Play Cast by Five Star Fans allows college sports fans to contribute directly to athletes through their site via new play-by-play feature
Columbus, Ohio - Five Star Fans is a digital fan engagement platform that was created originally to help athletes monetize their recruiting journey. The launch of Play Cast by Five Star Fans opens their original crowdsourcing model to current roster athletes.
“This has never been done in the history of sports. We are changing lives for these athletes and giving accessibility to fans like never before,” said co-founder and CEO Tina Provost. “We know the college sports fanbase is insanely committed to their teams and want to contribute.”
The new feature includes play-by-play on the site during the game. As fans follow along and athletes make plays, a link to the athlete’s Five Star Fan profile will appear. Fans can send likes, an internal currency, to the athlete. Athletes receive their funds by executing a NIL agreement with Five Star Fans.
“We believe the athlete’s time should be spend on the field and in the classroom,” said co-founder and CMO Jennifer Dean. “We aren’t asking the athletes to do a song and dance to earn money, we want them to earn for just being good at what their sport. Most of the athletes we’ve spoken to don’t want be an influencer, they just want to play and be rewarded fairly.”
Five Star Fans goal is to give college sports fans an accessible way to contribute to their favorite university and athletes without being a huge booster or donor. The company partners with Universities and Collectives to execute the payouts to the athletes.
“As a collective, we are still looking for creative ways to take care of our players without exhausting our donors,” said THE Foundation co-founder and board member Brian Schottenstein. “Five Star Fans has figured that out and made it easy for us. This is the thing that will get the everyday fan to contribute and support our players.”
Five Star Fans has engaged with athletes in NIL agreements to promote the original recruiting portion of their site and this new feature. Athlete’s including KJ Bolden of the University of Georgia and Kam Mikell at the University of Colorado at Boulder were among founding athletes with the company. Five Star Fans has partnered with additional athletes to promote this new feature.
Play Cast by Five Star Fans is now live on the site with a series of select games for weeks 1-4 of the college football schedule with plans to expand the schedule through the end of regular season play.
“With Play Cast we intend to transform the fan experience by connecting them more deeply to their passion, the rest of the fanbase and the athletes they follow,” said Provost. “Fans can feel like their contributions matter and like Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said last week, athletes focus on playing and not be so wrapped up in the business side of nil.”
Media Contact:
Jennifer Dean,
Co-founder and CMO
jennifer@fivestarfans.com
