Playfly Sports Acquires The Aspire Group To Expand Ticket And Hospitality Offerings To College And Professional Team Partners

The acquisition of The Aspire Group will be the cornerstone of Playfly’s new tech-infused ‘Gameday’ division focused on driving matchday revenues.

BERWYN, PA – Playfly Sports, the emerging leader in sports media, marketing and technology, today announced the acquisition of The Aspire Sport Marketing Group, which will deliver strategic planning, analytics and marketing services as well as ticket and hospitality sales and service to their current roster of partners, Playfly partners, and other industry clients. The Aspire Group, a sports and entertainment marketing firm globally recognized for consulting, research, and ticket sales created the outsourced third-party ticket industry and has generated over $1.5 Billion in revenue for its partners. Aspire brings its experience working with more than 300 college and professional partners into the Playfly portfolio, adding 166 new team members who engage with over one million fans annually to the Playfly family. Aspire’s expertise in cultivating fan relationships, improving the fan experience and ultimately driving more revenue for its partners is a perfect pairing with Playfly’s broader vision to build and deliver a fandom-based proprietary platform. Aspire and Playfly already support five shared collegiate partners: the University of Maryland, University of Denver, George Mason University, San Jose State University, and University of Richmond.

“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,” said Michael Schreiber, Playfly Sports CEO & Founder. “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 immediately enhance Aspire’s capabilities with AI-driven ticketing technology, deeper fan insights, additional workflow management, donor platforms, and added resources that better serve the rapidly evolving ticketing and hospitality industry and its clients.

Playfly’s acquisition of The Aspire Group will continue the industry-leading success put forth by Aspire Founder, Dr. Bernie Mullin, and President and CEO, Bill Fagan. The Aspire Group will provide expert support in ticket marketing, sales, and service, as well as donor prospecting programs via their custom fan relationship management centers, strategic planning and consulting, and sales training for staffs large and small. Already deeply embedded within the professional and collegiate athletics communities, The Aspire Group will partner with Playfly’s entire network of partners and growing insights division to actualize the new frontier of ticket marketing, sales, and service strategy that is backed by fan data activation.

“Playfly is focused on growth through innovation, technology and strong relationships, all components that are critically important to everyone at Aspire,” said Bill Fagan, President and CEO of The Aspire Group. “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.”

Aspire’s trusted sales approach will lay the foundation for a supercharged end-to-end ticketing division and the launch of Playfly Gameday, a new division within the Playfly portfolio that will work to provide new avenues for revenue generation through turnkey fan engagement solutions, premium experiences and more advanced technologies. The team will be led by industry veteran A.J. Machosky, who will serve as SVP of New Business and Head of Playfly Gameday and includes Events & Experiential Services, Hospitality Development, and Venue Monetization Consulting Services, in addition to Aspire’s Ticketing unit.

“Playfly Gameday is all about attracting the next generation of fans while strengthening our partners’ existing base,” said Machosky. “With the major pieces already in place, including an established partnership with best-in-class Playfly Insights division, we are eager to get to work on creating and discovering meaningful new revenue streams for teams and organizations across the country, beginning with Playfly’s impressive portfolio of current college and professional team partners. Playfly Gameday is hyper-focused on the fan journey and how we can unlock content, experiences and environments that super-serve fans year-round.”

Playfly Gameday joins the rapidly growing list of Playfly businesses and services that offers best-in-class marketing and media solutions via Playfly Sports Properties, Home Team Sports, Playfly Premier Partnerships, Playfly Esports, Playfly Insights, Playfly Creates, and Playfly Tech & Digital.

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About The Aspire Group
The Aspire Group is an award winning sports and entertainment marketing firm, named as a top employer in the industry by both Forbes and Back-To-Back Awards in 2021 and 2022 from Front Office Sports. Globally recognized for innovative consulting, ticket sales, and partnership services, Aspire created the outsourced ticket sales niche, revolutionizing with its first Fan Relationship Management Center (FRMC) at Georgia Tech in 2009. Over the past 15 years, more than 300 collegiate and professional sports properties have trusted Aspire to drive revenue, attendance, and enterprise-value growth through the combination of strategic consulting and research, sales and service training, and best-in-industry fan relationship management.

About Playfly Sports

Fan Focused, Data Driven. Playfly Sports is the emerging leader in sports marketing, media and technology. By connecting more than 2,000 brand partners with approximately 83% of all U.S. sports fans, Playfly Sports delivers scalable, data-oriented marketing and media solutions. Playfly Sports operates at local, regional and national levels with a growing portfolio of multi-faceted, fan-focused divisions. Capabilities include exclusive MMR management, media and sponsorship activation, valuation, consulting, and development, custom advertising creative and digital content production, all along with new revenue-driving platforms and technologies.

Founded in September of 2020, Playfly Sports has made an immediate impact on the sports industry. The company is now home to more than 700 team members located across 31 U.S. states dedicated to maximizing the impact of highly passionate local sports fans. Playfly Sports: Fan Focused, Data Driven. Follow Playfly Sports on social media @PlayflySports or visit www.playfly.com.