Sparkfly and PlayOn Sports Partner to Unlock Real-Time Attribution and New Customer Acquisition Across the Nation’s Largest High School Sports Ecosystem

Sparkfly and PlayOn Sports Unlock New Customer Acquisition Channel Across 27,000+ High Schools Nationwide

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sparkfly, a retail technology solutions company having powered over 4 billion offers across more than 20,000 locations for the world’s leading multi-unit enterprise brands, today announced a strategic partnership with PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology and analytics. Together, the companies are solving two of the industry’s most pressing challenges: finding qualified customers to fill the top of the funnel, and proving which marketing efforts actually drive store visits and purchases.

The partnership connects Sparkfly's sophisticated real-time attribution and offer management technology with PlayOn’s nationwide high school sports ecosystem—spanning digital ticketing, live streaming, and sports data across more than 27,000 schools—creating an acquisition channel that's both measurably effective and authentically community-driven.

A New Acquisition Channel Built for Modern Merchants

While traditional marketing channels struggle with rising costs, declining effectiveness, and murky attribution, this partnership delivers something different: access to one of America's most engaged, loyal, and purchase-ready audiences, with the ability to prove exactly which campaigns drive real customer behavior.

“For years, brands have told us they need better ways to acquire new guests and fill their top-of-funnel,” said Catherine Tabor, CEO and Founder at Sparkfly. “Having powered billions of offers for some of the best brands in the industry, we recognized the opportunity to leverage our platform in a completely new way. With PlayOn, we're not just powering our customers' owned programs—we’re opening entirely new acquisition channels with the sophisticated attribution that's been elusive in the marketplace until now.”

The PlayOn experience—including GoFan digital ticketing, NFHS Network streaming and highlights, and MaxPreps stats, scores, and rankings—reaches millions of highly engaged fans and families who are active in their communities, regularly dining out, and looking for brands that support what they care about. Merchants can now deploy multichannel campaigns at the local level while managing them with enterprise-scale technology and measurement.

Breaking Through the Attribution Barrier

What makes this partnership truly innovative is the closed-loop attribution that Sparkfly brings to every interaction. Merchants can now answer questions that have plagued marketing teams for decades: Which campaigns actually drive store visits? Who are the net-new customers we acquired? What's the lifetime value of customers from this channel? How do we optimize in real time based on verified purchase behavior?

“This isn’t just another media buy or sponsorship opportunity,” added Tabor. “This is intelligent, measurable customer acquisition. Merchants know exactly which school, which offer, which campaign drove each transaction. They can see net-new customer identification, understand true incrementality, and build personalized retargeting strategies—all in real time. That level of attribution has been the holy grail of marketing, and we’re delivering it at scale.”

Value for Communities, Performance for Brands

The partnership creates a virtuous cycle: merchants get qualified traffic and measurable results, families receive relevant offers from brands supporting their local schools, and PlayOn experiences gain enhanced monetization through premium merchant partnerships that benefit their communities.

“PlayOn powers the complete high school sports experience, connecting hyper-engaged communities that rally around millions of young athletes who inspire on and off the field,” said Luke Pagano, SVP, Sales & Brand Partnership at PlayOn Sports. “We provide brands with a unified access point to this incredible ecosystem, and partnering with Sparkfly allows us to enhance our advertising solutions with technology that provides real, measurable impact.”

Merchants can deploy targeted campaigns at national, regional, or individual school levels, with the flexibility to test, learn, and optimize based on actual customer behavior rather than impressions or clicks. The partnership enables everything from game-day promotions to season-long loyalty programs, all with the attribution and data capture that enterprise brands demand.

Built on Proven Technology, Designed for Innovation

Sparkfly’s platform already powers engagement programs for some of the most innovative brands in hospitality and retail, processing real-time transactions across diverse POS systems and digital ordering platforms. This partnership extends that proven technology into new territory—creating an acquisition channel that combines the community authenticity merchants crave with the measurement rigor CFOs require.

The collaboration will evolve to include integrated offer wallets, enhanced loyalty program capabilities, school fundraising platforms, and achievement rewards. Future innovations include advanced audience segmentation, seasonal campaign automation, and cross-platform loyalty integration that deepens merchant relationships while increasing community impact.

About Sparkfly

Sparkfly is a retail technology solutions company helping the world’s leading multi-unit enterprise brands unify guest engagement technologies to create deeper connections with customers. Through our platform, Sparkfly provides real-time POS and digital ordering connectivity, sophisticated enterprise offer management, loyalty programs, digital wallets, and closed-loop attribution across 20,000+ locations. Having powered over 4 billion offers for brands running their own engagement programs, Sparkfly is now opening new channels for customer acquisition, engagement, and retention with the precise attribution that enterprise merchants demand. Connect, innovate and grow with Sparkfly. Visit Sparkfly.com to learn more.

About PlayOn Sports

PlayOn is redefining the way schools, fans, and teams connect through live streaming, digital ticketing, and sports media. With a focus on fan engagement and community experience, PlayOn brings every game closer to the people who care most. The company's family of brands includes GoFan, MaxPreps, and NFHS Network, each working together to enhance how high school sports are experienced, shared, and celebrated nationwide. To learn more, visit playonsports.com