Alan Arlt is the Managing Partner of Arlt Sports Ventures, an agency that helps sports businesses start and grow, and the founder of Ultimate Hoops, the largest recreational basketball league in North America, operating 100+ clubs across 30+ markets within Life Time.

BIOGRAPHY

Alan Arlt is the Managing Partner of Arlt Sports Ventures, an agency that helps sports businesses start and grow, and the founder of Ultimate Hoops, Inc. the largest recreational basketball league in North America, now operating 150+ clubs across 30+ markets under Life Time.

Through Arlt Sports Ventures, Arlt partners with founders and operators across sports, helping them build the strategy, technology, and revenue models that turn an idea into a durable business. The work spans sports AI technology, recreational leagues, and youth sports, and ranges from short diagnostic engagements to embedded growth partnerships and fractional leadership.

In 2006, Arlt founded Ultimate Hoops and Life Time acquired the league within two years. Over the next decade Arlt scaled it to more than 150 clubs across 30+ North American markets, building what became the largest recreational basketball league on the continent. Ultimate Hoops has been featured in SLAM, Men's Health, and numerous other publications. It remains the blueprint for how he thinks about community, belonging, and growth.

Earlier in his career, Arlt spent formative years in media in New York City at Discovery Networks, where he managed the integrated Ad Sales, Sponsorship, and Product Integration team, generating over $120 million in annual sponsorship revenue across Discovery's linear, online, and retail platforms. That grounding in brand, distribution, and storytelling still shapes how he builds sports businesses today.

Arlt is also a writer. He is the author of Ultimate Sessions, a serialized founder's memoir about building Ultimate Hoops from nothing, and the voice behind The Sports Life, a publication of essays on the business of sports. The writing is candid and unsentimental, less highlight reel than honest account of what building actually takes.

Arlt is also a sought-after speaker. He delivers keynotes, guest lectures, and podcast appearances on building in sports, the business of community, and what it takes to grow something that lasts.

He lives in Minneapolis and works between Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles.