How Apollo’s San Jose Earthquakes partnership is part of its larger sports strategy

The World Cup might be over, but the buzz around soccer isn’t dying down.

AI GTM platform Apollo has struck a multiyear deal with Major League Soccer team the San Jose Earthquakes, becoming both a sleeve sponsor and official GTM partner. The Earthquakes’ sales team will be equipped with Apollo’s GTM platform that includes tools for prospecting, workflow automation, and data enrichment.

“It’s that combination of both brands and getting our brand out there, coupled with real results that actually drive the bottom line for businesses,” said Apollo CEO Matt Curl. “With the partnership with the Earthquakes, we’re not just putting our [logo on a sleeve]. It’s really about helping them accomplish their business objectives.”

Kickstarting revenue

Apollo is providing its AI tools and platform in a bid to align the club’s revenue-generating functions, including group ticket sales, sponsorship pipeline management, inbound lead routing, and season ticket renewals. Ian Anderson, chief strategy officer for the Earthquakes, said the move will make the sales team more efficient.

“Sports teams really are operating as a consumer go-to-market engine,” he said. “We have people on our sales teams, our service teams, and our marketing teams that are constantly looking to sell more, sell better, sell smarter, and bring more people into our ecosystem. What we’re really hopeful for at the highest level is more revenue generation, and how we get there is a mix of taking the tools and products that we currently provide to our sales and marketing organizations, which are pretty patchwork at this point, and bringing them all together into one solution.”

Anderson said Apollo’s products will help the team capture the increased interest around soccer post-World Cup. MLS has already been feeling this effect this year, with the league reporting viewership increased 62% YoY in the first three months of the 2026 season.

Big picture

For Apollo, the partnership with the San Jose Earthquakes signifies the platform’s next phase of growth beyond B2B businesses, which have traditionally been Apollo’s customers.

“This is really a blueprint for the future,” Curl said. “The Earthquakes are Apollo’s first professional sports partner. It’s demonstrating how AI-powered go-to-market can transform commercial operations that are far beyond traditional B2B software companies.”

Curl said he sees sports organizations dealing with similar challenges—like customer retention and acquisition and managing pipeline—as fast-growing companies, and sees an opportunity for Apollo’s products to work for other types of businesses.