# Sponsors, Rewards, and Monetization Plan

Fan Passport can support commercial partners without weakening the fan experience. The product should prioritize sponsor-funded rewards, useful partner activations, and optional cosmetics over mechanics that make competition unfair.

## Commercial principles

1. **Fan value first:** every sponsor placement should give the user content, utility, status, savings, or a reward opportunity.
2. **No pay-to-win:** paid purchases and sponsor activations must not buy leaderboard advantage in competitive modes.
3. **Transparent sponsorship:** sponsored challenges, rewards, and content must be clearly labeled.
4. **Rights-aware execution:** do not imply official FIFA, national federation, league, club, UEFA, or broadcast affiliation unless rights are secured.
5. **Age and category compliance:** betting, alcohol, financial products, crypto, and other regulated categories require strict age gating and jurisdiction review; youth-safe alternatives should be the default.
6. **Reward credibility:** terms, limits, fulfilment timelines, and eligibility rules must be visible before users invest effort.
7. **Fraud resistance:** reward value must be protected with server-side eligibility, rate limits, account integrity checks, and manual review for high-value prizes.
8. **Privacy protection:** sponsor reporting should use aggregated campaign analytics unless explicit, compliant consent exists for a specific data transfer.

## Sponsor inventory

| Package | Fan experience | Sponsor value | Best timing | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Daily Trivia Presented By | Sponsor appears on the daily trivia card with a reward or streak bonus. | Daily reach and repeated brand association. | Full tournament, especially group stage. | Keep sponsor label secondary to trivia. |
| Stadium Trail Partner | Sponsor funds stadium or host city collection rewards. | Association with travel, local culture, maps, mobility, or hospitality. | Opening week and rest days. | Avoid implying venue naming rights unless licensed. |
| Giant Killing Bounty | Sponsor funds a rare badge or reward entry for correctly backing an underdog. | High social sharing around dramatic moments. | Group stage and Round of 32. | Reward odds and eligibility must be explicit. |
| Sticker Pack Drop | Sponsor funds a daily or round-based sticker pack. | Repeated product interaction and shareable collections. | Entire tournament. | Cosmetic and collection value are safest. |
| Squad League Partner | Sponsor supports friend-group leaderboards or cooperative challenges. | Organic group sharing and repeated exposure. | Group stage through semi-finals. | Anti-cheat checks are essential. |
| Rest Day Catch-Up | Sponsor funds catch-up packs or completion boosts that do not affect competitive leaderboards. | Re-engagement on lower-fixture days. | Rest days. | Do not erase the value of prior daily participation. |
| Final Prediction Partner | Sponsor funds final-day prediction prompt, recap placement, or prize entry. | Peak tournament attention. | Final build and final day. | Legal review required for sweepstakes or prizes. |
| Recap Partner | Sponsor appears in post-final recap or completion certificate experience. | Long-tail sharing after the final. | Final + 24 hours to Final + 14 days. | Keep user memories central. |
| Local Merchant Rewards | Local partners offer discounts or perks tied to non-location-sensitive actions. | Foot traffic or online redemption. | Host city content, watch parties. | Do not expose precise user location. |
| Next Passport Founder Partner | Sponsor supports the transition to Premier League or Champions League Passport. | Early association with long-term football identity. | Post-final bridge. | Useful for apparel, media, gaming, travel, food delivery, and fan merchandise. |

Structured sponsor concepts are provided in `data/live-ops/sponsor_reward_concepts.csv`.

## Reward types

| Reward type | Examples | Operational complexity | Recommended use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| XP bonus | Bonus XP for completing a sponsored trivia or challenge. | Low | Frequent low-stakes engagement. |
| Digital badge | Sponsor-framed but fan-first collectible. | Low | Common campaigns, streaks, collection completion. |
| Cosmetic passport theme | Limited page design, border, stamp style, or avatar item. | Low to medium | Premium or sponsor-funded engagement without competitive advantage. |
| Sticker pack | Extra sticker drop or rare cosmetic collectible. | Low to medium | Collectors and rest-day reactivation. |
| Coupon or promo code | Food, retail, travel, media, or merchandise discount. | Medium | Reward seekers and sponsor ROI campaigns. |
| Sweepstakes entry | Entry for physical prize or experience. | High | Major moments, final day, sponsor campaigns. |
| Physical merchandise | Scarf, shirt, ball, collectible, or print. | High | High-value loyalty or sponsor campaigns. |
| Experience | Watch party, meet-and-greet, VIP screening, travel package. | Very high | Limited premium campaigns with legal and support coverage. |
| Charity unlock | Sponsor donates based on community milestone. | Medium | Positive brand association and broad participation. |

## Reward economy design

- XP and badges should recognize engagement and skill but should not become the only reason users return.
- Reward inventory must be budgeted before campaign launch and monitored daily.
- High-value rewards should use entries or eligibility tiers, not guaranteed rewards for easily automated actions.
- Digital cosmetics can be more generous because they do not create fulfilment cost.
- Users should always understand whether they earned:
  - a guaranteed digital item,
  - a coupon,
  - an entry into a prize draw,
  - a chance at a limited inventory reward,
  - or eligibility for manual review.
- Streak freezes can be earned sparingly, but should not be sold during the tournament because that undermines daily achievement.
- Catch-up packs can help late users, but should not retroactively grant rare live-only badges.

## Redemption flow

1. User completes eligible action.
2. Server records the qualifying event and reward campaign ID.
3. Fraud checks run before issuing valuable rewards.
4. User sees reward detail page with sponsor disclosure and terms.
5. User confirms redemption where required.
6. Fulfilment system issues code, entry, or digital item.
7. Analytics logs `reward_viewed` and `reward_redeemed`.
8. Support can view reward status, terms, timestamp, and fulfilment reference.
9. Expired rewards remain in history but cannot be redeemed.
10. Sponsor reporting aggregates impressions, views, clicks, redemptions, completion rate, and cost per redeemed reward.

## Fraud controls for rewards

| Risk | Control |
| --- | --- |
| Duplicate account farming | Device fingerprint signals, email and phone verification for valuable rewards, referral caps, velocity checks. |
| Self-referrals | Block same device, same payment identity if applicable, suspicious IP clusters, repeated referral loops. |
| Bot trivia farming | Rate limits, answer timing checks, server-side answer validation, rotating question sets. |
| Prediction manipulation | Lock predictions server-side before kickoff and store immutable timestamp. |
| Check-in spoofing | Use broad match-window check-ins by default; if location-based rewards exist, require consent and anti-spoof checks. |
| Coupon scraping | Single-use codes, expiration windows, redemption limits, sponsor-side reconciliation. |
| Leaderboard exploitation | Fraud score holds before awarding competitive rewards, audit top movers, freeze suspicious ranks. |
| Chargeback abuse | Delay fulfilment of purchase-linked rewards until payment settles for high-value items. |

## Monetization options

| Option | Fan impact | Revenue potential | Risk | Recommendation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sponsor-funded daily content | Positive when tied to rewards and content. | High during tournament peaks. | Brand clutter. | Primary World Cup monetization. |
| Sponsored rewards and coupons | Positive if useful and transparent. | Medium to high. | Fulfilment and fraud. | Primary, with strong controls. |
| Premium cosmetic passport themes | Optional personalization without leaderboard impact. | Medium. | Low if pricing is fair. | Launch during late group stage or post-final. |
| Collector pack cosmetics | Appeals to collectors. | Medium. | Perception risk if random paid packs resemble gambling. | Use direct purchase or earned packs; avoid paid random scarcity for minors. |
| Passport Plus subscription | Long-term access to deeper stats, advanced recap, custom themes, and multi-season archive. | Medium to high after World Cup. | Requires ongoing value. | Better for post-tournament ecosystem than World Cup launch. |
| Affiliate commerce | Merchandise, media, travel, food delivery, and local fan experiences. | Medium. | Rights and quality control. | Use only approved partners and clear disclosure. |
| Display advertising | Broad monetization. | Medium. | Can hurt retention and premium feel. | Use sparingly, avoid interrupting match flows. |
| Ticketing or hospitality offers | High value. | High if licensed. | Significant rights and fraud concerns. | Only with authorized partners. |
| Data insights for sponsors | Aggregated fan behavior and campaign performance. | Medium. | Privacy risk. | Aggregated, anonymized, consent-aware only. |
| White-label passport for partners | B2B competition or club versions. | High long-term. | Operational complexity. | Explore after modular roadmap foundations. |

## Pricing and packaging guidance

Avoid over-optimizing short-term World Cup revenue before the daily habit is proven. Recommended package structure:

| Tier | Inventory | Suitable buyers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Community partner | Small reward pool, one daily trivia or collection placement, aggregated report. | Local merchants, fan pubs, regional retailers. |
| Round partner | Multi-day challenge or collection sponsorship during a tournament phase. | Consumer brands, travel, food delivery, apparel, media. |
| Hero moment partner | Giant killing, knockout, final prediction, or recap sponsorship. | Brands seeking social spikes. |
| Season bridge partner | Post-final recap and next-passport founder activation. | Long-term football sponsors, broadcasters, fantasy/gaming, merchandise. |
| Ecosystem founding partner | Multi-passport annual reward wallet presence. | Strategic partners with broad football ambitions. |

## Sponsor campaign approval checklist

A sponsor campaign can go live only when:

- The sponsor category is approved for target user age and jurisdictions.
- Creative copy is approved and clearly disclosed as sponsored.
- The campaign does not imply unauthorized official rights.
- Reward terms include eligibility, inventory, expiry, territory, age restrictions, and support route.
- Fraud controls match the reward value.
- Support has campaign details and escalation contact.
- Analytics tags are configured.
- The campaign has a rollback plan.
- Sponsor reporting format is agreed before launch.

## Measurement

Sponsor reporting should include:

- Eligible audience.
- Impressions via `sponsor_card_viewed`.
- Challenge starts and completions via `challenge_started` and `challenge_completed`.
- Offer clicks via `offer_clicked`.
- Reward views and redemptions via `reward_viewed` and `reward_redeemed`.
- Share cards generated and completed via `share_card_generated` and `share_completed`.
- Referral activation when sponsor campaign includes invites via `referral_attributed`.
- Incremental lift where an experiment or holdout is ethically and operationally feasible.
- Fraud holds, rejected redemptions, support tickets, and fulfilment status.

Do not provide sponsors with raw user-level personal data unless the user has explicitly consented to that transfer and the legal basis is documented.