SMS Policy

1. About SplitKit and this notice

SplitKit LLC (“SplitKit”) is a software platform used by US race timing companies (“Timers”) to deliver transactional finish-line SMS notifications to race participants on the Timer’s behalf. This page describes how participant consent for those SMS messages is collected and what participants can expect.

This notice supplements our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Where this notice and either of those documents conflict on SMS-specific topics, this notice controls.

2. How participants opt in

1. A participant registers for a race through the Timer’s online race-registration form (typically hosted by the timing company on a registration platform such as RaceResult).
2. The registration form collects the participant’s mobile phone number alongside their name, contact details, and emergency contact information.
3. The registration form’s consent language states that the participant agrees to receive race-related communications — including SMS notifications about their race results — from the Timer and the Timer’s service providers (which include SplitKit).
4. When the Timer activates the SplitKit Finish Line Notifier or the Finish Line SMS Alerts add-on for that race, SplitKit becomes the dispatch service for those SMS messages on the Timer’s behalf.
5. When the participant crosses the finish-line timing mat, the Timer’s timing system sends a webhook to SplitKit, and SplitKit sends a single transactional SMS to the participant.

The participant’s own physical action — crossing the finish line with their timing chip — is the trigger for the SMS. SplitKit does not send any SMS without that explicit chip-read trigger and the prior registration-time consent on file with the Timer.

3. Sample registration consent language

Timers using the SplitKit Finish Line Notifier or Finish Line SMS Alerts add-on are required to collect participant consent at registration that includes language substantively equivalent to:

“By providing your mobile phone number, you agree to receive transactional SMS messages related to this race — including a finish-line notification with your finish time and a link to your personal results page — from the timing company and its service providers (including SplitKit). Message frequency is approximately one message per race finish. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Your phone number is used only for race-related communications and is not sold or shared with advertisers.”

The exact wording on a given registration form is the responsibility of the Timer and may be adapted for the Timer’s platform; the substance — transactional purpose, frequency, opt-out instructions, and rate disclosure — must be present.

4. What participants receive

• One SMS per race finish. Sent within approximately ten seconds of the participant’s chip read at the finish-line timing mat.
• Content: the participant’s first name, race name, finish time, and a link to their personal results page on app.splitkit.run. A STOP-to-opt-out instruction is included in every message.
• Sender: SplitKit’s verified United States Toll-Free Number, displayed to the recipient as a 1-8XX number.
• No follow-ups. SplitKit does not send promotional, marketing, drip, or follow-up messages of any kind. The finish-line SMS is the only message a participant will receive from SplitKit for a given race.

An example of the message format:

“Devin, you just finished Springfield Half in 2:21:28! See your full results: https://app.splitkit.run/r/splitkit-demo/2004 Reply STOP to opt out.”

5. Opting out

• Reply STOP to any SplitKit SMS to opt out. The opt-out is processed immediately and applies to all future SplitKit SMS, across all events, on all Timers using SplitKit. STOP is permanent unless the participant later replies START to re-opt-in.
• Reply HELP to receive sender identification and the contact email (support@splitkit.run).
• Additional opt-out keywords accepted: UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT, END.
• Opt-out records are retained indefinitely so that the opt-out is honored across future races the participant may enter (see Privacy Policy §6).

6. Frequency, rates, and limits

• Frequency: at most one finish-line SMS per participant per race.
• Per-phone limit: SplitKit enforces a hard cap of 5 distinct race bibs per phone number per event to prevent a single phone from being targeted with unwanted messages.
• Message and data rates may apply — check with your wireless carrier.
• Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
• United States only. SplitKit’s Toll-Free Number sends to US and Canada mobile numbers; participants whose phone numbers are outside this range will not receive an SMS and SplitKit will skip the send silently.

7. TCPA classification

The finish-line SMS is a transactional message under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227) and the FCC’s implementing regulations. It is sent as a direct response to the participant’s own action (crossing the finish-line timing mat at a race the participant entered with phone number provided at registration). The message contains only finish information specific to that participant, with no marketing or promotional content.

SplitKit and its Timers nevertheless honor STOP requests as if the message were promotional: one STOP is enough to suppress all future messages permanently.

8. Roles: Timer is the data controller; SplitKit is the dispatch service

The Timer is the source of the participant’s phone number and the entity that obtained registration-time consent. The Timer is the data controller (or business, depending on jurisdiction) with respect to that participant data. SplitKit acts as a service provider / data processor on the Timer’s behalf for the purpose of dispatching the transactional finish-line SMS, except where this notice or applicable law independently designates SplitKit as a controller.

For the full data-protection picture, see our Privacy Policy.

9. Contact