Rule42 Sports Technology Group announced its official launch with a mission to modernize the discovery process for athletes, scouts and teams. The company is building an AI-powered technology platform that gives athletes and their families an equal shot at being discovered, while giving scouts, coaches and teams much greater reach and a faster, more objective way to find and track talent through the journey from youth through college. Rule42 is initially focusing on softball and baseball, but the company’s platform is sport agnostic and will expand to more sports in the future.
“Our team has spent decades on both sides of the scouting table as athletes, parents, scouts and coaches. We’ve seen firsthand how much talent gets missed simply because the current system wasn’t built to find it,” said Renée James, founder and CEO of Rule42. “We’re building the technology platform we wish had existed: one that puts athletes and their families in control and gives scouts and coaches the tools to discover talent wherever it is.”
Today, athlete discovery still runs largely on word-of-mouth, personal connections and expensive travel showcases. It’s a system that favors families and organizations that can afford to pay to play, while leaving out many athletes who aren’t able to participate. The problem is even more acute in women’s sports, where scouting infrastructure, data and dedicated tools are either completely absent or years behind men’s sports, leaving countless talented athletes overlooked simply because no one built the systems to find them.
Founded by long-time technology c-suite executive, Renée James, founder and CEO of energy-efficient semiconductor pioneer, Ampere (sold to Softbank in 2025) and former president of Intel Corporation, Rule42 has assembled an all-star team of technology and sports leaders including:
- Tara Henry, vice president of softball. Henry is a former NCAA champion outfielder at UCLA and the current head coach of Great Britain’s Women’s National Softball Team. Henry also serves as the GM of Softball America.
- Michelle Johnston Holthaus, president. Holthaus is a 30-year technology industry veteran, known for her leadership at Intel, where she most recently served as chief executive of Intel products.
- Jed Lowrie, executive vice president of baseball. Lowrie is a former MLB All-Star and 14-year Major League veteran.
- Jen McIntyre, director of softball scouting and partnerships. McIntyre is a nationally recognized softball coach and scout, known as one of the all-time great softball players for Penn State.
- Patrick Traeger, chief technology officer (CTO). Traeger is a seasoned technologist and inventor with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, having pioneered one of the first sports-focused LLM and machine learning platforms for predicting player outcomes and assessing athletic performances.
- Todd Underwood, chief financial officer (CFO). Underwood has held senior leadership roles in technology and finance for more than 30 years, most recently serving as CFO at Ampere.
Rule42 is based in Oregon. The company will have more details to share about its technology platform later this year.
