The Quiet Disruptor: How Uptop and John Timoney Gomez Are Reinvigorating Fan Loyalty in the Digital Age

Growing up in and around New York City, John Timoney Gomez’s early years were consumed with sports. His passion for soccer started early, continued with a stint playing in college, and now is a major part of his professional life. Along the way, Gomez also developed a deep interest in numbers. After a somewhat rare high school statistics class, he had the epiphany that numbers were a “way to understand our lived reality.” It was an early signal of where his career path would take him. 

After studying operations research in college, a field of mechanical engineering focused on optimization and practical problem solving, Gomez began to think about how pain points in daily life could be optimized. That mindset led Gomez into fintech and a job at PayPal, where he focused on optimizing transactions and tackling fraud. When he discovered blockchain technology, he used it to create Uptop, a blockchain-powered platform quietly transforming fan engagement in sports and beyond.

A new philosophy on brand loyalty

Like many technology innovations, Uptop reflects Gomez’s background and approach to problem solving. Uptop is a white-label fan loyalty platform built on Avalanche, enabling sports teams and entertainment brands to directly engage with their fans through personalized experiences, targeted rewards and seamless transactions.

Gomez’s deep interest in optimization is visible in every aspect of Uptop, which recently launched loyalty programs for NBA teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons. Unlike flashy tech startups that seek immediate brand recognition, Gomez has taken Uptop down a quiet road. "We're completely behind the scenes,” he says. “We abstract away all complexity around integrations, authentication, merchandise, and ticketing. Teams just get to promote programming, not our brand."

Driving Uptop's high-level vision is the desire to redefine the way fans interact with the brands they love. Gomez sees Uptop as more than a loyalty platform. It's a cultural shift toward authentic engagement and meaningful relationships at a time when most brands connect on third party platforms like Instagram. He believes technology should empower fans by enabling them to experience their passions without unnecessary barriers or intermediaries.

Quietly focused on fan priorities 

Despite its quiet stance, Uptop’s results speak loudly. In Cleveland alone, the platform actively engages over 22,000 dedicated fans, which generates millions of dollars in new sponsorship revenue for the Cavaliers. The platform’s success comes from solving deep-rooted problems around fan engagement in conjunction with fans and teams. In his criticism of how existing fan engagement methods tend to exploit attention without genuinely rewarding loyalty, Gomez prioritizes transparency and tangible value. Early on, Gomez observed how fan interactions were taking place on platforms like X or Instagram, which take value for the parent company and not the teams or their supporters. “Your fandom is usually intermediated by a company extracting value,” he points out. “The value from your attention isn’t given back to the IP rights holder or fan.”

Uptop flips this relationship on its head by enabling direct relationships between teams and their fans. It was natural to build this platform on Avalanche since its success depends on factors like permanence, disintermediation, instant settlement, and composability. Uptop’s approach is predicated on fans maintaining control of their earned value with the option to seamlessly move it or redeem rewards instantly.

"We think of ourselves as builders. Customer relationships benefit from permanence," Gomez explains. "We also wanted a network like Avalanche that can survive technology shifts. We didn’t want something that is locked behind forgotten passwords or outdated apps." In order to return value back to fans and IP rights holders, Uptop uses disintermediation to cut out the "rent-seekers" or social media platforms that derive revenue from being middlemen between fans and teams. Competitors play catch up

Avalanche was a natural strategic partner for Uptop because of its ability to carry out the company’s thesis. Gomez specifically cites Avalanche's established capacity to enable seamless interactions and integrate evolving technologies. This alignment allows Uptop to scale smoothly into other sectors. Already, music industry leaders have approached Gomez, recognizing the value of fan loyalty currencies. "Is a Taylor Swift dollar worth more to a Swifty than a U.S. dollar? Absolutely," Gomez says. "Anywhere fan currency holds greater value, Uptop makes sense."

Another demonstration that Uptop’s thesis is working is that others in the sector are starting to emulate its approach. Yet, the competition, according to Gomez, is still catching up. Legacy providers are looking to pivot their strategies toward Uptop’s model, but Gomez remains unconcerned. "If you’re copying, you’ll never be first," he asserts confidently. He emphasizes that Uptop has "created a new category," and their roadmap remains ahead of competitors.

Turning a simple promise into a viable business plan

Looking forward, Gomez sees Uptop becoming central to daily life for passionate fans around the world. "In five years, when you have a 10-minute coffee break, you're coming to us for highly personalized content around things you deeply care about," he says. Today’s sports fans juggle fragmented experiences from ticket purchases to merchandise and social media interactions all across disconnected platforms. Uptop is working to unify this by creating a coherent place for the entire fan journey that benefits fans and teams alike. 

Gomez emphasizes that Uptop isn't just a single-use app. It's an evolving ecosystem designed to integrate new technologies and future-proof fan experiences. This adaptability ensures the platform remains relevant and valuable as fan expectations and technological possibilities expand. 

As Uptop grows, Gomez sees enormous potential in international markets. Discussions are underway with major leagues, national teams, and even entirely new digital-first sporting concepts worldwide. Ultimately, Gomez and Uptop represent a shift in the cultural fabric of fan engagement. Their quiet disruption emphasizes real-world outcomes over hype. "We’ve delivered special moments like courtside seats, all-expense-paid away games, and unique fan experiences. We’re making fans genuinely happy," Gomez notes proudly. 

Fans deserve recognition and rewards for their authentic commitment and enthusiasm. Uptop’s goal is to create measurable value for fans and teams and let the results tell the story. It’s a distinctly pragmatic philosophy, built not on speculation, but on tangible improvements in the lives of teams and their supporters. As Gomez puts it, "It has to make the pie bigger for everyone involved. That’s why rights holders adopt it. It’s a win-win." The ongoing success of Uptop’s platform demonstrates that a quiet and thoughtful approach to a specific challenge can yield impressive results. One meaning interaction at a time, Gomez and Uptop are redefining the nature of fan loyalty.