SportsMates originally began in 2004 when its founders recognized that niche social networks focused on topics that people are passionate about and that play a role in people's daily lives would provide the most value to users and would have long-term staying power. Having been deeply involved in the online sports media business, the founders knew that sports was the perfect niche for social networking and that a viable business model could be built around the sports social networking concept.

In 2004, Bentley College, a university based in Waltham, Massachusetts, ranked as one of the Top 50 undergraduate business programs nationally by U.S. News & World Report, ran numerous focus groups on the SportsMates concept and held an undergraduate marketing course focused on validating the SportsMates business model. In addition, students and faculty participated in alpha testing of the platform as it was being developed.

SportsMates is pioneering an innovative new business models that assist brands with their sponsorship and activation campaigns and that enables them to connect directly with fans. As part of this, SportsMates has developed a points and ranking system that will soon reward SportsMates members for their contributions to the community.