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Data analytics firm SponsorUnited, one of CT's fastest

Stamford native Bob Lynch has created transparency within the sports and entertainment sponsorship industry, having slowly pulled back the curtain on the multibillion-dollar sector with data analytics hub SponsorUnited. In 2016, the marketing veteran saw a need for easier access to information on sponsors and sports teams, after heading up sponsorship efforts for the Miami […]

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Data analytics firm SponsorUnited, one of CT's fastest

Stamford native Bob Lynch has created transparency within the sports and entertainment sponsorship industry, having slowly pulled back the curtain on the multibillion-dollar sector with data analytics hub SponsorUnited.

In 2016, the marketing veteran saw a need for easier access to information on sponsors and sports teams, after heading up sponsorship efforts for the Miami Dolphins and Brooklyn Nets.

“I saw a gap in information around how these sponsorships are bought and sold,” he told the Hartford Business Journal. “The sponsorship industry and the endorsement industry were growing like a weed, but it was all very opaque. That’s what kind of planted the seed.”

After five years with the Dolphins and a year with the Nets, Lynch realized the information he sought out was hard to come by in all professional sports.

“I thought there was an opportunity to start a company and bring value to this industry,” said Lynch, who lives in Stamford and works out of his home. “I finally said, … you ought to kill the dream or go for it.”

Lynch founded SponsorUnited in 2018 and has quickly grown the 175-employee company, which provides market intelligence on sports sponsorship deals.

The company’s subscription-based platform offers users access to information on 350,000 sponsors — such as Walmart, Wells Fargo and Dick’s Sporting Goods — and more than 75,000 organizations that generate revenue from sponsorship deals. That includes sports teams and leagues, events, media companies, athletes and influencers.

Lynch said SponsorUnited’s user base includes more than 1,200 organizations ranging from global brands like PepsiCo, Verizon and Anheuser-Busch, to major sports teams and leagues like the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers and the NFL.

“It’s a diverse mix that reflects the full ecosystem of sponsorship buyers, sellers and strategists,” he said.

Subscribers pay anywhere from several thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars per year to use SponsorUnited’s platform, Lynch said.

The company’s early growth has attracted investors and other attention.

SponsorUnited in 2022 raised $35 million from Boston-based private equity firm Spectrum Equity. And last year, the company was named the sixth-fastest growing private business in Connecticut, according to Inc.’s annual 5000 list. SponsorUnited grew its revenue 507% over a three-year period ending in 2023, according to Inc.

Recruiting ‘scouts’

To launch his business, Lynch said he used his own funds and learned all he could about data platforms, sales-as-a-service technology and online marketplaces from Boston venture capitalist Chase Garbarino, founder of online real estate experience platform HqO, and one of SponsorUnited’s investors.

Lynch began collecting sponsorship data in 2017 using an innovative approach. He recruited college students from across the country majoring in sports management to take videos and photos of sponsor signage and displays at local stadiums, while also teaching these “scouts” about the industry.

“I had created an infrastructure of kids in every city with smartphones, so I could essentially do this at no cost at scale, getting hundreds of people,” he said. “Buying tickets to the games was probably my biggest expense at the time, and trying to live with a newborn and a 2-year-old and all that stuff that goes along with it.”

Lynch hired a few students to train other scouts and brought on Stamford investor Alain Benzaken as chief operating officer in June 2017, to help SponsorUnited build and test its online platform of sponsorship industry data.

“We had to make sure that the technology actually worked,” Lynch said. “The very first paid client we had was the San Francisco 49ers in January 2018.”

By the end of 2018, SponsorUnited had developed sponsorship data profiles on 28 teams throughout the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and other professional leagues.

‘Smarter, faster decisions’

SponsorUnited provides users a range of information, including detailed profiles on brand sponsors and the organizations that use them, including key contacts, sponsorship spend estimates, active partnerships and marketing deal structures.

It also creates competitive benchmarking reports on sponsorship deals that track creative and social media performances, he said.

“We provide a comprehensive view of sponsorship and media partnerships across sports, entertainment and lifestyle,” Lynch said. “They can also understand category and industry trends in real time.”

SponsorUnited currently collects its sponsorship data by sending about 500 scouts to stadiums in 150 countries, and using data-scraping technologies to gather information from social and digital media.

The company also gets information from news and media sources, and uses artificial intelligence to process and structure the data it collects.

Lynch would not disclose exact revenue figures, but he said the company has made more than $10 million in annual sales over the past several years.

SponsorUnited hit a milestone in November 2024, when it launched a new tech platform called SPND, which stands for sponsorship prices of negotiated deals.

The AI-backed service provides financial terms for over $13.3 billion in actual sponsorship deals.

“For a long period of time, people said it would be great if we could know how much they pay for the sponsorship,” he said. “It took us four years to learn how to do that.”

Paula Beadle

Paula Beadle, founder and CEO of the Sponsorship Marketing Association, said she believes SponsorUnited is the first company to offer this level of detail on estimated transaction prices of sponsorship deals.

“There are other notable companies in the space that provide valuation models, but I believe the technology and level of data that SponsorUnited can deliver is unique,” Beadle said. “This kind of intelligence empowers smarter, faster decisions. It’s likely SponsorUnited has become the Redfin of the sponsorship industry.”

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East Texas athletes fight back after abrupt sports cuts, Title IX concerns

Beach volleyball players like Sophia Myers had just returned home for summer break when they received a surprising message. NACOGDOCHES, Texas — On Jan. 17, Stephen F. Austin State University announced its upcoming beach volleyball schedule — just months after the team wrapped up the most successful season in school history. But 125 days later, […]

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Beach volleyball players like Sophia Myers had just returned home for summer break when they received a surprising message.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — On Jan. 17, Stephen F. Austin State University announced its upcoming beach volleyball schedule — just months after the team wrapped up the most successful season in school history.

But 125 days later, those same athletes were told they’d never play for SFA again.

Players like Sophia Myers had just returned home for summer break when they received a surprising message.

“I got up and. There was a message at 8:15 in the morning from our compliance saying, hey, mandatory Zoom call at one. And so everybody in our group chat is texting like, ‘what do you guys think this is? Just kind of waiting from eight in the morning till 1 p.m. was just kind of — it was torture, honestly.”

During that Zoom call, the team was blindsided: SFA was cutting the beach volleyball program.

Hours later, the university released a public statement: men’s and women’s golf, women’s beach volleyball, and even the two-time national champion women’s bowling team were all being eliminated.

“We even had girls who had committed two days before to our school, to our team, and they’re sitting in on the Zoom call. And it was just kind of like, ‘hey guys, thanks for joining.’ And then they just dumped probably the worst news we could have heard about our program on us,” Myers said. “It was just me, my teammates, and our head coach and our assistant coach, and she asked us, ‘does anybody have anything to say,’ and everybody was just in tears crying. 

Myers recalled being mad and frustrated. She asked how is this allowed under Title IX?

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education or athletic program receiving federal funds.

This is where Arthur Bryant, a longtime civil rights attorney, came in. Myers and five other athletes turned to him to fight for their teams. 

On June 30, the athletes filed a federal lawsuit claiming sex-based discrimination and seeking to stop SFA from eliminating the women’s beach volleyball, bowling and golf teams.

“Well, we have two goals with this lawsuit. The first is to immediately stop the elimination of these teams, but the larger and even bigger, more important goal is to get SFA to comply with the law and treat women and men equally when it comes to participation opportunities going forward, ” Bryant said. 

Bryant’s team says they have uncovered more than a decade of Title IX noncompliance at SFA.

Under Title IX, athletic opportunities must reflect student body demographics. SFA’s undergraduate population is 63% female.

Before the cuts, women made up just 47% of the athletic program. After the cuts, the women’s sports make up 42%.

“That’s way off. It’s mass sex discrimination. To actually get in compliance with Title IX, SFA would have to add over 200 opportunities for women to play sports,” Bryant said. 

Instead, Bryant’s team says SFA has cut every women’s sport added since 2003. The only men’s sport added in that time —baseball — is still active.

The university cited budget issues and looming revenue-sharing rules in Division I sports as reasons for the cuts.

“You can’t discriminate against women to make money,” Bryant said. “You can’t discriminate against women to avoid losing money. You can’t avoid discriminating against women because some people would rather support men’s sports or watch men’s sports than women’s sports. Doesn’t matter.”

The university promised to honor athletic scholarships for affected athletes, but Myers wasn’t on scholarship. As a walk-on, she now relies solely on academic aid.

“You’re going to walk on, and we’ll be able to give you money later, is what the coach told me,” Myers said.

The school is also allowing these athletes to transfer, but changing colors just isn’t as easy as walking through the portal, especially for athletes like bowling, whose transfer portal had already closed.

“We had only a couple of days to get ourselves in the portal and start communicating with coaches, essentially. And I only had one school in mind, and unfortunately, that school had already filled all their spots because the portal had already been open for some time,” Myers said. “So it made things extremely difficult, and also, not to mention, if I wanted to transfer, there would be a good bit of my credits of school that wouldn’t transfer over.”

Bryant noted that normally schools would notify athletes of much sooner than SFA, such as the beginning of the school year rather than the end. 

“SFA announced at the very end of the year when people had already put down money for housing for next year, when they’ve put things in storage, when they’ve left and gone out of the state, when clients have gone, miles and miles and miles away,” Bryant said. “It couldn’t have been worse just how it affected these young women and the men and the team that was eliminated. Just the way it was handled was truly disturbing.”

Despite all this, every woman involved in the lawsuit has decided to stay at SFA. Their legal team has filed for a preliminary injunction, hoping the court will reverse the cuts immediately so the teams can have and prepare for a season.

“Beach volleyball isn’t something that you can just hop into,” Myers said. “It’s a very physical sport, and it takes a lot of endurance, and you can’t just stop playing and then show up in August and say, ‘hey, I’m on the team.’”

And compete in the sport these women love.

“It is really hard to accept and swallow. Honestly, I just — I have no words when I talk about it, because it does affect me, and I know volleyball isn’t forever, and that’s why I chose a school like SFA, so that I could do academics along with it. But it’s like, these are my last four years to finish my sport and, like, be done and come to terms with that. But not knowing it was my last season, and not knowing that was my last time with my teammates is just really — it’s just so sad,” she said. 

When asked for comment on the lawsuit, SFA released the following statement, “The university takes its Title IX obligations seriously and is prepared to respond through the legal process. As this is an ongoing legal matter, the university will not comment further at this time.”

Bryant said he strongly believes they’re going to win this case. 

“We believe strongly that we’re going to get the preliminary injunction, because what SFA is doing is a blatant violation of Title IX,” he said.

The court will hear the athletes’ request for their motion for a preliminary injunction in attempt to keep the women’s sports programs on July 30 to 31 at the federal courthouse in Lufkin.



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Former Longhorn libero Zoe Jarvis makes name for herself in Austin, beyond – The Daily Texan

Former Texas volleyball player Zoe Jarvis’ career has taken her across the world, but it always draws her back to one state: Texas.  Jarvis currently plays professional volleyball with League One Volleyball in Austin and is heading to a Volleyball Nations League tournament this upcoming weekend in Arlington. However, her Texas roots date back to […]

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Former Texas volleyball player Zoe Jarvis’ career has taken her across the world, but it always draws her back to one state: Texas. 

Jarvis currently plays professional volleyball with League One Volleyball in Austin and is heading to a Volleyball Nations League tournament this upcoming weekend in Arlington. However, her Texas roots date back to college when she played for the Longhorns. 

Although her tenure with the team lasted just one year, Jarvis attributes some of her closest relationships on and off the court to her time wearing burnt orange. 

“I knew it would be a high level of volleyball,” Jarvis said. “I didn’t know that I would make some of my best friends. (Texas head volleyball coach) Jerritt Elliot was the officiant at my wedding. His wife was one of my bridesmaids. All of my closest friends come from Texas, and I had absolutely no idea that would happen.” 

She recalls playing in Texas’ Gregory Gym for the first time as a pivotal moment in her volleyball career, but at the time, she was still a sophomore for UC Santa Barbara. Jarvis had her debut there as a walk-on libero before transferring to UCLA for two seasons. 

“My final game playing for UC Santa Barbara was in my sophomore year at Texas in Gregory Gym, and it was just genuinely the most fun volleyball game I’ve ever played,” Jarvis said. “I knew (going to Texas) was an experience I wanted to have before going pro.”

In 2022, after spending her entire senior year in the transfer portal, she finally became a Longhorn.

Jarvis joined a talented roster of transfer players and returners, and the team would end up claiming the 2022 NCAA title.

“Honestly, it was a fairytale,” Jarvis said. “I think we were pegged from the start to be front-runners all season long, but everyone — from the staff, to the starters, to the players who didn’t get to travel — was just so bought in.”

However, as much as her year at Texas meant to her, Jarvis knew that the end of the 2022 season meant the end of her college eligibility. 

With no solidified route for players to filter into professional volleyball in the United States, Jarvis took her talents to Germany for two seasons before returning to Austin to play for its new LOVB team.

Now, roughly six years after her college debut, her most notable titles read as follows: NCAA champion, League One Volleyball inaugural season champion, 2023 NORCECA Pan American Cup Final Six gold medalist and 2023 Pan-American Volleyball Cup bronze medalist.

After winning the LOVB title during the league’s inaugural year, Jarvis credits some of the success to fans in Austin.

“The Texas fanbase—they travel, you know, they come to our away games,” she said. “They just love volleyball. They love us.”

Former college and current LOVB Austin teammate Madisen Skinner echoed this sentiment in an interview after the title game.

“The only option before this was to go overseas and to be away from family, and to be able to compete here in front of our fans and the people who have supported us day in and day out is so special,” Skinner said.

Now, Jarvis will get the chance to represent Team USA in the third and final week of the preliminary phase of the VNL in Arlington, Texas, on July 9, with advancement to the knockout stage on the line.



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NEVZA Beach events celebrated as big success

NEVZA General Secretary Simon Dahl has hailed the success of the two international beach volleyball tournaments held in Bridlington last week – and hopes Volleyball England can continue to host in future years.    With local support from East Riding of Yorkshire Borough Council and Skyball Beach Volleyball Club, the three–day NEVZA Beach England 2025 […]

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NEVZA General Secretary Simon Dahl has hailed the success of the two international beach volleyball tournaments held in Bridlington last week – and hopes Volleyball England can continue to host in future years.   

With local support from East Riding of Yorkshire Borough Council and Skyball Beach Volleyball Club, the three–day NEVZA Beach England 2025 tournament for Senior athletes was staged on the town’s South Beach (27th to 29th June) and followed for a further three days by the NEVZA Youth Beach Championships 2025 (1st to 3rd July). 

It saw teams from six member countries – Denmark, England, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – compete for gold medals and, in the case of the Youth athletes, CEV European Beach Championships 2025 qualification spots. 

 

 

NEVZA Beach England 2025

 

Nevza youth Beach 2025

I am very pleased to have had Volleyball England as the organiser for two successful NEVZA beach volleyball events again this year,” said Dahl, who is also the Swedish Volleyball Federation Secretary General. 

For many players, these events are an important first experience of international competition, and for spectators it is a glimpse into what might be the future stars of beach volleyball. 

I hope that Volleyball England will return as organisers for several years to come.”

32 teams (16 women, 16 men) battled it out in the Senior competition across 56 matches, with Nina Pavolva and Sunniva Helland-Hansen (Norway, Women) and Niko Gleed and Enrique Bello (England, Men) the two winners.  

Another 47 teams (23 women, 24 men) contested NEVZA Youth across 97 matches. 

Stine Finholth and Oda Skarlund (Norway, U18 Women), Tale Fosseil and Melina Mol (Norway, U20 Women), Sebastian Kjemperud and Ludwig Ringøen (Norway, U18 Men) and Andreas Brinck and Villads Napier (Norway, U20 men) were victorious across the four categories. 

Volleyball England’s Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Ford, said: “I am incredibly pleased with how the NEVZA Beach events unfolded this year. 

The success of the tournament was made possible by the tremendous help and support from Leeds Gorse and Skyball, as well as the local schools who provided an enthusiastic army of volunteers throughout both tournaments. 

We are also deeply grateful to East Riding Council for their ongoing commitment and support. These events continue to grow stronger each year, and we are excited to build on the infrastructure and experience gained to not only keep hosting NEVZA Beach events in England, but also to explore adding Beach Pro-Tour events to our calendar in the near future. 

In the Youth event, teams who were knocked out in the earlier rounds were given the chance to play each other in extra matches. 

The final day also saw those not involved in the semi-finals, finals and third/fourth place matches take part in a Queen & King of the Court event. 

Feedback from the competing teams has been overwhelmingly positive and Finland’s Head of Delegation, Heikki Paija, said: “This was a very well organised tournament – the staff and volunteers did a fantastic job. 

IMG_3859

Our juniors players enjoyed it a lot and had many great encounters with players from other countries. We are looking forward to coming next year with even more teams.” 

After providing the host venue for the first time last year, Skyball were pleased to take on the role again in 2025.  

We’re incredibly proud to have hosted the second edition of Beach NEVZA here in the UK,” said Club Chair, Pete Makowski. 

The event was a fantastic success, showcasing top-level talent and bringing the beach volleyball community together. A huge thank you to all the volunteers from Skyball – especially Gabi, Jozef, Marzena, Jack, Sally, Dave, Penny, Jitka, Martyn, as well as Shane for his amazing PA workwho gave their time and energy to make it happen. 

We’d also like to acknowledge the invaluable support from the Gorse Academies Trust, whose staff (Elaine, Nelson and Pete) helped with coaching and contributed greatly to making this event possible. 

A big shoutout, also, to Elliot Hudson College for providing an excellent workforce during their work experience day to help set up the event. 

We’re excited to keep building on this momentum for the future of the sport.”

Read more about the NEVZA competitions on the event’s home page by cicking here.



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Water polo sessions for under-16s launched in Worcester

The Worcester Crocodiles Water Polo Club received a community grant, which will fund the “Introduction to Water Polo” weekly sessions. These one-hour classes, designed for those under 16 of any swimming ability, will be held at King’s School Worcester pool every Sunday from 5pm to 6pm. They aim to teach the basics of water polo […]

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The Worcester Crocodiles Water Polo Club received a community grant, which will fund the “Introduction to Water Polo” weekly sessions.

These one-hour classes, designed for those under 16 of any swimming ability, will be held at King’s School Worcester pool every Sunday from 5pm to 6pm.

They aim to teach the basics of water polo in an enjoyable way, with the potential for participants to progress to club representation at the Midland League.

James Hollick, 12, was one of the first to attend and said: “The introduction sessions were really fun and I’ve learnt lots of new skills in a short time.

“It’s a great way to carry on swimming and everyone has been really welcoming.”

James has already represented the club in his first Midland League under-16s match.

The Crocs hope the grant will increase membership and raise awareness of water polo in the local community.





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New water polo sessions launched for under-16s in Worcester

New water polo sessions have been launched for under-16s in Worcester. The Worcester Crocodiles Water Polo Club received a community grant, which will fund the “Introduction to Water Polo” weekly sessions. Advertisement These one-hour classes, designed for those under 16 of any swimming ability, will be held at King’s School Worcester pool every Sunday from […]

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New water polo sessions have been launched for under-16s in Worcester.

The Worcester Crocodiles Water Polo Club received a community grant, which will fund the “Introduction to Water Polo” weekly sessions.

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These one-hour classes, designed for those under 16 of any swimming ability, will be held at King’s School Worcester pool every Sunday from 5pm to 6pm.

They aim to teach the basics of water polo in an enjoyable way, with the potential for participants to progress to club representation at the Midland League.

James Hollick, 12, was one of the first to attend and said: “The introduction sessions were really fun and I’ve learnt lots of new skills in a short time.

“It’s a great way to carry on swimming and everyone has been really welcoming.”

James has already represented the club in his first Midland League under-16s match.

The Crocs hope the grant will increase membership and raise awareness of water polo in the local community.



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New head coach announced for the UH beach volleyball program

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Danny Alvarez has been named the University of Hawai’i’s new head coach of the beach volleyball program. This comes as the first hire from the new UH athletics director Matt Elliott. Alvarez is the fifth head coach in the program’s history and returns to Manoa after previously serving as a UH assistant […]

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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Danny Alvarez has been named the University of Hawai’i’s new head coach of the beach volleyball program.

This comes as the first hire from the new UH athletics director Matt Elliott.

Alvarez is the fifth head coach in the program’s history and returns to Manoa after previously serving as a UH assistant coach for nearly a decade.

“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Danny back to the UH ‘ohana,” Elliott said. “He helped build UH beach volleyball from the very start and played a pivotal role in creating a program that competed at the highest level. His love for the sport, his alma mater, and for our student-athletes is unquestioned and I know he’ll give his absolute best effort as our new head coach.“

”I’m truly honored to be back at the University of Hawai’i,” Alvarez said. 

“This is a special opportunity and we’re fully committed to making the student-athlete experience the best in the country. Our aspiration is to build a national championship-caliber program. There’s exciting work ahead and we’re ready for the challenge,” Alvarez said.

In his first stint at UH, Alvarez was instrumental in building the foundation for the fledgling Rainbow Wahine program and quickly developing the ‘Bows into a national contender.

The Honolulu native served as the sole assistant coach in the inaugural 2012 season.

He helped numerous indoor players make the transition to sand, while further developing the experienced sand players. 

What soon followed was six straight national tournament appearances, three Big West titles, and the program’s first No. 1 ranking during the 2015 season.

Following that season he was named Coach of the Year at UH’s annual “H” Awards event.

The success continued in his second stint as an assistant in 2023 when the team returned to the NCAAs for the sixth time and finished in the top 10 of the final American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll.

In all, he has coached 11 AVCA All-Americans and 24 all-conference players during his time at UH. 

He has also provided elite training for more than a half dozen professional players, including former UH standout and AVP champion Carly Kan. 

On the men’s side, he has coached AVP champion and Honolulu native Trevor Crabb since 2019 and guided Crabb and partner Theo Brunner’s during their run to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.  



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