New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company name: X100 Sports
Founder(s): Paul Coleman
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
1. What is your elevator pitch?
GOREF is the world’s first app for soccer referees on the Apple Watch with four timers and the ability to save match data.
With a simple and fast match set up process on the iPhone, critical match info such as kick off time, number of starting players and subs (player names can be added if required) and match duration are then seamlessly transferred to the Apple Watch. Referees then capture the in-game match incidents on the Apple Watch.
2. Problem & Solution
Currently referees are using outdated methods to handle pre-match admin and to capture match incidents (notebook and pen) to record goals, cards and substitutions during a game.
GOREF speeds up the pre-match admin tasks of a referee and saves this match data to be used for completing final match reports.
GOREF enhances the match day experience for referees and allows them to track all match incidents. After the game the match data is at their fingertips ready for them to complete their match reports.
There is nothing similar on the market that performs the same functions enabling the referee to manage the whole game from match set up to exporting the completed match data to their iPhone.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
The market is potentially huge with the continued popularity and growth of the game worldwide. There are approximately 140K referees in the US for example and with emerging markets such as China and throughout Asia, coupled with traditional hotspots in Europe and South America, it’s easy to see the potential growth for GOREF.
Soccer is truly the world game and as any soccer player knows you need a referee to have a proper game.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
As a start up tech company focused on innovation we want to add premium services that can add true value to our referee community and make their experience more enjoyable and personalised. We have a lot of ideas on how we can do this, obviously fitness stats comes to mind but first we want to hear from referees on what they want, once they’ve had the time to properly road-test the current version.
Our aim is to build the best referee app in the world. This can only be done with constant feedback from referees and by continually refining our product so we meet the demands of our user base.
We’re fans of companies such as Strava who have built large audiences based on a great product and constant innovation. At X100 Sports we aim to put the user first in achieving our ambition of building a successful tech company.
5. Management Team – with titles
Paul Coleman – CEO
Walter Munoz – CTO
Justine Concannon – Creative Director
Lee Jones – Digital Marketing
Felipe Correa – Senior iOS Developer
Cesar Quiroz – Software Architect
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
The team at X100 Sports is so excited to be working in this space, the wearable market is still in its infancy with fitness and sports tech the leading applications and products. Having GOREF recently recognized at the World App Design Awards for Best Connected Device and Wearable Tech has given us confidence that we have a product that can make a difference to our users match day experience.
The GOREF brand is a product that can be adapted for other sports. We also believe people have a desire for well-designed products that can accurately capture data and be exported or shared for future use.