RunSignup Releases Registration Market Update

March 28, 2023

Positive Registration Trends Continue While Number of Vendors Shrinks

March 28, 2023 – Moorestown, NJ /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – RunSignup, the leading registration provider for U.S. endurance events, provides an endurance event registration market update. The registration industry and participant levels continue to show positive trends towards reaching pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the industry is experiencing market consolidation with smaller registration vendors exiting the market as they face substantial barriers to entry. Established registration providers are applying varying competitive strategies. RunSignup currently holds approximately 40% of the registration market in the United States and processed 8.4 million registrations in 2022.

“We have been doing the U.S. race registration market analysis for many years, and include a great deal of data to process our analysis of the happenings and directions in the market. This began because we as a business need to take a hard look at how we are doing against a competitive landscape and decided as long as we were doing the analysis, we would share it publicly. This analysis is from our perspective and we realize it may be a bit biased in terms of our competitors, but our goal is to offer transparent insights into the industry,” said Bob Bickel, Founder and CEO of RunSignup.

The company reports positive initial trends for 2023 race participation and registration numbers. Overall race registrations during the first months of 2023 show a slight increase compared to 2022. In addition, participants are registering earlier for larger events than in 2022. This indicates an increased confidence and that typical registration behaviors are resuming. The number of races listed on RunningintheUSA.com has increased by seven percent compared to March of 2022 – yet still less than in March of 2019. The company is monitoring race churn rates and registration behaviors as the year progresses.

Many legacy and smaller registration providers have exited the market while established providers continue to apply varying strategies for serving endurance race events. The level of investment and technology expertise required to build a complete platform, in addition to security and sales tax requirements is a very high hurdle that many registration providers were not able to achieve. The current established registration providers – such as RunSignup, Race Roster, and Haku- are shifting strategies by expanding into other geographic markets, adding adjacent product offerings like ticket offerings, or partnering with financial backers. Some registration providers in the industry offer varying levels of customization, white glove services, financial incentives, and negotiated pricing for larger events. RunSignup’s differentiator is to provide advanced, integrated technology and a low price offering that empowers event organizers to increase registration levels and deliver a successful event experience.

The industry also faces the impact of changing R&D taxability from a simple expense to a capital investment requiring a five year amortization as introduced in the 2017 Tax Cut. Previously, research and development (software product development) expenses were simply written off as an expense in the calendar year that they occurred. Now, these will be amortized over the course of five years. This may be a financial challenge for new entrants or small registration providers.

RunSignup recently published the 2022 Race Trends Report, 2022 Largest 100 Races Report and its 2022 Year in Review Report that provide more information on the state of the endurance community.

About RunSignup

RunSignup is the leading event solution delivering the art of technology to endurance events and nonprofits. More than 25,000 events use our free and open platform to register 8 million annual participants, raise more than $2 Billion and grow their events. Our expertly crafted, open and all-in-one solution powers event revenue generation and supporter engagement through flexible registration, free event websites, free email marketing, integrated fundraising, and a suite of RaceDay tools. No subscriptions, no plans, no monthly fees.

To find out why customers like the Richmond Marathon, American Cancer Society, Vacation Races, and RaceDay Events use RunSignup, visit www.runsignup.com.