Spartan has announced a partnership with Flex, a payments infrastructure platform, allowing athletes to use pre-tax Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds for race registrations. The integration applies to events across the Spartan, Tough Mudder, and DEKA brands.
The partnership enables eligible participants to save between 30% and 40% on entry fees by using health benefit dollars. This move reflects a shift in the wellness industry toward using health spending for preventative fitness experiences rather than just medical treatment.
Based in San Francisco, CA, Spartan is the world’s largest obstacle course race and endurance brand. It hosts more than 250 events annually across 40 countries, attracting more than one million participants ranging from beginners to elite athletes.
Joe De Sena, Founder and CEO of Spartan, said “At Spartan, we have always believed that the best prescription for health is a challenge that forces you to show up. Putting a Spartan event on the calendar changes how you train, what you eat, and how you live. By partnering with Flex, we are making it easier for more people to commit to that transformation.”
Flex provides the infrastructure for health and wellness brands to unlock pre-tax health spending. The platform manages compliance and eligibility, helping businesses access a market valued at over US$150 billion in health account funds.
Sam O’Keefe, CEO of Flex, said “Flex was built to help qualifying consumers use their HSA and FSA dollars on the things that genuinely improve health. For many, committing to and training for a Spartan event contributes to their cardiovascular health, metabolic fitness, muscular endurance, and mental resilience in ways that are clinically meaningful.”
The integration is designed to make the ‘Spartan lifestyle’ more accessible by reducing the effective cost of participation by roughly one–third. Spartan and Flex have indicated plans to explore expanding this payment integration to other areas of the ecosystem, such as training programmes and recovery tools.
