If you are a youth soccer parent in the US shopping for an AI camera in 2026, your shortlist is three names: Veo, Trace, and the XbotGo Falcon.
They are not three versions of the same thing. They are three different business models that happen to involve a camera on a tall tripod. Pick the model first and the camera picks itself.
- Veo rents you a team platform. One camera, one subscription, everyone on the roster gets in.
- Trace charges per kid. The camera is free on loan; each family pays for their own player’s highlights.
- XbotGo Falcon sells you a camera. Pay once, own the footage, no subscription, and you do your own editing.
Here is the breakdown.
Quick Verdict
- Best for a coach or a club: Veo Cam 3. Best video, best analysis tools, and the only one of the three with a real coaching platform.
- Best for a parent building a recruiting reel: Trace. Automatic personal highlights after every game, nothing to edit, from $180 a year.
- Best for a parent who wants to own the footage: XbotGo Falcon. Pay once, the file is on the card when the whistle goes, no monthly fee ever.
The Three Cameras at a Glance
| Veo Cam 3 | Trace (TraceCam) | XbotGo Falcon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera price | ~$1,299 | Free on loan (valued at $795) | ~$700–$800, often discounted |
| Subscription | From $67/month, whole team | $180–$300 per family per year | None |
| How it films | Fixed, 180° full field, software follow-cam | Fixed, 180° full field, software player-cam | Motorised pan and tilt, follows the ball like a cameraman |
| Resolution | 4K at 60 fps | “High def” (not published; 1080p-class in reviews) | 4K at 30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps |
| Highlights | Auto goals, shots, corners; manual tagging for the rest | Automatic per-player reels | Manual, you mark them |
| Footage access | After cloud upload and processing | Email within hours; full-game download needs 7 families | Instant, on the microSD card |
| Setup | Under 2 minutes on a tripod | About 15 minutes, 16 ft tripod with sandbags | About 5 minutes |
| Weather | Sealed unit | Sealed unit | IPX5 |
| Live stream | Yes, 5G model available | Included (reported as beta) | Yes, via app or RTMP |
Veo Cam 3: The Team Platform
Veo is the gold standard for coaches and I have said so before. Two wide lenses record the entire pitch in 4K at 60 fps, the cloud stitches it, and the software produces a broadcast-style follow-cam plus a panoramic tactical view. The editor finds goals, corners and free kicks on its own. You can draw on the screen, build a journal for a player, and send a clip to their phone in two minutes.
The business model is the catch. The camera is around $1,299 and does nothing without a subscription, which starts at about $67 a month in the US. One subscription covers coaches, players and parents with no per-user fee, which is why Veo argues it is cheaper than Trace for any team bigger than two players. Stop paying and the camera is a brick.
Weak spots: uploads are slow after a tournament weekend, the full match needs the cloud before anyone sees anything, and there is no recruiting profile. More in Is the Veo Camera Worth It for Youth Soccer Players? and the Veo setup guide.
Trace: Pay Per Kid
Trace flips the model. The team gets one TraceCam and 16-foot tripod on loan for free. Each family subscribes to PlayerFocus, tells the app their player’s jersey number, and gets a personal highlight reel emailed within hours of every game. No tagging, no editing, no club budget meeting.
Basic is $180 a year (last five games, watch and share). Pro is $300 a year (all games, analytics, downloads, make your own cuts). Pay monthly and there is a one-time $99 camera lease fee on top.
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Weak spots: you never own the camera or the footage, costs grow with every family that signs up, there is no coaching platform, and Pro users can only download the full game file once seven families on the team subscribe. The camera is fixed, so the “player cam” is a 4x digital crop of a wide shot. Full details in the Trace soccer camera review.
XbotGo Falcon: Own It
The Falcon is the only one of the three that physically moves. A motorised head pans 360 degrees and tilts 160 degrees to follow the ball while a second wide lens watches the whole pitch, so the footage looks like a human filmed it. It records native 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 60) to a microSD card, runs about four hours on its 9,600 mAh battery, is IPX5 rated, and the AI lives in the camera, so nothing is uploaded unless you want it to be.
It costs around $700 to $800 list and is frequently discounted. That is the whole bill. Cloud sharing is optional, the core tracking and recording is free forever.
Weak spots: our guest reviewer’s season with the Falcon found the AI zoom stays too wide on a full-size 11v11 pitch with no manual override, there is no automatic goal detection, highlights are marked by hand, the motors are audible in the recording, 30 fps is the ceiling at 4K, and the XbotGo watermark cannot be turned off. Post-production is on you.
What You Pay Over Two Seasons
Headline prices lie here, because the three models charge different people. Two years, US pricing, before discounts:
| Scenario | Veo Cam 3 | Trace | XbotGo Falcon |
|---|---|---|---|
| One parent, one player | ~$2,900 (camera + 24 months) | $360 Basic / $600 Pro | ~$800 + microSD card |
| Team of 12 families, all want footage | ~$2,900 total, split 12 ways | $4,320 Basic / $7,200 Pro, paid family by family | ~$800 total, split 12 ways |
| Club coach, several teams | One sub covers each camera’s roster | Club plan, quote only | One camera per team, no ongoing cost |
Read it this way. If one family is paying, Trace is the cheapest route to usable footage by a mile. If the whole roster is in, Veo’s flat fee beats Trace and the Falcon beats both. The Falcon’s price is also the only one that does not go up in year three.
Video and Tracking
Veo wins on raw quality. 4K at 60 fps with good low-light handling means a slowed-down foul is not a blur, and the panoramic view is the only one of the three that shows the whole shape of the team at once.
The Falcon wins on how the footage feels. A real pan looks like television; a software crop of a wide shot looks like a software crop. The cost is that a moving head can be fooled, and on a full-size pitch the Falcon’s framing is the weakest of the three.
Trace is built for a phone screen. The player-cam crop is sharp enough for a recruiting clip viewed on a coach’s laptop and no sharper. It is not a tactical camera and does not claim to be.
Highlights and Recruiting
Trace, and it is not close. Automatic per-player reels, a shareable Trace iD profile, and playlists a parent can send to a college coach without opening an editor. Veo auto-clips goals and shots but player reels are manual. The Falcon gives you a 90-minute file and a copy of CapCut.
Setup and Logistics
Veo is the fastest to set up, under two minutes once the tripod is up, and the 5G model streams without a phone. The Falcon is about five minutes and needs a tall tripod; XbotGo sells one. Trace is the slowest at around 15 minutes because of the 16-foot tripod and sandbags, and the kit lives with one family, so if that family misses a game nobody films.
Whichever you buy, height is the real variable. Below 12 feet every AI camera gets confused by overlapping players. Buy the tall tripod once.
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Who Owns the Footage
This is the question most buyers skip and most regret. With the Falcon the recording is on a card in your hand at full time. With Veo it is in Veo’s cloud for as long as you pay. With Trace it is in Trace’s cloud for as long as you pay, and the full-game file is only downloadable with seven subscribing families. If your kid plays for four more years, ask what you will have at the end of them.
Which One Should You Buy?
Buy Veo Cam 3 if…
You coach, or your club will share the cost. You want full matches, tactical views, 60 fps, and tools to teach from. You are fine paying monthly for as long as you use it. Get the Veo here.
Buy Trace if…
You are a parent, your player is 14 or older, and the goal is a recruiting reel after every game without touching an editor. You do not need the whole match and you do not need to own anything. Plans are on Trace’s site (affiliate link).
Buy the XbotGo Falcon if…
You hate subscriptions, you want the file in your hand at full time, and you will cut your own clips or accept the auto highlights’ limits. You mostly film small-sided or 9v9, where the AI zoom is at its best. Get the Falcon here.
Still deciding between categories? Pixellot vs Veo vs Hudl covers the club-grade cameras, and the BYOD AI camera roundup covers the budget end including Veo Go and Pix4Team.
I discovered soccer as a U-6 coach. I love soccer, futsal on the weekends in a men’s league. I am now living in Portugal (and playing futsal!)
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