Fractional CMO for Sports Startups
Senior marketing leadership for sports-tech and fan-economy companies, from a leader who invented creator-led NFL broadcasting on Prime Video and launched Twitch's sports vertical.
Book a Call →Built for the Fan Economy
Field Vision provides fractional CMO and marketing leadership to sports startups, sports-technology companies, and fan-economy brands. The firm is led by David Hampian, a marketing executive who built marketing for sports at platform scale, inventing creator-led NFL broadcasting on Prime Video, launching Twitch's sports vertical including NFL co-streaming, and standing up a sportsbook from scratch at Hard Rock. Field Vision is currently helping StreamU build what its co-founder calls "a first-of-its-kind go-to-market strategy that will change college sports forever." Using the proprietary ABCT®, SCORE®, and CGS® frameworks, Field Vision helps seed-to-Series D sports companies turn fans into a repeatable growth engine, senior fractional CMO leadership without the $500K+ cost of a full-time hire.
Where We've Done It
Sports growth is event-driven and fan-powered, not subscription-default. Field Vision's leadership built marketing for sports at the platforms inventing how fans watch, bet, and engage.
Prime Video (NFL)
Invented creator-led NFL broadcasting for Thursday Night Football.
Read case study →Hard Rock Bet
Launched a sports-betting product from scratch, brand to acquisition.
Read case study →
StreamU
Building a go-to-market strategy to change college sports.
UC Berkeley
Fan acquisition and engagement work with Cal Athletics.
Arena
Lifecycle and referral systems bringing fans and members back.
Sports Isn't a Subscription Playbook
Sports demand spikes around games, seasons, and moments, and fans are driven by identity and community, not a steady SaaS funnel. A generalist optimizes for evergreen acquisition and misses the event-native systems that actually grow a fan base.
- ✗ Optimizes for steady acquisition and misses the spikes that matter
- ✗ Treats fans like generic users instead of an identity-driven community
- ✗ Has no system to capture event attention into year-round engagement
- ✗ Applies a subscription playbook to event- and fan-driven products
- ✗ Has never operated inside sports broadcasting, betting, or fan platforms
- ✓ Builds event-native marketing systems tuned to games and seasons
- ✓ Activates fandom and community as the core acquisition engine
- ✓ Captures peak-moment attention into year-round engagement
- ✓ Sequences acquisition, retention, and monetization for the fan economy
- ✓ Brings the playbook from Prime Video NFL, Twitch, and Hard Rock Bet
What We Do for Sports Companies
Fan Acquisition
Event- and identity-native acquisition that grows your fan base around games, seasons, and cultural moments, not just evergreen ads.
Engagement & Retention
Lifecycle and community systems that turn peak-moment attention into year-round engagement, so fans come back between events.
Monetization Strategy
Tickets, memberships, betting, subscriptions, and commerce, sequenced so monetization grows with fandom instead of fighting it.
Go-to-Market for New Products
Launch strategy for sports-tech, NIL, and fan platforms, built on audience intelligence and the channels where fans actually gather.
Marketing Operating System
Dashboards, workflows, and reporting that keep an event-driven business running on a system, tied to the metrics your board cares about.
Team & Vendor Build
Hiring roadmaps, vendor selection, and org design to build the marketing team your sports company needs, then transfer it to you.
Who This Is For
This engagement is built for founders and CEOs of sports companies who need experienced marketing leadership now, not six months from now. If any of these sound familiar, fractional CMO leadership may be the right move.
- ✓ Building a sports-tech, NIL, or fan platform and need a go-to-market plan
- ✓ See big spikes around events but can't retain fans between them
- ✓ Ready to turn fandom into memberships, tickets, or subscriptions
- ✓ Launching into a new league, school, or fan base and need a strategy
- ✓ Have a marketing team but no senior leader who understands sports
- ✓ Want someone who built sports marketing at Prime Video and Twitch scale
FAQ
What does a fractional CMO for a sports startup actually do?
A fractional CMO for a sports startup is a senior marketing executive who embeds with your team part-time, typically 2 to 3 days per week, to own marketing strategy and build the systems that grow your fan base. For a sports company that means fan acquisition tuned to events and identity, engagement and retention between games, monetization across tickets, memberships, betting, or subscriptions, go-to-market for new products, and the operating system and team to run it. Field Vision does this without the $500K+ cost of a full-time CMO, and is built to transfer the playbook to your team.
Why hire a fractional CMO from sports instead of a generalist?
Sports marketing is event-driven and fan-powered: demand spikes around games and seasons, and fans are motivated by identity and community rather than a steady funnel. A generalist optimizes for evergreen acquisition and misses the event-native systems that grow a fan base. Field Vision's leadership built sports marketing at platform scale, creator-led NFL broadcasting on Prime Video, Twitch's sports vertical, and a sportsbook launch at Hard Rock, so the strategy starts from how fandom actually grows.
How do sports startups acquire and retain fans?
Fan growth is event-native. Acquisition concentrates around games, seasons, and moments, using community, creators, and identity rather than generic ads. The harder problem is retention: capturing peak-moment attention into year-round engagement through lifecycle programs, community, and content between events. Monetization, tickets, memberships, betting, subscriptions, then layers on as fandom deepens. Field Vision builds these as one connected system using the SCORE® and Compound Growth System (CGS®) frameworks.
How much does a fractional CMO for a sports company cost?
Fractional CMO engagements typically run between $5,000 and $15,000 per month depending on scope and time commitment, structured as a monthly retainer based on roughly 2 to 3 days per week. That is a fraction of a full-time CMO, which exceeds $500K in total compensation once salary, equity, benefits, and recruiting are included. The right number depends on your stage, team, and goals, which is what the discovery call is for.
Do you work with early-stage sports startups, or only funded companies?
Field Vision works with sports companies from seed through Series D, including NIL and college-sports startups. Earlier-stage companies usually need positioning, a focused go-to-market motion, and the first repeatable fan-growth loops; later-stage companies need to scale systems, build the team, and tighten monetization. The engagement is scoped to your stage, and because it's built to transfer, you end up owning the systems.
What makes marketing a sports product different from other consumer apps?
Sports demand is event-driven, so attention arrives in spikes around games and seasons rather than a steady stream. Fans are motivated by identity, rivalry, and community, which makes fandom and creators stronger acquisition drivers than paid ads. And monetization spans tickets, memberships, betting, and subscriptions that have to grow with fandom rather than against it. A marketing system that ignores these underperforms, which is exactly the gap Field Vision is built to close for sports startups.
Ready to Grow Your Sports Company?
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk about where your marketing is today, where you want to take your fan base, and whether Field Vision is the right fit.
Book a Call →