Get up to speed with latest news impacting the sports business landscape in Chicago and beyond. 🗞️ 

Startup Spotlight Series

PromoShare: The Platform That Turns Fandom into Revenue

Have you ever tried running and managing an influencer marketing campaign? It can be very time-consuming, tough to track, and even harder to measure success. Well, we have good news for everyone who’s faced these challenges. Introducing Chicago based startup, PromoShare, a fan engagement and analytics platform that enables sports teams, event producers, and brands to activate and reward local fan communities as social media ambassadors, driving increased engagement, loyalty, and revenue.

Company Overview

At its core, PromoShare provides a platform for teams and venues to create and manage ambassador programs that empower fans to share their passion and promote events within their networks.

By transforming a fanbase into advocates, these programs leverage the power of word-of-mouth marketing to amplify brand visibility and drive higher conversions through genuine recommendations from familiar and trusted sources. To date, PromoShare has already worked with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, and LiveNation to name a few.

How PromoShare Works

PromoShare's platform is designed to be user-friendly for both teams and ambassadors, backed by complete customer support. Fans aligned with each campaign’s target audience are recruited, vetted, and provided clear promotional tasks, such as creating social media content, referring friends, and sharing unique ticket links. Teams can integrate with their ticketing system or use affiliate links to track individual sales. Ambassadors earn rewards ranging from comp tickets and giveaways to gift cards and experiences. Built-in tracking and analytics tools enable teams to monitor engagement, reach, and ticket sales conversions, as well as make data-driven decisions to optimize marketing strategies and re-engage top-performing ambassadors for future campaigns.

Benefits of Using PromoShare

1. Authentic Marketing: By leveraging recommendations from real customers aligned with events or products, teams can achieve a level of authenticity that traditional advertising often lacks, as well as resonate with younger and more diverse audiences.

2. Cost-Effective: Transforming fan communities into ambassadors is more cost-effective than investing in large-scale ad campaigns. 

3. Scalability: PromoShare's platform enables teams to easily scale and manage their ambassador programs.

4. Enhanced Engagement: Ambassadors are eager to support their favorite teams, artists, and brands, and these collaborations drive increased customer interaction and stronger loyalty. 

5. Fan Data: Teams retain full ownership of all fan data collected, enabling seamless re-engagement with ambassadors and gaining valuable insights into their preferences and behaviors.

6. Measurable Increased Revenue: Teams can track new revenue generated down to the individual ambassador, providing clear insights into the impact of their efforts.

Success Stories to Date

The Arizona Diamondbacks partner with PromoShare to leverage fan-generated content and drive ticket sales for games and non-game events. Last fall, ambassadors promoted the team’s first-ever music fest, November Nights, on their personal socials, selling an additional 1,165 tickets. With an impressive 33x ROAS, the D-backs are returning for their second season with PromoShare in 2025.

The Red Sox teamed up with PromoShare to engage Boston's diverse fan communities and promote Cultural & Identity Nights, including Hispanic, Pride, and AAPI events. Using PromoShare’s innovative platform, the Red Sox sold out 80% of their events and are returning for a third year with an expanded partnership.

What can the Chicago Sports Tech community do to help with the growth of PromoShare?

1. Do you have any connections with teams, artists, event producers, or venues that would benefit greatly with the power of PromoShare? Hit Ernie up at [email protected]

2. Do you have any interest in investing in PromoShare or know anyone who might? Hit Ernie up at [email protected]

3. Do you have any partnership opportunities with your company that would make sense to connect with PromoShare? Hit Ernie up at [email protected]

Chicago

🎙️ Connor McKnight leaves ESPN 1000 and joins CHSN's Sox coverage team, but will fans get to see him? In rare good news for both the Sox and CHSN, beloved broadcaster Connor McKnight is joining CHSN’s team. A long-time veteran of Chicago sports broadcasting, McKnight leaves his duties with ESPN 1000 where he’s hosted pre and post-game shows since 2021. He’s tapped to occasionally perform play-by-play duties for TV and radio. McKnight brings his trademark style of breaking down complex info into easy-to-understand tidbits and providing analytical prowess to CHSN. The announcement of his signing, though, is overshadowed by the ongoing drama between CHSN and Comcast (which we covered in a previous edition here). Many down-but-not-out, diehard Sox faithful may not be able to watch their team play due to the stall in coverage negotiations. Read more about McKnight’s resume working in the Chicago sports scene and who could be missing out on Sox games.

🏎️ NASCAR revs up for Chicago Street Race by slashing ticket prices For NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race, the third time around will be a lot cheaper than the first two. Tickets went on sale for the 4th of July weekend event last week with some noticeable changes. NASCAR reduced the prices of single-day and two-day general admission tickets by close to 50%. Additionally, they’ve expanded their admission of free entry for kids 12 and under to both Saturday and Sunday instead of just Saturday. The changes come after a 6% decrease in total attendees in 2024 compared to 2023. But NASCAR was quick to point out the positives of the event. The race had a total economic impact of $128 million for Chicago in 2024, up from $108 million in 2023. They also plan to reduce the amount of time required to build the course. This was, of course, a major complaint from the inaugural race in 2023 due to the traffic nightmare it created around Grant Park. Block Club Chicago reports on how much tickets will cost this year and other ways NASCAR plans to improve this year’s race.

🍔 Former Bears player Israel Idonije teams up to open second South Loop bar “Come in your sweats, come in your jersey, come as you are”, is the motto of The Staley. The Staley is a new sports bar that opened on January 27th, created by former Bears defensive end Israel Idonije and renowned chef Stephen Gillanders. It’s set up as a more casual version of his first restaurant Signature, located half a mile away on S. Wabash Ave. The Staley will serve traditional bar food but under the direction of Gillanders, who works with 3 Michelin-guide-recommended Chicago restaurants. Idonije’s new restaurant will be a Miller Lite Bears headquarters bar, partnering with both organizations to help fans drink and watch games during the season. The bar will also perform an appreciated civic duty of displacing Kroll’s, a Packers bar that had been in that spot since 2003. Idonije plans to open additional restaurants in the South Loop within the next few years with each catering to a specific crowd. Learn more about the origin of the name of The Staley and what it will offer.

National

🏀 ShotTracker Announces Largest Staff Expansion In Company History Business is booming for sports tech company ShotTracker. ShotTracker announced its largest hiring spree in its history as it brings in top talent to support its massive growth over the last 12 months. The Kansas-based company is the industry leader in AI-driven, real-time data across sports-related ventures. Their list of notable clients includes several D-1 colleges like Purdue, Cincinnati, and Michigan State. Overall, ShotTracker has hired specialists in the areas of marketing, machine learning, and AI. Their marquee hires are the new Chief Revenue Officer Greg Kirkorsky and Chief Operating Officer LaDonna Gordon. Both bring years of experience in sports tech and Gordon became one of the few women of color in a senior leadership position at a sports tech company. PRLog details their prior achievements and how the new hires will accelerate more growth.

⚽️ Men in Blazers raises $15 million, top investors include Steph Curry, Michael Strahan, and Lindsey Vonn As the U.S. prepares to host the 2026 Men’s World Cup, one of the most respected U.S. soccer media networks is ramping their operations up. Men in Blazers Media Network just raised $15 million, spearheaded by global investment firm, Avenue Sports Fund. The fund includes big-name sports figures like Steph Curry, Harry Kane, Candace Parker, Michael Strahan, and Lindsey Vonn among its investors. Avenue Sports Fund was founded in 2023 and invests primarily in established leagues, women’s sports, and emerging leagues among other sports businesses. It’s just one of several funds under Avenue Capital Group, which has over $12 billion in assets under management. Although they weren’t the biggest investors featured, Chicago-based Ryan Sports Ventures was among the other five investors named in the press release. Men in Blazers was founded in 2010. It has grown from a single podcast to a robust network with reach across digital, TV, and live events. The Series A Fundraise demonstrates Men in Blazers’ commitment to amplifying its offerings with the countdown to the World Cup just a year away. Read more on what Men In Blazers offers and other partnerships they’ve formed over the years.

🏈 From futbol to football: NFL seeks long-term deal for international games in Brazil For a country known for its fascination with a different type of football, Brazil sure is anxious to host more NFL games. Brazil hosted its first NFL game this season between the Packers and the Eagles. The game was a resounding success, generating $61 million in economic impact and 12,500 jobs for the city that hosted it, São Paulo. Gustavo Pires, São Paulo’s president of tourism, said in his pitch to bring NFL games to Brazil, “If we had a 300,000-person stadium, we would sell out 300,000 seats”. The NFL is happy to consider this, as it continues its quest of spreading the league to every corner of the globe. Next season, the NFL will have eight international games on two continents, including the first-ever games in Madrid and Berlin. The Athletic shares the length of the deal Brazil is seeking with the NFL and how much interest has exploded in their country over the last 10 years.

📜 NCAA faces more legal challenges in the NIL era, Stanford and Temple athletes object to House Settlement Another week, another court case involving the NCAA. Two student-athletes have filed objections to the NCAA’s antitrust litigations case. It’s just the latest challenge to the NCAA’s attempt to reign in some of the liberties it lost since the NIL era began in 2021. Stanford’s David Kasermervisz, a wide receiver, and Temple’s Emma Reathaford, a gymnast, filed separate objections with detailed, convincing arguments. Kasermervisz objects to a limit of economic recovery to “grant-in-aid” players aka college players receiving athletic scholarships. As a walk-on, he didn’t receive the same financial benefits as his teammates under scholarship despite playing as much or more than some of those grant-in-aid players. Reathaford objects to roster limits in the settlement, which would create roster caps and impact some sports more than others (pretty much everything other than football and basketball). She argues that student-athletes would lose the opportunity to play a D-1 sport, develop as a student-athlete, and potential NIL deals. Sportico details when the settlement was made and how soon the objections will be heard in court.