The fintech lender Avant will have a major presence in Saint Paul, Minnesota, this week amid the hoopla surrounding Major League Soccer’s All-Star Game.
The Chicago-based company recently became the league’s exclusive credit card sponsor — part of a play for growth in a sport whose fans skew younger and more diverse than other US professional sports leagues.
The exact length of the multi-year deal and its financial terms were not disclosed.
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Avant sees the MLS sponsorship as a way to reach “underbanked” fans, said Kevin Chin, the fintech’s head of business development and partnerships.
“Individuals that are normally turned away by large incumbent banks are customers for whom we strive to deliver value,” he said during an interview. “Partnering with a world-class brand will give an immediate boost to our own brand from day one and allow us exclusive access to their customer base.”
Avant launched in 2013 as an online lender focused on consumers with below-prime credit scores. In 2017, it added a credit card, which targeted Americans with FICO scores between 550 and 700. Last year, Avant bought the neobank Level, and it plans to launch mobile banking soon, according to the company’s website.
The MLS deal is centered around Avant’s MLS Forward credit card, which offers perks such as rewards for purchases of MLS merchandise, food and gas, as well as early access to ticket purchases and express entry to special events like the All-Star Game on Wednesday and the MLS Cup.
Avant also gets a license to create specific credit card designs for 21 MLS clubs in the United States. (Bank of Montreal currently offers credit cards that are branded for the league’s three Canadian franchises.) And it becomes the official credit card sponsor of Major League Soccer’s digital-gaming league eMLS.
In addition, Avant will be the “presenting sponsor” of MLS matches broadcast on the Spanish-language network Univision during the second half of the season. And its logo will appear in stadium lights during other nationally televised games.
The soccer sponsorship is an example of how fintechs are increasingly competing for high-profile sports marketing opportunities.
Since 2018, the number of fintech and cryptocurrency brands that buy sports sponsorships and media deals has increased by 20%, according to an April report from the data provider SponsorUnited.
“Avant wants to place themselves in that conversation,” SponsorUnited President Bob Lynch said in an email.
Avant’s focus on consumers who lack access to credit from traditional banks could resonate with soccer’s US fanbase. Consumers who have trouble accessing mainstream credit from banks include many younger adults and immigrants.
American soccer fans are younger than those of other sports, according to a report published in April by the research firm Morning Consult. Some 38% of the sport’s fans are between the ages of 18 and 34, compared with 30% of all sports fans, according to the report.
Soccer also has the most diverse fan base among major sports, according to the Morning Consult research. People of color represent 40% of the sport’s fan base, with Hispanics representing 27% of all adults who identify as soccer fans.
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