Mission & Approach
"I started Suportr League and later its CIC counterpart because two problems plagued me. Firstly, independent businesses in towns and cities sit completely outside the big loyalty ecosystems that dominate consumer behaviour. Secondly, loving football, I realised fans have never had a single platform to unite, compete with rival supporters, and earn rewards that actually mean something in the real world.
Suportr league and its Community Interest Company exists to solve both problems in one shot.
We’re building a civic-led loyalty layer that sits between fans, local businesses and community programmes – turning everyday support into measurable local value.
We’re starting in Liverpool, but the model is built to replicate in any town or city where sport is woven into local identity"
The social problem: loyalty not translating into local economic value
Football loyalty is huge. Local independents are not.
- Fans travel, buy tickets, shirts, food, drinks and subscriptions.
- Club and league value flows upwards to broadcasters, platforms and national brands.
- Meanwhile, independent SMEs near stadiums and in fan neighbourhoods face rising costs, thin margins and unpredictable footfall.
Right now, fan passion is high, but local capture of that value is low. Loyalty points and rewards tend to sit in big-brand ecosystems, not local ones, and community organisations and youth projects rarely see direct benefit from fan spend.
We’re not short of loyalty – we’re short of infrastructure that connects that loyalty to local economic outcomes.
Our solution: a civic-driven loyalty infrastructure
Suportr League CIC builds and operates a digital loyalty and engagement infrastructure that:
- Lets fans earn Suportr rewards for backing their team and taking part in community activity.
- Channels those rewards into spend with independent local SMEs via offers, vouchers and reward mechanics.
- Rings-fences Suportr League CIC civic layer profits for youth sport, skills and community projects in funded boroughs.
In practice, that means:
- Fans join via their chosen team and postcode.
- In-app fan activity transforms team loyalty into value and recognition
- Measurable economic value for both fans and participating local businesses - keeping more spend local.
- Local communities benefit from Suportr CIC funded community projects and initiatives
It’s a set of civic rails: neutral, transparent, and designed so that councils, chambers, clubs, community groups and SMEs can plug in – without ceding control to a single commercial operator.
What makes this approach different
Most loyalty systems
Brand-centric, price-centric and data-extractive – designed to lock people into one retailer or platform, with little benefit feeding back into local communities.
Suportr League CIC
Place-first, community-focused and mission-locked – designed to drive local uplift, support independents and create measurable benefit in each borough we serve.
- Place-first: organised by borough and postcode, with local economic uplift as the primary metric.
- Civic-anchored: the CIC mission and asset-lock keep benefits tied to community outcomes.
- Behaviour-driven: we reward loyalty behaviours that support independents, community participation and youth pathways – not just discount hunting.
- Evidence-seeking: the platform is built to generate hard data on local spend uplift, SME performance and community engagement.
Evidence base supporting the model
Our approach is grounded in three clear, proven realities:
- Loyalty mechanics change behaviour. Simple, visible rewards can shift where and how people spend.
- Fans respond to identity-based incentives. When rewards are tied to “my club”, “my city” and “my local”, participation rises.
- Local economies benefit when spend is re-anchored. Even a modest shift of spend from national chains to local independents increases local value retention and supports local jobs.
Suportr League CIC is explicitly designed to measure these effects – through tracked redemptions, SME reporting and borough dashboards – so councils, funders and partners see real-world impact, not just marketing claims.
Long-term community outcomes
Over the medium to long term, our mission is to turn fan passion into a stable, repeatable engine of local benefit.
- Local economic uplift: increased turnover and repeat custom for independent SMEs in targeted postcodes.
- Stronger community identity: visible links between fan support, thriving local businesses and reinvestment in place.
- Sustainable youth & skills support: a ring-fenced share of platform value flowing into grassroots sport, mentoring and local skills pathways.
- Better data for better decisions: live insight for councils and partners on how loyalty translates into local impact.
- A replicable civic model: a template that can be deployed town-by-town across the UK, always anchored in local partners and local supporters.