Playfly Sports, a sports media, marketing and technology company, has acquired The Aspire Sport Marketing Group, which will help to deliver strategic planning, analytics and marketing services as well as ticket and hospitality sales and services.
The Aspire Group is a sports and entertainment marketing firm and works across consulting, research and ticket sales and has helped to generate over $1.5bn (£1.2bn/€1.4bn) for its partners.
Aspire’s acquisition will add more than 300 college and professional partners to Playfly’s portfolio, as well as 166 new team members. Aspire and Playfly will continue to cultivate fan relationships, improve the fan experience and drive more revenue for its partners. The merger will also help with Playfly’s broader vision to build and deliver a fandom-based proprietary platform.
Playfly and Aspire already support five shared collegiate partners: the University of Maryland, University of Denver, George Mason University, San Jose State University and University of Richmond.
Michael Schreiber, Playfly Sports chief executive and founder, said: “Aspire truly stands out in its unmatched capabilities to create new revenue opportunities in ticketing, hospitality and donor engagement through innovative technology and a keen understanding of the needs of their customers. Their proven track record has delivered for partners on intelligent marketing backed by superb sales and service.
“Playfly is rapidly expanding its ability to use data and technology to strengthen fan engagement and adding The Aspire Group’s incredible team and capabilities will further fuel our ability to get closer to fans at the height of their sports passion to drive key revenue targets for our partners.”
Playfly Sports’ Data and Technology divisions will also enhance Aspire’s capabilities with AI-driven ticketing technology, deeper fan insights, additional workflow management, donor platforms and added resources.
Bill Fagan, president and chief executive of The Aspire Group, added: “Playfly is focused on growth through innovation, technology and strong relationships, all components that are critically important to everyone at Aspire.
“We knew that joining Playfly Sports would help us take the next step in our evolution and provide significant investment support. All of us are really excited that our experience and expertise will drive many new revenue opportunities for our partners and the industry as a whole.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.