When the first college football games kick off later this month, fans will have a new way to support their teams — through tax-deductible, “gamified” donations.
A new mobile app by Dallas-based company Sportsmo will let users see play-by-play updates during a game, and can let them make donations for positive plays.
Fans can also make pledges ahead of a game — a $5 donation if the team scores more than 18 points, for example.
“It’s a fun and social new way to enjoy a game with your friends,” said founder and CEO Chaitan Fahnestock.
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At launch, the app only includes football games — the upcoming season will be a test run of sorts — but Fahnestock said it plans to include other NCAA sports like basketball, baseball and softball in the future.
According to Michael Atwell of Allata, which develops the app, another key feature will allow users to create groups akin to a fantasy football league, where they can see and engage with live donations from family and friends as they watch a game together.
“Hopefully it’s a very sporty and fun peer pressure that comes along with that,” Fahnestock said.
The company was structured as a nonprofit, which allows Sportsmo to funnel the majority of donations toward the schools, earmarked for their athletics departments. Institutions that partner with the company to market the app will receive up to 87% of the donations, while nonpartners will get 77%.
Sportsmo launches as college football teams gear up for a competitive season, in the wake of a landmark legal decision regarding student-athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) that allows them to reap the financial benefits of being college players.
In June, a federal judge ruled that schools may now pay their athletes directly for the first time, in addition to scholarships and other benefits. In the first year after the decision, each school can share up to about $20.5 million with its players.
Since then, the University of Tennessee has agreed to a 10-year contract with apparel maker Adidas, which the school said will offer “unprecedented NIL opportunities” to its student-athletes. The University of Kansas has received a historic $300 million donation to bolster its athletics.
In North Texas, student-athletes at Texas Tech are set to make $55 million from revenue sharing and NIL deals in the upcoming season.
The new rule will put more financial pressure on colleges, especially those without deep pockets, to remain competitive in athletics, Fahnestock said. Sportsmo aims to create a new fundraising path for fans to support their school’s teams.
“We created Sportsmo so fans can play an active role in helping schools remain competitive on and off the field in this NIL era — not just by cheering, but by directly funding their teams in real time,” he said.
Fahnestock, whose background is in consulting, said he started planning the product in January 2024. He then decided to self-fund the project after conversations with friends, coaches, athletics directors and attorneys in the NIL field.
“While I saw companies out there raising money that was NIL-related, I didn’t see any that were super novel, and I didn’t see any that were super scalable in the way that we designed Sportsmo,” Fahenstock said.
“It’s still very unique in this space and, I think, something others would like to emulate once they see the magic.”