Spontivly, a data analytics software startup building a Google analytics-style platform for community engagement, has found a unique niche in the world of sports.
It all started when the community manager for the Dallas Mavericks basketball team looked at how the St. Petersburg, Florida-based startup could help track fan engagement. And that’s when they realized how powerful the platform could be around all-important sponsorship data.
That helped the seed-stage company ink a partnership with its first professional soccer team, the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
The Rowdies play in the USL Championship League, also headquartered in Tampa. The team announced the new partnership earlier this week.
Marissa Huggins, Spontivly’s co-founder and COO, said that Spontivly’s platform brings crucial data to sports organizations that are trying to measure the true value of a sponsorship, understand the ROI on different digital campaigns, and learn how their fanbase is interacting with the team’s social media channels. That information is often missing on other sports-focused platforms.
“A lot of sports analytics platforms will do data from the sale onwards. So they’ll know everything a fan does from the moment they walk into the stadium. But they won’t necessarily have any of the data from the customer journey before that,” Huggins told Hypepotamus.
Partnering with the Rowdies brings Spontivly closer to the Tampa Bay community as well.
“[Partnering] just made sense. The Rowdies are a local team and they really are a pillar of the St. Pete community and the Tampa Bay region in general.”
BUILDING VERSATILE SOFTWARE
Founded in 2019, Spontivly has raised $1.8 million in outside funding, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Mark Cuban and Southeast-based investors Aaron White, Rezilyent Capital, TampaBay.Ventures, Render Capital, and Florida Opportunity Fund.
Alongside sports teams, the platform has also brought on Airbnb, the Atlanta Tech Village, Salesloft, and Tampa Bay Wave as users. Tech companies have been early adopters and customers, And Huggins said that Spontivly has also seen interest from financial institutions, retail companies, e-commerce stores, and nonprofits looking for “simple data dashboards” that don’t require engineers or data specialists to set up and interpret.
That versatility could help the software company grow in the future. Moving forward, Huggins said that the team is looking at more integration options with popular platforms like Tickets.com.
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Featured photo from Spontivly website
