Imagine if your company could enjoy the same fanatical brand loyalty that a football team stimulates in its fans. It was this simple premise that led Gavin Dein to set up his loyalty management company, Reward, in 2001. Reward was first designed for football supporters, explains Dein: "We get together a load of people and find out where they want to shop," he explains. "Then we recruit merchants and we create a relevant set of rewards for each of the different people we sign up." The company awards loyalty points to fans each time they purchase items from a participating retailer, to be redeemed against rewards such as merchandise, a season ticket or a shoot-out with players at their favourite club. It's since diversified into rugby, cricket, cinema and charitable donations.

Dein knows all about the mindset of fans. Prior to starting Reward, he was fan relationship manager at Arsenal FC (his father is Arsenal's former vice chairman, David Dein). He says that a lifelong knowledge of the sport has helped him grow his own business. "I think understanding the most loyal customers you could ever get has helped us expand our business into other areas. It's knowing what drives people and then changing their consumer behaviour."

Although the feeling within a football club's fan base—what Dein calls "passion centres"—can never be fully replicated in the commercial world, Dein says this is no bar to the success of his concept. "Retailers will never get the level of loyalty that passion centres enjoy with their members, but we remind them that while they are helping fans pay for their passion, those people will be loyal." The retailers—which now number 3,000 high-street shops and 5,000 retail websites—and clubs pay a commission to Reward for any new business.

He admits he started the business "to make a lot of money". After injecting his personal cash into the business—"I could afford to gamble everything I had to try and hit the big time"—he then sought out an investor, plumping for the producers of the Tesco and Nectar loyalty cards, ID Data. Projected turnover for 2008-9 is £3-5m.

While continuing to invest in R&D, Dein says he is thinking about what other passions the business can move into. "We've got a foothold in the UK in football [it runs loyalty programmes for 80 clubs]. Now we're rolling round to see if there are other [passion] groups big enough".

His father has proved useful, admits Dein. "He's an entrepreneur, so he gives good advice. And there are also his contacts. But I'm a big believer that contacts only get you so far. You need a big proposition to get you through the door."