You know the athlete better than anyone. You train next to them, you race against them, you see the 5am sessions and the part-time jobs that pay for petrol to competition. If someone in your world deserves a funded journey on ralli, you can be the reason they get here — and you both earn 25 ralli Credits (USD $17.50 in real funding) when they do.
This is the complete guide to athlete referrals: how the mechanism works, exactly when the funding lands, who to ask, and word-for-word what to say.
How athlete referrals work — the mechanism
Every approved ralli athlete gets a personal referral link, found in your Athlete Referrals hub. The flow is deliberately simple:
- Share your link. Send it by text, DM, email or your group chat. There is no limit on how many athletes you can invite.
- They apply through your link. The athlete completes the standard application — sport, level, story, verification. Your referral is attached automatically, so you never need to "claim" anything.
- We review and approve. Every athlete is verified by the ralli team before they go live. This protects backers and keeps the platform credible — it usually means a short wait, not an instant approval.
- You both get 25 ralli Credits. The moment the athlete is approved, 25 credits land in your wallet and 25 credits land in theirs — as USD $17.50 of real, withdrawable funding each. No forms, no invoicing, no chasing.
What 25 credits actually means
For athletes, referral credits are not points to pass on — they are real funding. Every credit is worth $0.70 in USD, so 25 credits is $17.50 paid straight into your athlete wallet, alongside the backing you earn from members. It sits in the same balance as your backer funding and withdraws the same way — to your bank account, for training, travel, equipment and competition fees. The athlete you invited gets exactly the same: $17.50 in their wallet from day one, before they have even found their first backer.
Refer four athletes who get approved and that is 100 credits — USD $70.00 in your wallet. That is a new pair of spikes, a tank of petrol to the next regatta, or entry fees for the season opener — earned simply by bringing good people onto the platform.
Who to ask — the five best sources of referred athletes
1. Your training partners
The people beside you at 6am sessions are the easiest yes. They already trust you, they already understand the grind, and they have watched you build your profile and gain backers. Show them your dashboard — the backers, the updates, the milestones — and let the product do the talking.
2. Teammates in your club or squad
Team sports athletes often assume ralli is only for individual sports. It is not. A rower, a rugby player or a netballer chasing national selection has exactly the same funding gap as a track athlete. Club group chats are gold here: one message can surface three or four applicants.
3. Your rivals
This sounds counterintuitive — it is actually your highest-quality referral pool. The athletes you compete against are at exactly your level, which means they are exactly the standard we approve. A message like "we push each other every race, you should be getting funded for this too" lands powerfully because it comes from respect.
4. Younger athletes coming through your pathway
You were them three years ago. Junior athletes stepping into senior competition face the steepest funding cliff of their careers — new travel costs, bigger entry fees, no more parental subsidies. Athletes aged 13 and under join as Guardian Managed accounts, so their parents run the profile and payouts — which often makes parents your best advocate.
5. Athletes you meet at events
Every competition is a referral opportunity. You are surrounded by talented, underfunded athletes for an entire weekend. Swap numbers, follow each other, and send your link on the drive home.
What to say — scripts that work
Keep it personal and specific. Generic "join this platform" messages get ignored. These do not:
To a training partner: "You know how I'm on ralli now — I've got backers funding my season and I just post a quick update every couple of weeks. You'd get approved in a heartbeat. Use my link and we both get USD $17.50 in our wallets when you're in."
To a rival: "Honestly, racing you has made me faster. I'm backed on ralli now and you'd be perfect for it — your story is better than mine. My link gets you in the review queue and lands us both $17.50 in real funding."
To a parent of a young athlete: "ralli lets people back [name]'s journey with real funding, and because they're under 14 the whole account is Guardian Managed — you'd control the profile, the updates and the payouts. Worth a look."
Three rules for great referring
- Quality over quantity. Referral funding only lands on approved athletes, so invite people who genuinely meet the standard — a pile of rejected applications earns nothing and burns goodwill.
- Help them apply well. Offer to look at their application before they submit. A strong story and good photos are the difference between approved and declined — and between $17.50 and zero.
- Stay involved after approval. The athletes you refer will mirror you. If they see you posting a fortnightly update and thanking backers, they will too — and the whole network gets stronger.
The bigger picture
Every athlete you bring in grows the platform that funds you. More athletes attract more members, more members mean more backers, and more backers mean a bigger rewards pool when your own milestones land. The $17.50 in your wallet is the kickback — the network effect is the real prize.
Your link is waiting in the Athlete Referrals hub. Who is the first name that comes to mind?