SPORTINGS Is the First Success Story From the Startupmap Africa–mentorDay Alliance

Most sports clubs in Cameroon have fans who would buy official merchandise if there were a reliable way to sell it to them. Beltous Che built SPORTINGS to be that way — and then proved it before he had to be told to.

SPORTINGS, led by founder Beltous Che, is the first startup to complete the full Startupmap Africa–mentorDay journey: joining through Startupmap Africa's free Personalised Invitation, earning mentorDay's accreditation, and finishing 2nd in its cohort. It's a useful case study for two reasons — a founder who validated demand before writing any code, and an alliance designed to get more African founders exactly that kind of structured support at no cost.

Turning fan loyalty into revenue

Across Cameroon, plenty of sports clubs have loyal supporters and no consistent way to sell them official merchandise. SPORTINGS closes that gap by giving each club its own digital storefront, connected to verified vendors, fans and delivery partners in one system that handles product approval, payment, order fulfilment, revenue sharing and reporting.

The model removes the main barrier for clubs: they never have to build or pay upfront for their own e-commerce infrastructure. SPORTINGS earns when merchandise sells, and clubs take a share of every sale that runs through their store.

Demand validated before launch

Before building anything, the SPORTINGS team went to the market. They interviewed 11 sports teams and more than 10 vendors, then ran a pre-launch study with 160 respondents — club managers and coaches, sellers, fans and athletes. The findings were specific enough to build a product plan around:

• 72.9% of the clubs surveyed lacked a consistently active merchandise channel.
• 44 of 48 club representatives expressed interest in a dedicated platform, and 47 requested pre-launch partner access.
• A pre-launch pipeline formed of 12 committed vendors, 58 VIP users, and five clubs with concrete partnership interest.

In 2026 the team turned that validation into a working multi-sided platform — buyer, vendor and delivery-partner web apps plus a mobile app — and raised $9,000 from two international angel investors.

What the mentorDay programme added

During the programme, Che and his team worked through business model validation, viability and action planning, marketing and internationalisation, and financing sources and strategy. Alongside it, they completed a five-year financial model, a unit-economics framework, a club-first go-to-market strategy, an internationalisation plan, and a $170,000 financing plan. The next milestone is the first end-to-end paid pilot with a club — real transactions, fulfilment, club payouts and measurable revenue.

"mentorDay gave us structure and direction at exactly the right moment. Our priority now is to prove the model with real clubs, vendors and fans, and the mentoring phase is helping us turn validated demand into measurable commercial traction."

How SPORTINGS got in

Startupmap Africa and mentorDay have run a Local Partner alliance since mid-2026: anyone who registers through Startupmap Africa's Personalised Invitation gets free access to mentorDay's acceleration programme — online training, practical tools and one-to-one mentoring with experienced professionals, run as mentorDay's own CSR initiative under the DYRECTO group. Since the alliance started, close to 80 entrepreneurs from more than 20 African countries — including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda and Cameroon — have registered through it, and more than 15 have already secured a place in a cohort. SPORTINGS is the first of them to complete the full journey and be published as a success story.

"Beltous shows what happens when talent meets the right support at the right time. This first success story is the best proof that our alliance with Startupmap Africa works, and we hope it will be the first of many."

SPORTINGS has now entered a twelve-month one-to-one mentoring phase focused on its commercial launch, with that first end-to-end paid pilot as the next proof point.

Quick facts: SPORTINGS and the alliance

Figures, quotations and programme details are from the joint Startupmap Africa–mentorDay press release dated 23 October 2026. Learn more about SPORTINGS and mentorDay, or see the Personalised Invitation SPORTINGS joined through.