Players Health, Founded By Former Athlete Tyrre Burks, Secures $60M In Funding

Tyrre Burks has raised new funding that will benefit younger athletes.

The Chicago, IL, native is the founder of Players Health, a platform providing support solutions for sports organizations, teams, leagues, and clubs. These solutions include insurance offerings and an athlete safety suite that encompasses education and training, injury management forms, incident reporting, compliance forms, and tools to support name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, its website mentions.

As a former college athlete who went pro in the Canadian Football League, Burks understands firsthand the importance of athlete safety. During his playing career, he endured multiple injuries, including an experience during his college freshman year when he was paralyzed on the field for 45 minutes.

“My freshman year of college I was catching a low ball with my head down, and I get hit. I’m paralyzed on the turf, could not move. This happened… It’s probably the most bizarre feeling you could ever have where you literally can’t move and I thought it was over. I thought I was never going to walk again, at least at that time because it went on for about 45 minutes. I ended up miraculously feeling things, the feeling starts coming back in my fingers. I get up and I walk off the field,” he said on the podcast “Born In Silicon Valley by Match Relevant.”

The same type of incident, he says, had also happened in high school, and he took note of how it was handled during that time in comparison to his collegiate days. His athletics trainer in college made him see nine neurologists before coming back to the field, while in high school he immediately returned to the field.

When playing in the pros with Canada’s Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders, Burks had more injuries such as a torn disk in his neck, broken fingers, and other injuries. He decided it was time to hang up the towel, and while conjuring his future he created what became Players Health.

“How I started my whole journey with this, these injuries led me to think about what safety would look like for youth sports,” Burks shared on the podcast.

Raising $60M

Players Health has now received $60 million in funding in a Series C round led by private equity firm Bluestone Equity Partners, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™.  Additional investors include Mosaic General Partners, RPM Ventures, SiriusPoint, and TriplePoint Capital. 

The round has brought Players Health’s funding to more than $100 million.

“With more than 440,000 amateur sports organizations and over 60 million people playing organized sports in the United States, the need to prioritize and enhance the safety and wellbeing of athletes has never been greater,” Burks said in the press release. “This investment and partnership will enable us to continue expanding Players Health’s nationwide reach, fostering a safer, more supportive ecosystem for athletes at every level.”

Bobby Sharma, founder and managing partner of Bluestone Equity Partners, commented:

“Participatory sports have experienced seismic growth over the past decade, and projections estimate youth sports alone will nearly double to $69 billion over the next six years. This growth, coupled with the rapidly evolving economic landscape of name, image, and likeness in college athletics, creates unprecedented opportunities and challenges for athletes, families, and organizations alike. This funding round underscores the need and opportunity to build the necessary advisory infrastructure to unify and streamline the fragmentation of vendors and services in today’s sports insurance market.” 

Looking ahead, Players Health will be able to fulfill plans that include scaling workforce, advancing mergers and acquisitions, and launching artificial intelligence products.

“With its expanded capabilities, Players Health will increase its support of the entire sports ecosystem, helping drive collaboration between all stakeholders, including standardization of best practices for athlete safety and risk management across the country,” said Bluestone Partner Walker Brumskine, who will join the Players Health Board of Directors alongside Jake Harris, per the news release.