New technology from startup ventures is transforming the global sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story and pitch their idea. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for inclusion in this series.
Company name: DiscountIF
Founder(s): Lewis Holland
Headquarters: Malta and London
1. What is your elevator pitch?
DiscountIF is a unique and innovative marketing tool which gamifies transactions and increases engagement for any business. With DiscountIF’s reward platform, brands are able to increase sales and retention by strengthening the emotional connection between the brand and the customer.
We do this by integrating within the sales process of our client’s ecommerce site which promotes a series of rewards which are available for the customer to choose from. Each reward is linked up to a live event, which may be a sporting event, TV show or even the weather.
2. Problem & Solution
“What’s the ROI of a sponsorship?”
A challenging question that sports teams and their sponsors keep asking themselves, with no real definitive answer.
There was over £350 million spent by airlines alone in sports sponsorship last year. This only illustrates just how highly sports sponsorships are perceived. A challenge for both sponsorship sales and activation teams is introducing new and innovative services that deliver value throughout the partnership.
At the core of all this in sports, you’ve got highly engaged fans that are extremely passionate and supportive of their teams.
Delta, who sponsors Chelsea FC, could leverage their sponsorship of Chelsea FC by offering rewards, around Chelsea’s matches, which are linked to Delta’s services.
DiscountIF sits nicely in between the club, the sponsor and the fan.
We add real value to sponsorship partnerships by reinforcing the closeness of the relationship, deliver new unique and engaging ways to activate rights packages. Our technology demonstrates real metrics and transactions for the partner.
We also enable clubs to drive online transactions by linking rewards to the outcome of a match, exact score, first scorer almost any eventuality. We add fun to the shopping process and also the chance to win something. Our technology is easily, with offers being displayed through a fully customizable banner in your online store.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Our main focus is on sports sponsors, and the clubs selling merchandise and tickets. However we’re also expanding our reach to sports retailers, telecoms and the travel industry too.
We’re currently active in each of these industries, with companies based in the UK and Malta. We’re also in talks with multiple football clubs in UK, Spain, Italy and the US. Furthermore following our recent success at Leaders in Sport we also picked up talks with a few teams in NBA and NFL.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
We’ve built our commercial model around a WIN-WIN model. This is what end consumers have said about us, so we want to stay true to our cause.
The more benefits our clients yield from using our tool, the more DiscountIF benefits from the deal too. Our deals are structured around a license fee and a % of each transaction logged through our tool.
5. Management Team – with titles
Lewis Holland – CEO
Andrew Sammut Alessi – Product Manager
Luke Laurenti – Marketing Specialist
Chris Baldwin – Dev. & Tech Lead
Danny Crossen – Business Development
6. Anything else you want the audience to know about your venture?
We recently won Leaders in Sports Tech start-up competition, hosted and sponsored by Deltatre, Chelsea and SKY. Following our success we’re currently in talks with multiple football clubs in UK, Spain, Italy and the US as well as a few teams in NBA and NFL.
Just last week, AirMalta became the first airline in the world to offer innovative rewards to their customers in partnership with DiscountIF. The response from their customer base has been impressive, and we’re looking to grow further in the travel industry.
Our goal is to revolutionize discounts… and re-define it along the way. We want to bring the fun back to shopping where customers can purchase absolutely anything and will be able to link their purchase to something happening in the real world.
If you’re an investor, startup founder or influencer, we recommend you check out ProInfluence, a platform that is uniting sports entrepreneurs and leaders to form mutually beneficial business partnerships.