It started with a pitch at SPOBIS, the sports business congress, and ended in a long-term partnership: that is how HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim came to Paktum. In between was the break between two seasons, and the team made thorough use of it.
Key takeaways
The basketball club HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim and Paktum have entered into a long-term partnership.
We first connected through a pitch at SPOBIS.
Together with Franziska and Lukas, we introduced Paktum between seasons as an all-in-one solution for sponsorship management.
Invoices are created automatically, the LED board plan is linked to the inventory, and partner and contract data sit in one tool.
Making use of the break between seasons
When there are no games to play, sponsorship has time for the fundamentals. Franziska and Lukas from the Merlins used this phase to introduce Paktum together with us. Three results stand out:
Automatic invoices: Paktum creates invoices from the contract data, according to the payment schedule and when they fall due. Instalments, season invoices and extra services all follow the same route.
LED board plan from the inventory: The plan for the LED boards is generated directly from the inventory. Whatever is sold in the inventory shows up in the plan.
One tool for partners and contracts: Partner data, contracts and deliverables are in one place instead of several files.
The aim behind it is simple: the time that used to go into administration should go into partner care and sales. Every hour spent reconciling and retyping is an hour missing from a conversation with a partner or the search for a new one.
Having the onboarding fall between seasons helped. Without match day pressure, structures can be built calmly before partners expect their first deliverables of the new season.
Why the board plan depends on the inventory
In basketball, LED boards are among the most visible advertising spaces. Whoever sells them needs to know at all times which partner has bought how much airtime and what is still available. If the board plan is maintained separately from the inventory, you end up with two versions of the truth, and sooner or later they no longer match.
In Paktum, the inventory is the foundation. It manages allocations per season, protects against double bookings and, if you like, combines deliverables into bundles. The playlists for LED boards and digital scoreboards are built from this data. If a contract changes, nobody has to update a second plan.
“With Franziska and Lukas, we used the time between seasons to introduce Paktum as an all-in-one solution for sponsorship management. Now the Merlins have more time for partner care and sales,” says Patrick Laux, founder and CEO of Paktum.
How a pitch becomes a partnership
At SPOBIS, we meet many people from the sports business for the first time. With the Merlins, the pitch turned into a conversation, and the conversation into a partnership.
What counts afterwards is putting it into practice. A pitch can show what software is capable of. Whether it holds up in a club's daily work only becomes clear once real contracts, real spaces and real invoices are in it. At the Merlins, that is now the case.
Ready for the next pitch session
The Merlins head into the new season with Paktum, with less administration and more time for their partners. And we are already looking forward to the next pitch session with Sören from the Merlins.
Are you still maintaining your LED board plan by hand? Book a demo with Paktum. We will do the pitch, you bring the questions.