Please note: The site is live and ready for donation until 7:30pm Saturday the 13th of December. Visit Sporting Karma.

Well I have harped on for the past few weeks about this grand new idea I have created, and finally I can reveal all. This is an idea I have had for a few years but never did anything with. I finally managed to get some friends together over a weekend and we entered a local competition and created the product in just 2 days. What we created is Sporting Karma.

So what is Sporting Karma?

Sporting Karma is going to be your favourite Charity app, favourite live score app and favourite Sporting Prizes app.

For now we will concentrate on specific sporting events. But eventually it will be available for every sporting event in every country.

The general idea is that you find whatever game you want and then pledge to donate a certain amount based on how well your team or favourite sportsperson does. You earn Karma points for every $1 you donate and these points can be used to go into prize draws.

For example, you can give $1 to your charity of choice for every Ace Roger Federer hits at the Australia Open. You would then use your Karma point to enter a draw to win his signed tennis racquet or even a meet and greet with him.

Or you could donate $5 for every 6 that Dave Warner hits in a T20 match and go into the draw to win a signed bat, or $10 for every goal Australia score in the Asian cup and win a signed jersey. You can even choose to donate if certain conditions are met. So you can donate only if your team wins.

Once you have donated, you can use the livescore app to see your donation grow in real time. You can not only see how much you have given, but the total donated from that match, which side’s fans are more generous and if a game is going down to the wire you can donate some “Instant Karma” to get your team over the line.

Our first game

I’m a local Wollongong boy and there is no more community oriented team then the Wollongong Hawks. It was a simple decision to approach them and see if they would like to be the first test case for Sporting Karma. They loved the concept and said yes straight away. We decided that the game on the 13th of December would be perfect as it is against our biggest rivals (The Sydney Kings).

We decided to keep the first test as simple as possible, so people only have two choices to make. They will choose the amount they want to give per point scored and which team they want to support. All donations will also go to our chosen game night charity (Kidzwish). All donations are also tax deductible.

An example: Someone comes to the site and says “I will donate 50c for every point the Wollongong Hawks score.”

The Hawks are averaging 72 points per game, so this person will donate about $36 to Kidzwish. They then receive 36 entries in the Prize draw.

The Prizes

We have a few prizes for our first game. If you donate per Hawks point scored, you will go into the draw to win a signed and framed Hawks jersey or VIP tickets to the next match. If you are a Kings supporter then you could win a signed jersey or a family pass to the next game. As we are launching in Wollongong, there will be a lot more donations for the Hawks, if you have ever wanted to win anything then I would say donate to the Kings side, you would have a massive chance of winning the signed jersey.

How much are we hoping to raise?

The site is still not up right now (we are still ironing out all the bugs). But the response has been amazing. Firstly a massive thank you to the Tibra Foundation, this company gives more back to the Wollongong community then any other organisation. They have said they will match all donations dollar for dollar up to $10,000. We have already received commitments from Rams, Topsport, Sportpunter and others to the tune of $70 a point. That’s already $5,000 committed and $5,000 matched . I’m hoping that the fans donate the next $5,000 and that will also be matched. If we can raise $20,000 in total for Kidzwish than I will be ecstatic.

The Research

There is actual research that shows that this might just be the best way to generate donations to charity. Current research by John List of Chicago University has found that we are approaching people all wrong when it comes to giving. We need to appeal to their self interest instead of the cause, givers are also more likely to donate if there is a prize involved, more likely to donate if they see a celebrity or friend donate and also if they see that their donation will be matched dollar for dollar by someone else. We have incorporated all the findings into this app.

Currently if you signed up via door knockers or Charity muggers in our shopping centers, 100% of your donation for the first year never reaches the Charity. The person signing you up gets a big commission and the marketing company keeps the rest. It’s a joke, but Charities are happy with whatever they can get and let these marketing companies ruin their good name.

The future

This is just the first phase of what I hope to achieve. I have a number of ideas that will hopefully make Sporting Karma synonymous with sport and giving. The next step is to get Sporting Karma integrated into Sportsbook systems. When you place a bet you should be able to state what percentage of your winnings you would like to donate to charity. If I have $100 on a horse paying $10, I would happily give 1% to charity if it got up. If the horse did win, I would win $900 and send $9 to charity. I also receive Karma points and can then enter draws to win freebets, merchandise, trips and so on. Every bet you place should also earn you karma points to be used in the same draws.

There is a long list of potential uses for Sporting Karma, but as always, I will take things slowly. Let’s make this first test a huge success and then I can move forward with the idea.

How you can help

There is just one thing I want you to do. I realise you might not be a Hawks or Kings fan, but this is more about the idea. Please head to the Sporting Karma website and donate. You can donate as little as 10c per point (total cost will be a tax deductible donation of about $8). If you own a business and would like to become a game day sponsor then just email me and I can set that up also.

That is my only ask, that you support the idea and let me know it’s something that sporting fans want. I see it as a win win situations for everyone involved. The fans get to be more involved with the teams results and win great prizes, Sporting teams and players get to show their community spirit, Charities get more donations. How can you not like that.