Marquette University Athletics (@MUAthletics) is launching Marquette Rewards with Uptop (@uptop_xyz) on Avalanche (@avax) $AVAX, adding another U.S. college program to the blockchain network'
Marquette University Athletics (@MUAthletics) is launching Marquette Rewards with Uptop (@uptop_xyz) on Avalanche (@avax) $AVAX, adding another U.S. college program to the blockchain network's growing sports rewards footprint.
The program opens to students, alumni and fans on October 23. According to Marquette Athletics, it will be available at MarquetteRewards.com and in the official Marquette Athletics mobile app.
Fans create a free account and link a debit or credit card they already use. Points are earned by attending events across Marquette's major sports, spending inside Marquette Athletics venues, and shopping with participating partners. Marquette Athletics names Buffalo Wild Wings, Kwik Trip and Piggly Wiggly among them.
Once linked, Uptop recognizes qualifying purchases at participating merchants automatically. Marquette Athletics says points are added to a fan's balance nearly instantly. They can be redeemed for merchandise, memorabilia, tickets and exclusive athletics experiences.
Marquette Athletics says the program runs on Uptop's technology and infrastructure built on Avalanche. The agreement was facilitated by Learfield's Marquette Sports Properties, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for Marquette Athletics. Uptop is now a Rain company. Rain's announcement of the acquisition states that Uptop's onchain architecture runs on Avalanche and that the platform will continue to operate as an independent brand.
Marquette joins a number of schools already using the Uptop model. In its "Avalanche Signing Day" post, Avalanche said six Division 1 athletics programs are adopting Uptop's model, with more on the way. According to the same post, each program has launched its own fan rewards experience through Uptop on Avalanche.
Uptop's earlier sports deals include the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and LSU Athletics, which launched Geaux Rewards. A Team1 overview of Uptop describes the platform as white-label, meaning teams put their own branding on it, and says the blockchain layer is invisible to fans, who only see the reward. The same piece reports that Cavaliers sponsors saw a 21% lift in spend from enrolled members, though that figure comes from the Team1 write-up rather than an independent audit.
For Avalanche, the appeal is in using the network as back-end infrastructure for mainstream consumer products rather than as a trading venue. Whether such programs translate into measurable demand for $AVAX is not addressed in the sources reviewed.
Marquette University Athletics: Athletics and Uptop Launch Marquette Rewards
