Sports App Gets Crowdfunding Boost

A new app, designed to make organising and finding players for sports matches and games easier, has launched after raising £150,000 via a recent crowdfunding initiative.

Find A Player, a start-up business based in Scotland, has created an app that enables sports team captains to organise their games in one process, and links up people looking for a sports game to join with local sports events in need of bodies.

Find a Player allows users to create a profile listing the sports they are interested in playing, their day-to-day availability, their skill level, and the how far from home they’ll travel to play. The app then matches games and events looking for players with users that fit their profile.

Managers will be able to access a list of available players – friends and potential new team-mates or playing rivals — in the local area with details of their skill level to call upon as last minute replacements.

The app will initially launch in Scotland, followed quickly by the rest of the UK with the intention of rolling out international versions over the next couple of years.

For Glasgow entrepreneur Jim Law drove the Find a Player concept and brought in £110,000 in funding in just two days on the crowdfunding site Seedrs.

He closed the fundraising process at £150,000 and said: “I’m an avid sportsman, having been involved in lots of different sports, at various levels, from a young age. I’ve seen and felt the benefits of regular participation first hand and with Find a Player I really just wanted to deliver a product that makes it easier for people to play sports at times and places that suit them best. Basically we’re delivering a hub between sports people and games, allowing each user to build their own local sports network”.

Behind the scenes at Find a Player HQ, a dedicated team of developers work on the app.

Backing has come from a number of experienced investors including Find a Player’s newly appointed chairman Owen O’Donnell, who not only bought into the idea but also agreed to take a seat on the board. O’Donnell was previously chairman of Scottish unicorn FanDuel, the fantasy football platform. He is also a former chief fnance officer of Betfair and King.com, the $7bn company behind Candy Crush.

The co-founder and Group CEO of musicMagpie.co.uk, Steve Oliver, has also invested into the business.

Jim’s added: “To have the backing and support of people like Owen and Steve is completely invaluable. Owen has been involved in numerous start-ups which have gone on to achieve multi-billion dollar valuations and Steve has built his business from scratch to approaching £100m in turnover in under 10 years. They both have very high hopes for what we can achieve and are excited to see the product launched.

“Anyone who has ever played a team sport knows the hassle that comes with being the organiser and having to find players every week, especially when people drop out last minute.

“We want to provide a vastly improved solution to all those organisation problems and give people a real alternative to posting desperate pleas on Facebook or sending blanket text messages whenever they need bodies quickly.”