The climax of the nerve-shredding Euro 2021 is almost upon us. Could this be the year that England’s 55-year curse is broken? We will know in just another two days as England takes on Italy and this is going to be the game of a lifetime.
Since time immemorial, UK has been a football-mad nation. In the 19th century, England codified the rules of this game. It is also home to the world’s most famous domestic circuit, Premier League. And not much of that has changed until now. In ‘tis new era of the technology-driven world, it is but obvious that UK is also home to some of the most remarkable startups that are working towards making the game more convenient and how fans can engage with it.
It may have taken 55 years — and 120 nerve-fraying minutes at Wembley — for England to reach the final for Euro Cup this year but we take you through a list of stellar startups that will help your wait for the final match easier and also keep you engaged during the match.
Soccer Manager
Founded: 2004
Founders: Andy, Chris and Steven Gore
Headquarters: Preston, Lancashire, UK
Funding raised: €4M
The UK-based online football game startup, Soccer Manager allows players to manage their favourite team. Founded by soccer-loving brothers, Andy, Chris and Steven Gore, the company’s games are now being played in 234 countries around the world and have been downloaded by more than 50 million players, attracting more than one million active users each month.
Footy
Founded: 2015
Founders: Christopher Wilds, Steven Nelson,
Headquarters: Durham, UK
Funding raised: £1.625M
Globally comparing prices across the football world and the technology it has built, the price comparison website for football merchandise and sportswear is the UK’s leading price comparison startup for football merchandise and sportswear. You can find the best pricing for trainers, football boots, football kits and sports clothing here.
The company is now working directly with over 100 retailers as well as an ever-increasing number of football clubs who are looking for alternative routes to market.
Tifosy
Founded: 2014
Founders: Fausto Zanetton
Headquarters: London
Funding raised: £3M
The innovative fan-funding platform is empowering and enabling fans to invest in the football clubs that they love. Football clubs can create campaigns on Tifosy for anything from funding new training facilities to developing a youth academy. Just as with crowdfunding platforms, fans can financially support a project in return for a reward.
By enabling fans to further support their favourite clubs in such a practical way, the company has strengthened the bond between clubs and their supporters.
Playermaker
Founded: 2014
Founder: Guy Aharon
Headquarters: London and Tel Aviv
Funding raised: €9.1M
The startup is attempting to maximize football player’s development and providing coaching enhancement solutions like never before. It has created strap-on devices for football boots, which are also endorsed by Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s head of football development and used by a growing number of football clubs. Each Playermaker strap packs a six-axis motion sensor to sample movement 1,000 times a second. This helps players to measure and compare their performance in a wide variety of football-relevant parameters. The technology is already being used by more than 150 elite academies and professional teams across the world including Norwich, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Pitchbooking
Founded: 2018
Founders: Fearghal Campbell, Chris McCann and Shea O’Hagan
Headquarters: Belfast, UK
Funding raised: €300K
Aiming to become the Airbnb of sports facility booking, the startup was founded almost accidentally by three childhood friends. All of them were keen sportsmen and were trying to solve the headache of booking football pitches and other sports facilities for amateur sports teams. Bookings for these are often still managed using paper diaries and Excel spreadsheets, making the process extremely cumbersome.
Pitchbooking has digitised the entire process. It lets members of the public search, book and pay for sports facilities in under 60 seconds. The company now has over 1000 UK facilities who use its service. Its clientele has a heavy skew towards football pitches, particularly the all-weather 3G pitches that are sought after because they can be played throughout the rainy British winters.
Expanding its reach to US now, the startup has recently won its first contract with a football facility company in Minneapolis.
90min
Founded: 2011
Founders: Asaf Peled, Gilad Beiman and Yuval Larom
Headquarters: London
Funding raised: £28.3M
The initial idea for the website came as the founders, all of them football fans, noticed that there was little investment in football-related start-ups. Following the concept of citizen journalism, the technology-enabled football news platform is driven by thousands of regular contributors providing hundreds of daily articles in 11 different languages. It currently generates over 100 million page views and millions of active users every month across the web, mobile and social networks.
Coacher
Founded: 2014
Founders: Hugo Cortez, Vitor Almeida
Headquarters: Sheffield, United Kingdom
Funding raised: £106K
When Portuguese footballer Hugo Cortez’s playing career was cut short due to an injury at the age of 22, he took to football coaching and realised the pain points of amateur coaches. Thus, a startup that could help coaches become more efficient and get the best results from their teams was born. The company now collects and analyses data from soccer games that coaches can then use to plan their training sessions.
It makes tools available to help coaches with basic player organisation or to search for training drills and support in planning training sessions by combining the process of managing the team and training sessions with its unique virtual assistant coach feature, that analyses data from games and makes recommendation or issues alerts to the coach who can use it to improve his team’s performance.
Otro
Founded: 2018
Founders: Eduardo Brandalise, Simon Davies
Headquarters: London
Funding raised: €58.2M
The startup is a fan engagement digital platform for football enthusiasts. The platform gives users access to football celebrity players’ content, videos, news, updates, documentaries, and videos. Other platform features include live chats, daily challenges, and player Q&A. Claims to provide player meet & greet, tickets and signed merchandise.
Curating content from some of the world’s biggest players that focusses on their lives off the pitch, the players who have pooled their image rights and content on the platform include Lionel Messi, Neymar, David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane
Copa90
Founded: 2012
Founders: Chris Kelly, Gav Rowe, Richard Welsh
Headquarters: London
Funding raised: $2.4M
Launched in 2012 as a YouTube channel, Copa90 is a football media startup that creates content for fans all around the world. The digitally-connected, cross-platform football fanbase in the world around a combination of fan-centric programming, products and services has over a billion views on their content. With a network of over 250 million and over 500 creators in over 50 countries, the startup uses Snapchat, WhatsApp and other interesting channels to be the next-gen sports media brand.
Football Fan
Founded: 2019
Founders: Amit Singh Rathore
Headquarters: London
Funding raised: £314,701
The startup is an innovative fan-driven app that is changing the way billions of global fans engage using AI, Robotics and Blockchain. The platform follows a powerful concept that is revolutionising the world of football by bringing the fans to a single, highly immersive platform.
Since the launch of its app in 2020, it has had over 3.2 million fan interactions in fan stories, videos, highlights, opinions, banter rooms and reactions to the latest results. Driven by the motto of ‘by the fans, for the fans’ ethos, the platform is supported by several key features, including personalisation and engagement, with fans having the ability to create and contribute their own football-focused content.