Northwest Soccer Officials

What Northwest Soccer Officials does

Northwest Soccer Officials (NSO) is a non-profit chapter organization that recruits, trains, certifies, and assigns licensed soccer referees to matches in southern King County, Washington. Its service area covers WIAA high school soccer, women's leagues, PSSL, FWParks, and a wide range of regional youth tournaments including Starfire, PacNW, Cascade Cup, Celtic Cup, and Eastside FC events. The organization serves both sides of a two-sided market: referee members seeking game assignments and league/tournament organizers needing certified, insured officials.

NSO's core technology is a web-based referee management and self-assignment portal built on the RidgeStar Interactive Operations Site platform, with a separate integration to the Arbiter scheduling system for high school games. The platform supports referee self-assignment to eligible matches, formal performance evaluations by trained assessors, public match results and standings across 367 divisions, and digital member registration. An in-person and online training program (3-5 hours of online coursework plus a 4-hour clinic, $73 clinic fee) feeds new referees into the pipeline, with USSF licensing and WOA registration providing the credentialing pathway.

NSO's revenue model is small-scale and member-funded. Members pay a $95 annual registration fee covering WOA membership, $1 million liability insurance, and Labor and Industries fees. New referee clinics generate $73 per participant plus roughly $75 in equipment referrals. Match assignments are the operational core, with referees earning $35-$83.50 per match as a center referee and $23-$55.50 as an assistant referee; NSO retains a portion to cover operational costs. The organization has 9 employees, is headquartered in Renton, WA, and is governed by a member-elected board with no institutional investment or parent company.

Name

Northwest Soccer Officials

Legal name

Northwest Soccer Officials

Website

https://nwsoccerofficials.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Northwest Soccer Officials is a Renton, WA-based non-profit chapter that recruits, trains, and assigns licensed soccer referees to youth, high school, and adult matches across southern King County, Washington, using a RidgeStar-powered self-assign portal.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sports Officiating Services

NAICS

Sports and Recreation Instruction (61162), Spectator Sports (71121)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Rules, Officiating & Referee Associations (Officials/umpires bodies) (MPAKAFAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Referee, Umpire & Coach Education/Certification Academies (MPAKAJAN), Refereeing, Officiating & Rules Training (HSADAEAN), Amateur & Grassroots Sport Associations (Community/Youth Governing Orgs) (MPAKAFAF)

Keywords

• Sports officiating services
• Referee assignment services
• Referee training clinics
• Game scheduling platform
• Match evaluation system

Headquarters

HQ city

Renton

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Referee Assignment Fees: NSO facilitates assignment of licensed referees to matches, charging fees to cover operational costs and providing liability insurance through WOA partnerships
2. Membership Registration Fees: WOA registration fee of $95.00 covers both fall and spring seasons for high school officiating, includes liability insurance and Labor and Industries fees
3. Training Clinic Fees: New referee clinics cost $73.00 including registration, plus approximately $75.00 in required equipment to start officiating

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Northwest Soccer Officials (NSO) recruits, trains, certifies, and assigns soccer referees to youth, high school, and adult soccer matches in southern King County, Washington. The organization operates a website-based self-assign scheduling platform built on RidgeStar for referee-to-game matching, conducts new referee training clinics, and provides a formal match evaluation system. NSO coordinates officiating for leagues including High Schools (WIAA), Women, PSSL, and FWParks, plus multiple sanctioned youth tournaments throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Product overview

Northwest Soccer Officials (NSO) operates a unified member management and referee assignment platform built on the RidgeStar Interactive Operations Site. The core offering is a web-based portal providing referee assignment and scheduling services, member registration, match evaluation, and tournament coordination for leagues including High Schools, Women, PSSL, and FWParks in southern King County, Washington. The system also includes public pages for standings, match results, and tournament information, supported by training programs for new referee certification.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NSO Member Portal Web-based member portal for soccer referees to manage profiles, view schedules, self-assign matches, file match reports, and access training resources. Built on the RidgeStar Interactive Operations Site platform.
• Referee Assignment System System for assigning licensed soccer referees to matches for High Schools, Women, PSSL, and FWParks leagues in southern King County, Washington, using a self-assign scheduling workflow.
• Referee Training and Certification Program New referee training program combining 3-5 hours of online coursework with a 4-hour in-person clinic, with certification pathways through USSF licensing and Washington Officials Association (WOA) registration for high school soccer officiating.
• Match Evaluation System Platform for observers and mentors to provide feedback and formal evaluations on referee performance during matches, supporting professional development, with online forms capturing ratings on fitness, control, professionalism, and other criteria.
• Tournament Officiating Coordination Service Assignment coordination service for referees across various sanctioned youth soccer tournaments including Starfire (Spring Classic, Tukwila Cup, Cup, Xtreme Cup, Labor Day Cup), Cascade Cup, Celtic Cup, PacNW Winter Classic, Valor Cornucopia Cup, and Eastside FC Cup events throughout the Pacific Northwest.
• Standings and Match Results Public-facing system displaying match results and team standings across multiple leagues, divisions, and tournaments in the NSO service area, covering 367 divisions.

Quantifiable outcome

• Referees can earn $3,500-$7,500 annually through part-time officiating
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Washington Officials Association (WOA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWOA is the governing body for high school soccer officials in Washington State, providing NSO and each referee $1 million in liability insurance and paying Labor and Industries fees for each game. NSO facilitates member registration through WOA for high school officiating.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Others

• National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS): National body that sets rules and standards for high school athletics, including soccer officiating. Comparable only at the regulatory and standards layer; NFHS rule changes and officiating certification requirements shape the operating environment for NSO and its peers.
• Professional Referee Organization (PRO): Organization responsible for professional soccer officiating in MLS and top domestic competitions. Related by category (soccer referee organization) but operating at the professional tier NSO does not serve; useful as a talent pipeline and standards reference rather than a direct competitor.
• Washington Youth Soccer (WYS): State youth soccer sanctioning body whose member clubs and tournaments consume NSO's referee assignment services. Not a competitor but a closely coupled ecosystem participant whose sanctioning decisions and tournament approvals directly affect NSO's addressable demand.

Direct peers

• Oregon State Soccer Referee Committee: Oregon's USSF referee affiliate providing referee certification, training, and assignment coordination. Operates the same chapter/assignor model as NSO in an adjacent Pacific Northwest geography with overlapping tournament and youth league demand.
• Washington State Referee Committee (USSF): State-level USSF affiliate responsible for referee registration, training, and certification across Washington. Directly comparable as the state-level counterpart to NSO's chapter-level referee management and assignment activity, sharing the same certification pipeline and regional referee ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Arbiter Sports: National scheduling and payment platform used by state athletic associations and referee assignors, including NSO's high school pipeline. Operates at much broader scale across multiple sports and states, providing the underlying technology layer for many assignor organizations comparable to NSO.
• Stack Sports (Sports Connect / TeamUnify): Large-scale sports management platform provider serving youth soccer clubs, leagues, and tournaments nationwide. Comparable as a broader incumbent whose registration and scheduling products touch the same youth soccer ecosystem NSO serves, with potential to disintermediate chapter-level assignors over time.
• Washington Officials Association (WOA): Statewide governing body for high school officials across multiple sports. WOA is the regulatory and insurance partner NSO depends on for high school soccer officiating and represents the broader incumbent framework NSO operates within rather than competes against.

Regional players

• Idaho Youth Soccer / Idaho Referee Assignors: Idaho-side youth soccer and referee assignment infrastructure serving a different geography but operating the same chapter-style referee management model. Comparable as a regional peer illustrating how the NSO playbook is replicated in neighboring states.

Emerging players

• Assignr: Referee assignment and payment platform used by soccer and other sport assignors. Comparable as a technology-enabled competitor in the referee scheduling space that NSO-style chapters could migrate to, representing a platform alternative to RidgeStar/Arbiter.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/NWSoccerOfficials
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nwsoccerofficials

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 Northwest Soccer Officials