Paktum did not start with a business plan, but with a club office full of Excel spreadsheets. While preparing for the 2024/25 season, we were working with SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball on a consulting project, supporting the club office and the sponsorship team. The tool that is now called Paktum grew out of that work.
Key takeaways
Paktum was born at SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball, during a consulting project in the club office and the sponsorship team.
It all started with a contract configurator that creates sponsorship contracts automatically.
Every further feature came from the input of SSV Ulm's club office and the Infront sales team on site.
Since August 2025, Paktum has been available to other clubs as well. SSV Ulm is on board as the first club and development partner.
The starting point: Excel, Word and lots of manual work
When a season ends, the busiest phase in sponsorship begins. Contracts expire, new packages are negotiated, invoices have to go out. In Ulm, too, the club office and the sales team reached their limits at this time, because a lot was still done by hand:
Contracts: every sponsorship contract created manually
Invoices: written and sent one by one
Rights and spaces: stadium positions and sold rights maintained in Excel
This is not unique to Ulm. We came across exactly the kind of spreadsheets that we later found in almost every club. Our article Sponsor management instead of Excel shows how to get out of them.
The first prototype: a contract configurator
Our first thought was simple: there has to be an easier way. One phone call to Jens Kaeske later, the first prototype existed, a contract configurator. It created sponsorship contracts automatically from the agreed deliverables instead of putting them together in Word every time.
The prototype needed a name. Contract became pact (Pakt in German), and Pakt became Paktum. Since then, an old-fashioned word has stood for efficient work in the sponsorship department.
Grown together with SSV Ulm and the Infront sales team
After the contract configurator, one feature followed another. The pace was set by the people who used it every day: SSV Ulm's club office and the Infront sales team on site, who look after the club's partners. Every piece of feedback from day-to-day work turned into the next feature:
Rights and spaces: available advertising space and sold rights in one place instead of in Excel
Barter deals: record and value contributions in kind properly
Invoices: generated automatically from the contracts, with a direct interface to accounting
Collaboration: club and marketing agency work with the same data
“With Paktum, we have a central, transparent foundation for managing our marketing activities and partnerships. We reduce manual processes, avoid duplicate work and take the load off our administration through automated invoicing with a direct interface to our accounting. At the same time, we improve coordination with our external marketing agency, create clear responsibilities and gain more efficiency, transparency and control over our marketing revenue,” says Thomas Rohmer, Head of Club Administration at SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball.
From internal tool to company
At first, Paktum was meant as an internal system to support our own work. At some point it had grown so comprehensive that we showed it to other clubs. The response was clear: there, too, sponsorship was still run on Excel spreadsheets, and there was real demand for a better solution.
That was the starting signal for founding Paktum in August 2025. Since then, Paktum has been available to other clubs. The conviction from Ulm has stayed the same: Paktum is your tool, and it develops exactly where you see potential.
SSV Ulm is still on board as the first club and development partner. We have extended the partnership for the long term.
“Special thanks go to the whole team at SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball and to the Infront team on site. For the input, for the patience and for an exchange that has been on an equal footing from the very first minute. Paktum carries a piece of SSV Ulm within it,” says Patrick Laux, Founder and Managing Director of Paktum.
What happens next
What began in Ulm with a contract configurator is now meant to make sponsorship work easier for more clubs. New features keep coming the same way as at the start: from the day-to-day work of the club offices and sales teams that use Paktum.
Are you still running your sponsorship on Excel spreadsheets? Book a demo with Paktum. We will show you what has become of that first contract configurator.