Bilt CEO Ankur Jain is betting AI and sports fandom can drive local spending

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.

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 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.

“We think of it as expanding game day into the neighborhood,” Bilt founder and CEO Ankur Jain told Fortune. Teams could offer fans restaurant reservations before games, transportation to stadiums and watch parties at nearby businesses—alongside exclusive discounts and other benefits, he said.

Bilt is also bringing sponsors into the equation. 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. 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.

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 S&P Global Market Intelligence’s 2026 Consumer Insights survey in July, approximately 74% of Americans watch live sports. Of those fans, 53% of Americans watch the NFL or college football, 36% watch baseball or basketball, and 20% watch hockey.

And that large fanbase means larger commercial opportunities that can extend past ticket sales. Sports teams have created opportunities to monetize their audiences through merchandise, sponsorships, memberships, and experiences past game day.

The global sports market generated an estimated $463 billion in revenue in 2024 and is projected to reach $610 billion by 2028, according to a 2024 study from investment bank Houlihan Lokey. Sports-related travel alone generated $111.2 billion in direct spending in the U.S. in 2025 as 339 million people traveled to attend sporting events, according to the Sports Events and Tourism Association’s 2026 State of the Industry Report.

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. The firm highlighted the importance of sports venues as year-round commercial destinations.

“AI has outgrown its role as a trick play,” the report read. “For many sports organizations, it’s becoming a whole new game plan. 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. Jain said AI is an integral part of making the system work, especially for small businesses that struggle to manage multiple software platforms.

Bilt’s “Neighborhood OS” is at the center of the new system that rewards users for visiting local businesses, an AI-powered platform helps local businesses attract customers, build loyalty, and grow without replacing their existing systems—“designed to unlock” a $6.6 trillion opportunity in “local commerce.” According to Bilt, approximately $6.6 trillion of annual U.S. retail and food-services spending occurs in person.

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. In one example, Jain described a restaurant potentially using Bilt’s system to recognize returning customers, identify previous orders, provide special offers, and combine existing software into one app.

“To me, the way a lot of these technology companies are looking at AI, they’re all talking about digitizing everything and taking away jobs and living online,” Jain said. “But our belief is that the biggest beneficiaries of it will be small businesses who can now use AI to help them run their fragmented business.”