Time creates youth and amateur sports unit, buys companies that track scores, schedule games

Time Inc., the publisher of Sports Illustrated and other magazines, said Tuesday it is starting a youth and amateur sports division, and bought three companies that track scores and statistics and help schedule games.

The new unit is called Sports Illustrated Play, and Time said it will help register players, schedule games, keep track of scores, and make it easier for participants to communicate. Time bought League Athletics and SportsSignup, which keep track of scores, stats and standings for 8,500 leagues and 300,000 teams, and iScore, which runs an app that provides play-by-play coverage of youth basketball, baseball, soccer and other sports.

The companies did not disclose terms of the acquisitions. Time, based in New York, owns other publications including People, Fortune, Travel + Leisure and Southern Living.

The head of Sports Illustrated Play will be Jeff Karp, a former head of mobile and social games for game show GSN. Karp has also worked for Wilson Sporting Goods, video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. and online games maker Zynga Inc.

Shares of Time rose 21 cents to $22.99.