Chicago startup Tailgreeter might be an unfamiliar name to many, but it's about to get a lot of new eyeballs later this month when it sponsors a college football bowl game on ESPN2.
Tailgreeter was named the title sponsor of the Cure Bowl, an annual college football bowl game that raises money for cancer research organizations. Since 2015, it has helped raise $3.88 million toward cancer research.
The game, officially called the Tailgreeter Cure Bowl, will take place Dec. 17 in Orlando, Fla. This year's matchup features Coastal Carolina vs. Northern Illinois, and will air at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
Launched in 2019, Tailgreeter has set out to be the "Airbnb for tailgating." It lets fans connect with experienced tailgaters and join their party for a price. Similar to Airbnb, hosts can list their space, price and how many people they're willing to accept. The idea started when founder and CEO Nick Akrap couldn't find a place to park his RV during a trip to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs. Auburn game.
Akrap said the opportunity to sponsor a bowl game was "too good to pass up."
"Not only do we get to partner with [ESPN], which is the dream of any sports-obsessed kid our age, but also we get to show college football fans traveling far from home the value that Tailgreeter brings to the table," he told me.
Akrap wouldn't say how much Tailgreeter paid for the sponsorship, which will see the startup's logo spread across the 50-yard line, but he called it the biggest purchase the company has made. Past bowl game sponsorships have ranged from $300,000 to $20 million or more.
Akrap said Tailgreeter's business has grown fast in 2021 as fans are eager to get back to the game-day experience after missing out on live events during 2020. Tailgreeter did more revenue in the first few weeks of this football season than in the first two years of the company combined, he said.
The Cure Bowl isn't the first sponsorship deal for the Chicago startup. In October it partnered with NASCAR driver Josh Bilicki in a multi-race deal to be the primary sponsor on his #52 car, which put Tailgreeter's logo on the hood of the Ford Mustang at the Talladega Super Speedway and other races.
"I can't even imagine what it's going to feel like in Orlando to walk out on the field for the first time and see our logo on the 50-yard line," he said. "To see what our team has been able to accomplish in just a few short months has been absolutely surreal."
Akrap said Tailgreeter is partnering with ESPN Events, which owns and operates games like the Cure Bowl, on several other tailgates during the college football bowl season, including the Gasparilla Bowl, First Responder Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl.