Terms of Service

1. What Sponsmi is

Sponsmi ("we", "us", the "Platform") is an online marketplace that connects athletes and creators ("Talent") with businesses and individuals seeking to sponsor them ("Businesses"). Sponsmi facilitates discovery, communication, deal agreements, and payments between users. Sponsmi is not a party to any sponsorship agreement, is not a talent agency or manager, and does not employ Talent. These terms apply to the website at sponsmi.com and to the Sponsmi iPhone app.

2. Accounts

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. Sponsmi is not available to anyone under 18, and we close accounts we find belong to a minor. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information on your profile, including follower counts, achievements, and business details, and for keeping your login credentials secure. We may suspend or remove accounts that misrepresent themselves, abuse other users, or violate these terms.

3. Deals and payments

Offers set out deliverables and a price. When a Business funds an accepted offer, payment is processed and held by Stripe, our payment provider, as described in section 3b. Sponsmi retains a platform fee of 10% of the deal amount out of that payment; the Talent receives the remaining 90%. Funds are released to the Talent when the Business confirms delivery, or automatically five days after the Talent submits proof of delivery if the Business does not respond. Either party may open a dispute before funds release, which freezes the payment pending our review. We resolve disputes by comparing the written deliverables agreed at acceptance against the proof of delivery submitted. Our determination is final as between the parties for the purposes of releasing or refunding held funds. Deliverables, quality, and performance of a deal remain the responsibility of the parties to it.

If a Business reverses a payment through its bank or card issuer, that chargeback is decided by the card network rather than by us, and our dispute process cannot override it.

Each user is responsible for their own taxes on anything received through Sponsmi. Stripe may collect tax information from Talent and issue tax forms where the law requires it.

3a. Deals paid in product

An offer may be for cash, for product, or for product plus cash. Where an offer includes product, the Business is responsible for describing it accurately and for getting it to the Talent; Sponsmi does not handle, inspect, ship, or insure any product, and the held payment described in section 3b covers only the cash part of a deal, if any. The value of product is a matter between the parties, and each party is responsible for its own tax treatment of anything received.

3b. Payments, Stripe, and what "held" means

Sponsmi does not hold your money. Payments, payouts, and the holding of funds between funding and release are handled by Stripe, Inc. and its affiliates. Stripe is the payment processor and the licensed money transmitter for every transaction on Sponsmi.

To be paid through Sponsmi you open a Stripe connected account. In doing so you also agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement, and you authorise us to share the information Stripe needs to verify you. Those are your agreements with Stripe and they apply in addition to these terms. If they conflict with these terms on a question about the handling of funds, Stripe's terms govern that question.

Sponsmi is not a bank, a trust company, a fiduciary, a licensed escrow agent, or a payment institution, and Sponsmi is not a party to the sponsorship agreement between a Business and a Talent. Where these terms say funds are held, it means Stripe is holding them under its own agreements until a release condition in these terms is met. Held funds stay with Stripe, in accounts Stripe operates, until they are released to the Talent or refunded to the Business under these terms. We do not earn interest on them, lend them, or use them for anything else.

4. Circumvention

Sponsmi is free to join because the platform fee funds it. Using the Platform to find a counterparty and then deliberately moving deals off-platform to avoid the fee undermines the marketplace and may result in account suspension. Deals conducted off-platform carry none of the protections described in these terms: no held funds, no agreed written scope, and no dispute process.

4a. Promoted placement

Talent may purchase promoted placement, which raises their position within the "Recommended" sort of the talent directory for a fixed period. Promoted results are labelled as such, do not appear preferentially in any other sort order, and do not alter ratings, reviews, or any other information displayed on a profile. Promoted placement is a visibility product only and is not a guarantee of offers, deals, or income. Fees for promoted placement are non-refundable once the placement period has begun.

4b. Sponsmi Pro subscriptions

Sponsmi Pro is an optional monthly subscription. Talent Pro is $9.00 per month and Business Pro is $29.00 per month, in US dollars. Pro adds features to your side of the marketplace, described on the Pro page. Pro never changes how anyone ranks in search, and it is not required to send or accept offers.

Automatic renewal. Pro renews automatically each month until you cancel. Unless you turn off automatic renewal at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, the subscription renews and you are charged for another month within 24 hours before the current period ends. The price may change with notice; we will tell you before a change takes effect and you can cancel first.

If you subscribed on the website, payment is taken by Stripe using the card you provided, and you can cancel at any time from your account settings. Cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep Pro until the end of the period you have already paid for.

If you subscribed inside the iPhone app, payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, and the subscription is managed by Apple, not by us. You can turn off automatic renewal in your Apple Account settings at any time after purchase. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. We cannot cancel or refund an Apple subscription on your behalf; refund requests for App Store purchases go to Apple.

Refunds. Subscription fees are otherwise non-refundable except where the law requires a refund. A current subscription period cannot be cancelled partway through for a partial refund.

4c. Promo codes

We sometimes issue codes that grant free or discounted Pro. Codes have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, may be limited in number or in how long they last, and may be withdrawn or cancelled if they are shared publicly, used fraudulently, or issued in error. When a free Pro period granted by a code ends, Pro simply stops; nothing is charged automatically unless you have separately started a paid subscription.

5. Content and conduct

You retain ownership of the content you post but grant us a non-exclusive license to display it on the Platform. Talent under NCAA, state NIL, athletic commission, or similar rules are responsible for their own compliance with those rules; Sponsmi does not provide compliance advice. Talent who post sponsored content must disclose the sponsorship clearly, with a paid partnership label or #ad, as the FTC Endorsement Guides require, and a Business must not ask Talent to leave that disclosure out.

There is zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behaviour on Sponsmi.

By posting anything on the Platform (a profile, a listing, a message, a photo, a review) you agree that it will not be, and will not contain, any of the following:

• Sexual content involving anyone under 18, or any attempt to contact, solicit or sexualise a minor.
• Harassment, bullying, threats of violence, or encouragement of self-harm.
• Hate speech or attacks on people for their race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
• Nudity, sexual solicitation, or the sale of sexual services.
• Fraud, including asking to be paid outside the Platform, advance-fee requests, phishing, or impersonating a person, team or brand.
• Offers to buy or sell illegal drugs, weapons, counterfeit goods, stolen accounts, or stolen payment data.
• Spam, or any content that is unlawful, deceptive, or infringing.

We screen content automatically as it is posted and refuse anything that clearly falls into the categories above. Every user can report content and block another user from within the app and the website. We review reports within 24 hours and remove content or suspend accounts that breach this section. Accounts responsible for content involving minors, credible threats, or fraud are removed permanently and may be referred to law enforcement. Our community rules explain how reporting and blocking work.

You must be 18 or over to use Sponsmi. If we learn that an account holder is under 18 we will close the account, cancel any open deals, and return any held funds to the Business that put them up. Creating an account, or continuing to use the Platform, is your agreement to these content standards.

6. Disclaimers and liability

The Platform is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee that Talent will receive offers, that Businesses will find suitable Talent, or any particular outcome of a sponsorship. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sponsmi's total liability arising out of your use of the Platform is limited to the platform fees you paid to us in the twelve months before the claim arose.

7. Changes and termination

You may close your account at any time. We may modify these terms as the product evolves; if we make material changes we will post the updated terms here with a new date, and continued use of the Platform constitutes acceptance.

7a. Resolving a dispute with Sponsmi

This section is about disputes between you and Sponsmi. It is not about disputes between a Business and a Talent over a deal, which section 3 covers.

Talk to us first. Before starting arbitration, email support@sponsmi.com with a short description of the problem and what you want. Give us 30 days from that email to resolve it.

Arbitration. If we cannot resolve it, you and Sponsmi agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of Sponsmi will be settled by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will be held in Clark County, Nevada, or by video or telephone, or in the county where you live if you ask. The arbitrator, and not any court, decides questions about the scope or enforceability of this section.

Small claims. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and this section does not stop that.

You can opt out. If you do not want to be bound by arbitration, email support@sponsmi.com with the subject "Arbitration opt-out" within 30 days of first accepting these terms, saying who you are and that you are opting out. That is all it takes, it costs nothing, and it does not affect your account or anything else in these terms. If you accepted an earlier version of these terms, your 30 days runs from the date at the top of this page.

Individually, not as a class. You and Sponsmi each agree to bring claims only on your own behalf, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any class or representative proceeding. If this paragraph is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim, and only that claim, leaves arbitration and goes to the courts named below, and the rest of this section still applies.

Governing law and venue. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Nevada, USA, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. For any dispute not subject to arbitration, you and Sponsmi agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Clark County, Nevada, and each of us waives any objection to that venue and any right to a jury trial.

8. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email support@sponsmi.com or use the contact page. Sponsmi, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.