Build a fan app, or add loyalty to the one you have
FanMore works both ways. It ships as a complete fan app for web, iOS and Android with an admin console for the club — and it runs equally well as a loyalty layer inside a team app that already exists. Which one suits you is a question about your current app, not a limit of the platform.
Most vendors answer this question for you, because they only do one of the two. It is worth separating what a club actually needs from what its supplier happens to sell.
The two models
| A FanMore app | Loyalty in your app | |
|---|---|---|
| What ships | Fan app on web, iOS and Android, plus an admin console | A screen or tab inside the app you already run |
| Your app vendor | Not involved | Builds a surface and exposes the signed-in fan |
| Fan experience | A new app, so a download to earn | No new download — it is where they already are |
| Best when | There is no app, the current one is poor, or a league wants one platform across clubs | The current app is good and well adopted |
The full app
The complete product is a fan app on web, iOS and Android, with a separate admin console where the club runs the programme — earn rules, reward inventory, sponsor quests, and the reporting that goes back to partners. It is not a loyalty tab bolted onto a template; it is the app a supporter opens.
It is also multi-tenant, which matters more than it sounds. One app can carry every club in a league, so a fan follows the clubs they care about while the league keeps a single platform, a single integration and one set of sponsor reporting — instead of negotiating the same thing separately with each member club.
Loyalty inside the app you have
If the club already has an app that fans use, replacing it is the wrong instinct. An app is a distribution channel; loyalty is a set of rules about what fans earn for and what they can spend it on. Asking a supporter to download a second app, keep a second account and check a second place is a cost paid in reach, and programmes that begin that way tend to measure membership in the low thousands.
In this model the integration is small and the club keeps its vendor relationship intact. Nothing is taken from the incumbent — no codebase, no roadmap. They provide a surface to render in and a way to identify the signed-in fan.
| Piece | What it is | Whose work |
|---|---|---|
| A place to put it | A tab or screen in the existing app, and a page on the website | The app vendor, or the club's web team |
| Knowing who the fan is | A sign-in handshake, so the fan does not create a second account | Shared — the vendor exposes the session, we consume it |
| Earn signals | Ticket scans, broadcast check-ins, sponsor actions, content engagement | Mostly ours; ticketing needs the club's provider |
| The fan record | Names, emails, engagement history | Lands in the club's CRM — the club's, not ours |
Two things are worth checking in the existing app contract before starting, because they decide how straightforward the conversation is: whether it claims exclusivity over the loyalty or rewards surface even where the vendor does not offer one, and whether a new screen falls inside the retainer or is quoted separately.
How to choose
Take the full app if there is no app today, if the one you have is little used or expensive to change, or if you are a league that wants one platform across every club rather than a separate negotiation with each.
Take the layer if the current app is genuinely good and fans are already in it. Reach beats ownership: a loyalty programme inside an app a hundred thousand people already have will out-perform a better app that eleven thousand have downloaded.
The honest test is whether your app is an asset or an obligation. Clubs usually know, and the answer rarely matches what was said when it was procured.
What does not change between them
- The fan record is yours. It lands in your CRM. FanMore is the processor, not the owner of the audience.
- The programme is designed to be sponsor-funded, so it is a revenue line rather than a cost the club carries. See what a fan loyalty coalition is.
- Earning is year-round — broadcasts, sponsor activations, content, referrals, off-season moments — not only on game day.
- The commercial work sets the timeline, not the build. Partners, earn and burn rates, and real reward inventory take longer than the software in both models.
What to ask any loyalty vendor
- Can you do both models, or are you telling me the one you sell?
- Does the fan record land in our CRM, or in yours?
- If we integrate, what does our app vendor have to build, in hours?
- Can one app serve every club in our league?
- If we leave in two years, what do we keep?