Sportyneo is a tool to make life easier for clubs and their licensees by helping them manage their cash flow for some, and stagger their payments for others. It’s free for clubs, it’s at a lower cost for licensees who can obtain vouchers from partner brands in a win-win system, which Sidney Govou and Serge Betsen, the first ambassadors, have already joined.
Meeting with one of the two partners as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Week organized a few days ago at the Grand Parc in Miribel-Jonage.
What is the genesis of the project?
Johan Gouttefangeas (my partner) and I are the basis of childhood friends from Le Puy-en-Velay. We met on sports fields and we found each other, through sport, not far from 20 years later in Asia as expatriates, he in Singapore, me in Hong Kong. Like what, the sport makes it possible to establish connections even at thousands of kilometers. Johan had a globe-trotting career as a professional footballer in France, Scotland, Italy and Australia, then remained in the world of sport as a consultant for professional and amateur clubs. He was also the president of the amateur club of Tassin (near Lyon) for a long time. For my part, I played football and tennis at a lower level and I was president of the AS Cayres club (43). In relation to these experiences, we realized that there were certain problems linked to a very time-consuming management of the renewal of contributions in September: it’s back to school and families sometimes have trouble getting out all of a sudden between 200 and 600 or even 1000 euros. The solution for them is to establish 3 or 4 checks but sometimes there is discomfort, discomfort with the gaze of the other, a fear of being judged or of disturbing the club. And even when this is done, the problem shifts to the clubs which find themselves having to cash checks on different dates, juggling between different names between the one written on the check and that of the child, etc.
What was your approach?
We carried out a market study of 200 clubs representing 14 different sports to see if we were the ones who were unlucky or if other clubs were in the same situation. It has been found that where taxes or sports halls offer monthly payments and spread the cost over a whole year, as well as leasing for cars, there was no solution to date for the practice of sports in associations.
Hence the idea of Sportyneo!
The idea is to facilitate access to sport and to spread the payment of dues over ten months without this being detrimental to the club. Because we realize on our side the advance of funds in full to the association from the beginning of the season. The choice of the practitioner will be made at discretion, according to his desire and his needs. This allows you to benefit from immediate cash, not to run after checks, not to deposit them in the bank and therefore to save a lot of time. But also by word of mouth to gain members who would be convinced by this monthly payment system when it was perhaps a brake on their registration until then.
So the interest is for the member….
Yes it is the possibility of accessing all sports, even the most expensive. Some sports such as fencing, horse riding or even judo, the contributions are higher compared to football, to name only this more popular sport, because the cost of equipment represents a significant budget. The idea is to relieve the middle class, often forgotten.
And for the club too!
We often turn to amateur clubs run by volunteers who necessarily have an activity on the side, lots of things to do, who want to give their time to help people play sports but who have not signed up to also be a banker, bailiff to send reminders and tell people: “you don’t play because you haven’t paid yet”. It’s this whole relationship to money which, in France, is a bit taboo and when you’re a volunteer you don’t want to waste your time doing that.
Sportyneo, how does it work?
We create for the clubs their own web page with their logo, which allows them to distribute it on their site if they have one, on their social networks, by email or SMS, send it to their members and which ones rather than having to go to a hotline on Saturday morning, can do so from home, whenever they want in a few minutes. There is a very simple side, very practical, very comfortable. All the clubs have to do is become partners of Sportyneo.
How much does it cost ?
This service is free of charge for clubs. For members, if they pay in one go, there are no fees either. If they want to pay in installments, there will be a small cost: let’s take the example of a license at 200 euros that he pays in 10 installments, it will cost him 20.99 euros per month. 0.99 euro is the price of a coffee, a loaf of bread or half a liter of petrol. This slight additional cost will make it possible to advance funds to clubs, to manage all the security of online payment. We developed this service in partnership with Floa bank, one of the leaders in France in online payment security. Some clubs also decide to cover the costs for their members. To ensure that this additional cost is covered for other members, we have developed a second service.
Which ?
We have negotiated with national brands, supermarkets, clothing brands, home brands, discounts in the form of vouchers that the member will be able to obtain according to their purchasing habits. By regularly using these discounts, the licensee will not only erase the additional cost of a monthly payment of his subscription but also save between 100 and 300 euros over a year and thus afford the subscription in his club to practice his sport. For our part, we receive a commission from the brands, and, icing on the cake, we share it with the member clubs in the form of sponsorship, either financial or in terms of equipment and material. So it’s a win-win system.
What sports are you targeting in particular?
Our goal is to have a variety of sports, so we already have hand, rugby, judo, fencing and swimming clubs in addition to football clubs. We are in the midst of developing our services so that they will be in place at the start of the school year in September. For the first year, we hope to help up to 20,000 families access the sport. The goal is to make the sport accessible to as many people as possible. Especially in disabled sports where the cost of equipment can rise quickly. Our biggest challenge is to explain this innovation to the clubs with very simple words and that we have nothing to sell them. On the contrary, our solution saves time and money. Our desire is to build a local network of collaborators to establish links between local shops and sports associations. We are in the process of implementing staffs in each department of France. Our innovation has been recognized by Bpifrance Bourse French Tech, we have just completed a first round of fundraising with investors in the fields of recruitment and training, communication and digital. Other ideas for services or functionalities, in particular grouping on the same web page the amount of the contributions of the whole family that we will ourselves dispatch to the different clubs, will germinate to ensure that anyone can practice n any sport.
One of the main challenges now is to make yourself known.
Sidney Govou and Serge Betsen joined us as ambassadors. We call on other renowned athletes who share the same values as us of mutual aid, inclusion, access to sport to benefit from their image and that people hear about Sportyneo. If you recognize yourself, do not hesitate to contact us.
Why the Sportyneo name?
There is the word sport, there is the word neo in relation to the new solution provided and the Y in the middle means “yes, I can do sport, yes I can gain purchasing power through sport”. The Y comes to link sport and novelty. It is also the sign of victory, but also of sport and pleasure.
Interview by Sylvain Lartaud
