Built to Put Players on the Map

The Circuit was founded in late 2019 by Derrick Shelby and Alec Kinsky with a clear mission: to help young basketball players maximize their exposure and get seen by the people who matter. Both founders came to the table with deep roots in the game: Derrick as a former director and coach with experience across EYBL and major shoe circuit programs, Alec as a sports technology veteran who spent years at SportsEngine before building out The Circuit's media operation.

From the start, the organization positioned itself at the intersection of elite competition and elite media coverage. Events feature live streaming, real-time scores and standings, and a dedicated content operation that has helped put players on the radar of college programs and professional scouts nationwide.

The results speak for themselves. Alumni of The Circuit include Cooper Flagg, Tre Johnson, Keyonte George, and more than 20 players who have gone on to play professionally.

"We help elevate those kids that are doing well and make sure the world knows who they are." — Derrick Shelby, Co-Founder

The Hardest Part Nobody Talks About

Running an elite grassroots tournament looks glamorous from the outside. Inside the operation, the reality is far more demanding, and scheduling is where it gets hardest.

At any given Circuit event, there can be 100 to 300 teams on the floor. With that many teams comes an equal number of coaches, and a significant portion of those coaches are managing multiple teams across multiple age groups (15U, 16U and 17U) simultaneously. A single coach who can’t be in two places at once creates a scheduling conflict that ripples across the entire bracket.

Add last-minute team withdrawals, late schedule requests and the logistical weight of managing it all across a state-of-the-art multi-court facility, and the margin for error becomes razor thin.

“You can ask every tournament director in the country what their biggest nightmare is. It’d be the same thing: scheduling. You multiply 30, 40, or 50 coaches who coach two or three teams that can’t play at the same time. That’s a problem.” — Derrick Shelby

For Alec Kinsky, who manages the day-to-day operational side of The Circuit’s events, the complexity is compounded by the organization’s commitment to running every event at the highest possible standard.

“The majority of mistakes are made in the schedule. Making sure everyone’s happy and making sure we’re efficient is the biggest juggling act with running a tournament.” — Alec Kinsky, Co-Founder

One Platform to Tie it All Together

Before Fastbreak AI, The Circuit was managing payments, registration and scheduling across separate systems. Each function lived in its own world, and the gap between them created friction at every stage of the event lifecycle.

Alec had spent years evaluating sports technology, from SportsEngine to Exposure to other platforms that had come and gone, and knew exactly what he was looking for. When he found Fastbreak AI, the appeal was immediate.

“Our payments were different from our registration, which was different from our scheduling. Fastbreak ties it all together. That’s probably been the biggest headache, and this solves it.” — Alec Kinsky

The ticketing capability was a particular turning point. The Circuit had previously relied on a cash-only entry model, which created long lines, limited visibility into gate revenue, and no way to activate sponsors at the point of purchase. Fastbreak Ticketing changed that entirely.

“We used to just be cash only and realized we had to have card capability and ease of entry. There’s not really a major player in the space doing what Fastbreak AI does for grassroots and club. I did my research.” — Alec Kinsky

Now, tickets are sold digitally in advance, parents move through entry without friction, and sponsor messaging is baked directly into the ticket experience, giving The Circuit a new activation vehicle they didn’t have before. 

The visibility into real-time ticket sales has also changed how The Circuit manages operations on the ground. The ticket data has become an operational planning tool, helping the team determine the busiest times and staffing needs.

Scheduling at the Speed the Game Demands

For an event operation as complex as The Circuit, scheduling isn’t something that gets done once and stays done. Teams drop out days before an event. Coaches send requests up until the last hour. A single change can cascade across an entire bracket, forcing adjustments that would take hours to untangle manually.

With Fastbreak AI, those adjustments happen in minutes.

“Because of Fastbreak, my work is done Tuesday or Wednesday. I can’t help that teams are going to come in and cancel; things happen. But Fastbreak makes it very easy to go in and change that.” — Alec Kinsky

Before Fastbreak AI, building a schedule for a Circuit event took between 8 and 12 hours. That time has been cut in half. For an organization running multiple events a year across Texas and beyond, that adds up to a meaningful operational advantage.

“It’s too hard to do it without the technology. Being able to quickly adjust the schedule when a team drops out three days before the event is where Fastbreak comes in.” — Derrick Shelby

A Partner That Listens

What stood out to Alec beyond the platform itself was the way the Fastbreak AI team responded to feedback. As a self-described super user who came in with deep experience across multiple platforms, he arrived with specific ideas about what would make the product work better for The Circuit's unique needs.

"I'd say hey, if you guys made this thing, it would improve what you're doing immensely. Two days later, ‘Hey, we're working on that for you.’ Being able to work at that level and get immediate feedback is super helpful." — Alec Kinsky

That responsiveness matters to an organization that operates at the intersection of elite competition and cutting-edge media. The Circuit isn't just running tournaments, it's building an ecosystem around exposure, content and player development. The technology powering it needs to keep pace.

The Impact at a Glance

• Up to 300 teams managed per event with complex multi-coach scheduling constraints
• Scheduling time cut in half from 8-12 hours
• 50+ scheduling requests per event
• Moved from cash-only to fully digital ticketing with built-in sponsor activation 
• Registration, scheduling and payments unified in one platform for the first time
• 20+ alumni have gone on to play professionally

No Regrets

The Circuit has evaluated many technologies over the years. Alec has seen platforms come and go, watched the space evolve, and knows firsthand what separates a product that works from one that just checks boxes.

His verdict on Fastbreak AI is straightforward: “Haven’t regretted it.”

For Derrick, the decision comes back to what it’s always been about: giving athletes the best possible environment to compete, get seen and take the next step.

“We want to keep being that main media and content provider for these athletes. Fastbreak helps us do that by keeping everything running the way it needs to.” — Derrick Shelby

Let’s Talk

Fastbreak AI equips sports organizations of all sizes with the software they need to thrive, empowering the people who make sports extraordinary.

Reach out here to learn more about Fastbreak’s amateur sports product portfolio.