Why Hoops ClinIQ
The research behind Hoops ClinIQ
We read the pricing pages, the reviews and the press before we built anything. This is what we found, what others do well, and where we think the gaps are. Everything is as of October 2026.
The market, late 2026
Three purchases, one problem
A coach who wants film, plays and a team calendar buys three products. The market is consolidating, but the pieces are not joined.
Film, plays and admin are three purchases
Coaches buy film in one place, draw plays in another, and run the team in a third. Hudl owns the film layer and bought Balltime (Feb 2025) and FastModel (Mar 2025), so it is rolling the market up. The products are still not one product.
Hudl's stack is priced in layers
Hudl high school Silver+, $1,500 per program as listed on hudl.com (Oct 2026); other tiers exist. Its basketball club plans are $400, $1,000 and $1,600 per team (Oct 2026). Assist (human-tagged stats, $900 to $2,100 per team per season) and Focus cameras are add-ons, and FastDraw is an add-on or a quote. The high school pricing page lists "AI Performance Summaries".
Box-score AI from phone video is already sold
Hooper (Pro $11.99 a month) and SportsVisio (Coach plan $750 a season, overage $29.80 to $37.80 a game) turn phone video into stats, shot charts and clips; Superstat and GameRun do the same for box scores and scouting reports. Vendors claim 92% (Hooper) and 95%+ (SportsVisio) accuracy, which we have not tested. XCIV.ai ($9 to $39 a month) and FastScout (FastIntelligence) add scouting and game plans. Pixellot / PlayOn cameras are already in 9,000+ US high schools, so many gyms have film.
The free scoring giants are moving in
GameChanger launched tiered basketball scorekeeping, highlight pages and club messaging this fall. GameChanger AutoStream (basketball since Oct 2023; expanded Sep 2026) is free AI phone tracking that auto-clips field goals, 3-pointers, steals and blocks, with rebound and assist clips since Dec 2025.
Five gaps
What nobody fills well
These come from our own reading of vendor pages and reviews. They are where we put our effort.
1
Tactical tagging linked to the playbook
Box-score tools tag makes, misses and rebounds. We tag screens, sets and the coach's own play names, and link each tag to the play in the playbook and the clip that shows it.
2
A player study loop
Assign a play, quiz the player on it and show the clip that explains it. We found no tool that connects study to the plays a team actually runs.
3
Cited answers
In our testing as of Oct 2026, no youth or HS tool we tried cites a play, clip or stat for every chat answer. Every ClinIQ answer opens its source, and says when it is unsure.
4
Prices on the page
FastDraw has no public price and no single-coach license, according to HoopBrief (Sept 2026, an author who sells a competitor). Ours are on the pricing page.
5
One ad-free surface for coach, parent and player
Reviewers of team-admin apps report ads on opening and paywalled basics. Families get free seats here during 2027 and there are no ads.
The moat, in plain words
It gets smarter the longer you use it
A play tool, a film service and a quiz app each see one slice. Here the playbook, the film and the study history sit in one place, so each season adds something a new tool can't copy.
Playbook, film and study in one place
In previewWhich plays you assigned, who studied them and how they ran in games. Three tools would need three exports to line that up.
Study → Results
BetaSee points per possession when the five on the floor had studied a play, next to when they hadn't. It's a pattern in your own games, not a promise.
Opponent memory across seasons
BetaOpen a scouting report and see your last meetings with that team, what worked and what changed since last year.
Export anytime
In previewPlays leave as PDF, link or video. Your film and roster belong to your program, so there is no lock-in.
Points per possession, by whether the five had studied
| Play | Studied | Not studied |
|---|---|---|
| Horns Flare | 1.1416 runs | 0.828 runs |
Sample numbers from the demo team, shown as an illustration. Correlation with small samples, not proof that studying caused the gap.
The gaps, in the product
Five things to try in the demo
No claim here without a screen behind it. Each row opens the demo app with the Lakeshore Lions, a sample team, so you can see it work.
Your film, tagged with your own play names
Tag screens and sets with the names you use, linked to your playbook and your players' study. Later ClinIQ answers link the clip time and the play phase they came from.
Open in the demo: Your film, tagged with your own play namesClinIQ drafts, a coach approves
Messages, practice plans and scouting notes wait in one approval queue. Nothing reaches players or parents until a person says yes.
Open in the demo: ClinIQ drafts, a coach approvesConsent first, on every screen
A player whose guardian hasn't consented shows no stats anywhere: not on the roster, in film, in insights or in an export.
Open in the demo: Consent first, on every screenRecord on your phone or upload a file
No camera to buy and nothing to install in the gym. Record games with Hoops ClinIQ, or upload a video file from any camera.
Open in the demo: Record on your phone or upload a filePrint sheets and wristbands from the same playbook
Call sheets, game plans and wristband cards print from your plays, so the paper matches the app.
Open in the demo: Print sheets and wristbands from the same playbook
Feature gap matrix
Who does what
Cells come from public pages and independent reviews, listed below. Our column counts beta features as yes and anything coming in 2027 as no.
| Capability | Hoops ClinIQ | Hudl + FastDraw | XCIV.ai | The Hoops Geek | TeamSnap | GameChanger | Spond |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play design | Yes | Yes | Partial or add-on | Yes | No | No | No |
| Animation | Yes | Partial or add-on | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| AI play authoring | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Film-to-play | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Cited AI answers (rivals: in our testing as of Oct 2026) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Scouting reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Practice planner | Yes | Partial or add-on | Yes | Yes | Partial or add-on | No | No |
| Chat | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Partial or add-on | Yes |
| Calendar | Yes | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Attendance | Yes | No | No | Yes | Partial or add-on | No | Yes |
| Payments and registration | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Parent portal | Yes | Partial or add-on | No | Partial or add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Player IQ quizzes (beta) | Yes | No | No | Partial or add-on | No | No | No |
| Wellness | Partial or add-on | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Stats | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | No | Partial or add-on | Yes | No |
| Installable app that works offline | Partial or add-on | No | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on | Partial or add-on |
What others do well
- Hudl and FastDraw. The most mature film and scouting suite, AI scouting reports in FastScout, football and every other sport, and a library of about 10,000 plays. Ours is smaller at launch. Keep Hudl for football.
- Spond. Free, easy to set up and the best-rated team-admin app we found (G2 4.8 from 41 reviews).
- TeamSnap. Registration, payments and a very large installed base. Ours are coming in 2027.
- GameChanger. Free live scoring and streaming that families already use, and free AI phone tracking for box scores: GameChanger AutoStream (basketball since Oct 2023; expanded Sep 2026).
- Hooper, SportsVisio, Superstat and GameRun. Box score, shot charts and clips from phone video, on sale now from $11.99 a month. We do not lead with that; use them if stats from video are the whole job.
- Pixellot / PlayOn. Fixed cameras already in many high school gyms, with stats sent to MaxPreps. A five-year PlayOn extension was announced in Nov 2025.
- The Hoops Geek. Chat, attendance and a play designer that ship today.
- XCIV.ai. Cheap AI game plans from $9 a month. If you want only that, it is a fair choice.
Our principles
The rules we build by
Our constitution, in plain words. A feature that breaks one of these is wrong, not the rule.
AI shows its work
Every answer cites the play, clip or stat it came from. No source, no claim.
AI proposes, people decide
Messages to players and parents, published plays and schedule changes wait for a person to approve them.
Agents never exceed their user
An agent can do only what the person who started it is allowed to do.
Kids first
No data about a player on your roster is shown or used until a parent or guardian agrees. Game film can show opponents and non-consented players; that film stays staff-only. No medical records. AI never diagnoses or clears a player.
No overpromising
We advertise a video or AI feature only after it works on real amateur phone footage.
Honest pilot
Four weeks, capped AI credits, no card and no surprise charges. After that you choose a plan or drop to Free.
Phone first
A web app that installs on a phone first, then native apps. Every screen works at phone width.
Isolation by default
Planned: each team's data isolated in the database, enforced there and not only in the app.
What we won't do
Things we say no to
A shorter product is easier to trust. These are off the table.
- Sell or show ads to coaches, players or parents.
- Sell cameras, sensors or anything to install in the gym. You record on a phone.
- Track live play in real time.
- Build wearables.
- Send SMS or WhatsApp messages.
- Run a coach marketplace.
- Hold medical records or act as a HIPAA system.
- Quote an accuracy percentage we have not measured.
- Call anything shipped before it works on real footage.
References
Sources, as of Oct 2026
Vendor pages are marked as vendor claims. Prices and features change, so check the source before you decide.
- Hudl basketball club pricingPer-team tiers and add-ons [vendor]
- Hudl high school pricingPer-program tiers and AI Performance Summaries, Oct 2026 [vendor]
- HooperPhone video to stats; plans and 92% claim, Oct 2026 [vendor]
- SportsVisio pricingCoach plan, overage and 95%+ claim, Oct 2026 [vendor]
- SuperstatBox scores from phone footage [vendor]
- GameRun: basketballPhone-video scouting reports [vendor]
- SportsVideo.org: Pixellot extends with PlayOnNov 2025 [press]
- Hudl Assist pricing for basketballHuman-tagged stats, per team per season [vendor]
- Hudl support: FastIntelligenceAI scouting reports in FastScout [vendor]
- Hudl BalltimeVolleyball AI [vendor]
- Hudl on the Balltime acquisitionFeb 2025 [vendor]
- Hudl FastModel FAQFastDraw and FastScout [vendor]
- HoopBrief: FastModel and FastDraw pricing after HudlSept 2026 [independent; author sells a competitor]
- CoachCanvas vs FastDrawComparison [vendor]
- The Hoops Geek pricingPlans and features [vendor]
- XCIV.aiPlans and features [vendor]
- BetaKit on TISC and Pick and RollPilots [press]
- The Globe and Mail on college basketball AIPress
- Youth Sports Business Report: GameChanger basketball expansionSep 29, 2026 [press]
- GameChanger: AutoStream for basketball (Oct 2023)AutoStream, Oct 2023 [vendor]
- GameChanger: automatic video clips for basketballAutoStream clips [vendor]
- SpondProduct page [vendor]
- G2: Spond vs SportsEngineReviews [independent]
- G2: SportsEngine vs TeamSnapReviews [independent]
- GetApp: TeamSnapPricing and reviews [aggregator, may be dated]
- JustUseApp: SportsEngine reviewsApp reviews [independent]
- Appaloma: AI sports coaching researchReview analysis [independent; to re-verify]
Common questions
Is this a neutral comparison?
No. We build one of these products. We cite our sources, say when a source is a vendor page, and list what others do better. Check the links, and tell us if something is wrong.
Why is your column marked as a plan?
Our column counts in-preview and beta features as yes and anything coming in 2027 as no. In preview means built and clickable with sample data, not yet running on real teams. A half circle means partial or add-on. Each feature's stage is on the product pages.
How current is this?
Everything here was researched in October 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you decide.
Your next game plan starts with your own film.
We load your plays and tag one of your games by hand. Your staff and players use ClinIQ and quizzes for four weeks. Or start with the free play library: no account.