated modules: NCAA Portal Maintenance for course approval management, Eligibility Reports for student assessment, an Easy to Use Dashboard for real-time tracking, Recruit Assist for recruiting resources, Analytics Reporting for pattern identification, and Cleo the Counselor (a multilingual chatbot) for 24/7 guidance. The platform also recently launched the NJCAA Academic Eligibility Clearinghouse for community colleges.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CARE (College Athletic Report on Eligibility) CARE is an individualized academic roadmap and eligibility report for each student-athlete, providing step-by-step guidance on courses needed to maintain or achieve NCAA and NAIA eligibility. It combines verified transcript data with expert analysis to help students find best-fit college opportunities.
• NJCAA Academic Eligibility Clearinghouse The first-ever academic eligibility clearinghouse for NJCAA member two-year colleges, delivering real-time eligibility tracking, proactive alerts, and an Audit Guarantee feature for community college athletics departments.
• Virtual Counseling Live virtual counseling sessions with eligibility experts for students and families who purchase individual subscriptions, complementing the Cleo the Counselor chatbot with personalized human guidance on academic eligibility, recruiting, and college planning.

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly one million student-athletes become academically ineligible each year due to avoidable errors - Honest Game helps prevent this
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability3 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 March 2026Launched the first-ever Academic Eligibility Clearinghouse for NJCAA's 500+ member two-year colleges. The system introduces real-time eligibility tracking, proactive alerts, and an Audit Guarantee feature that marks cleared teams as audit-ready, replacing historically decentralized and manual compliance processes.
• Illinois High School Association (IHSA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 August 2024IHSA partnered with Honest Game to enhance academic eligibility and college readiness for students statewide. Honest Game provides expert resources on NCAA academic eligibility, recruitment, and college readiness.
• Paul Biancardi (ESPN)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 20 March 2024Former Horizon League Coach of the Year and long-time NCAA men's basketball coach Paul Biancardi joined as brand ambassador. Serves as Honest Game's Head Coach, leading personalized training sessions and producing original social media content.
• Vikings FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 July 2023Multi-organization partnership between Gatorade, Honest Game, and Vikings Foundation to support Minneapolis Public Schools student-athletes' access to college athletic opportunities.
• Long Beach City CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 September 2022LBCC partnership with Honest Game Foundation to create data-driven pathway to four-year colleges for student-athletes. Partnership fueled by Gatorade's Fuel Tomorrow commitment.
• Legacy the School of Sports SciencescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 September 2022Legacy leverages Honest Game's academic eligibility tracking software to improve student learning outcomes. 95% of Legacy's student population consists of student-athletes.
• rSchoolTodaycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 April 2022Partnership to help rSchoolToday families navigate the college academic eligibility and recruiting process. rSchoolToday serves more than 14,000 schools with their athletic management platform.
• Chicago Public SchoolsflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 February 2022District-wide partnership covering all 87 high schools to create a data-driven pathway to college eligibility and admissions for all students. Honest Game works with CPS to enhance post-secondary education planning for student-athletes.
• HudlflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 February 2022Honest Game named official academic partner of Hudl. Provides academic eligibility expertise for high schools and student-athletes. Honest Game experts provide learning opportunities and keep Hudl users updated on NCAA/NAIA eligibility news.
• GatoradeflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 February 2022Honest Game Foundation named partner in Gatorade's Fuel Tomorrow Initiative, a multi-year commitment to ensuring every athlete has equal opportunity to play sports. Gatorade invested $10 million initial commitment in organizations including Honest Game Foundation.
• NIAAA (National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 October 2021NIAAA champions the profession of administering athletic programs in high schools. Executive Director Dr. Mike Blackburn recommended Honest Game to members as a resource for navigating complexities of college academic eligibility.
• THSADA (Texas High School Athletic Directors Association)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 October 2021Texas High School Athletic Directors Association is the largest state association of its type in the country. Partnered to encourage data-driven solutions that help student-athletes meet requirements to play college athletics.
• NYSAAA (New York State Athletic Administrators Association)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 October 2021NYSAAA is dedicated to promoting professional growth of interscholastic athletic administrators in New York State and preserving the educational nature of interscholastic athletics.
• First Bank ChicagominorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 August 2021First Bank Chicago is the exclusive sponsor for the financial literacy component of the Cleo the Counselor chatbot.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• CoreCourseGPA.com: The most directly comparable NCAA core course GPA calculation service for high school student-athletes. Honest Game explicitly cites CoreCourseGPA.com as a competitor that relies on self-reported data, while Honest Game uses verified transcript data — making them the closest head-to-head alternative for the same buyer.
• Scoir: College planning platform serving high schools with student profile, transcript, and application management features. Competes with Honest Game for high school counseling-department dollars and overlaps in transcript-driven post-secondary planning, though without NCAA-specific eligibility workflow.
• Xello: K-12 college, career, and future-readiness platform used by schools and districts. Sells into the same counselor/athletic administrator buyer and overlaps with Honest Game on post-secondary planning, though Xello is broader and NCAA-specific eligibility is not its core focus.

Broad incumbents

• Naviance (PowerSchool): Dominant K-12 college and career readiness platform sold to high schools and districts nationwide. Naviance competes for the same guidance-counselor budget and student planning workflow as Honest Game, but as a much broader platform without NCAA-specific compliance depth.
• NCAA Eligibility Center: The official NCAA body that certifies initial eligibility for college sports. Functions as a regulatory incumbent rather than a software competitor, but its portal and rules define the workflow Honest Game automates — and any expansion of its own tooling could materially constrain Honest Game's positioning.
• Hudl: Dominant high school athletics video, data, and recruiting platform. Named Honest Game's official academic partner and a primary distribution channel, but as a broader incumbent with deep school relationships, Hudl could plausibly expand into academic eligibility features and compete with its own partner.
• College Board BigFuture: Free college and career planning tool from College Board, which administers SAT and AP. Operates at massive scale in the same high school student-athlete audience as Honest Game and competes on the post-secondary planning surface, though without NCAA-specific eligibility compliance depth.

Emerging players

• Parchment (Instructure): Transcript and credential management platform widely used by K-12 schools. Parchment intersects with Honest Game at the verified transcript data layer — Honest Game ingests verified transcripts while Parchment manages them — creating both an integration dependency and a potential adjacent competitor if Parchment adds eligibility features.
• BridgeU: College and career guidance platform for high schools. Competes with Honest Game for counselor-side post-secondary planning budgets, with comparable SaaS-distribution model to schools and districts though without NCAA-specific eligibility compliance focus.
• Cappex: College search and admissions platform with high school and student-facing tools. Touches Honest Game's student and family segment around college fit and recruitment, though focused on college search rather than NCAA academic eligibility compliance.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/honestgameCARES
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC5sFe8QqWFmSotbBCWdoJRA
• Facebookfacebook.com/HonestGameCARES
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/honest-game
• Instagraminstagram.com/honestgamecares

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

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 Honest Game