Bilt CEO Ankur Jain is betting AI and sports fandom can drive local spending—starting with free beers when the home team wins
Jain described an arrangement with Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona, in which fans participating in a team’s loyalty program could receive a complimentary round of the beer at a local bar if their team wins.
Key points
- The expansion is another step in Bilt’s effort to move beyond its origins as a rent-rewards platform and become an operating system for local commerce—under the proposed system, local restaurants and small businesses can use Bilt’s platform to pair with sports teams and drive local traffic through personalized rewards.
- The sponsor would fund the offer directly through Bilt and the bar’s point-of-sale system without needing access to individual customers’ private information, Jain explained.
- The company is expanding what it calls a “neighborhood operating system,” allowing teams and local businesses to connect with fans through personalized rewards, loyalty programs, and AI according to a press release Tuesday.
Moving into 2026 and beyond, sports organizations looking to compete shouldn’t ignore AI.” Leveraging AI for small businesses The rollout of the new platform also impacts small businesses, according to Bilt.
“We think of it as expanding game day into the neighborhood,” Bilt founder and CEO Ankur Jain told Fortune.
Additional details
- The company has already partnered with multiple professional sports teams to make it happen—including the Phoenix Mercury, Phoenix Suns, Houston Comets, Houston Rockets, Houston Texans, Sacramento Kings, and Chicago Bears.
- No better time than now As pro sports have expanded past television screens in the modern day, they’ve become a source of community: fans congregating at sports bars, stadium tailgates, and camaraderie.
- According to Deloitte’s 2026 Global Sports Industry Outlook, AI and changing ownership models converged with sports, media, and entertainment as major forces shaping the industry—which is “inclusive of leagues, teams, federations, mega-events, media partners, investors, and more,” according to the report.
- Bilt’s AI Agents have completed more than 2 million real-world actions across more than 29,000 businesses, with 91% completed without human intervention in the past 30 days, according to the company.
- Sports has never been bigger—team valuations are skyrocketing, fanbases are diehard, and the money in the industry is growing faster than it has before.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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