“An excellent multi-functional app providing the amateur golfer with the feel of playing pro tournaments while improving, enhancing, and standardizing golf day scoring.”
That’s how judges of the Sports Technology Awards described United Kingdom-based company VPAR, when it won the honor for “Best Sports App for a Single Sport” in 2014.
The name, VPAR, itself, stands for “versus par.” This moniker reflects the scoring system behind the game. Handicaps happen to be an essential part of what makes golf unique, so people across skill levels can compete against each other. The app gives users a live indication of where they are compared to everyone else in the tournament via their respective relative score to par, like how they are doing “versus par.” In addition, this app functions as if it’s a virtual caddy of sorts, relaying pinpoint GPS calculations, including offering a housed database of over 30,000 courses all over the globe.
VPAR, though, initially began as a live scoring and leaderboard-based experience angled towards bringing PGA Tour event excitement to the amateur game at charitable and other kinds of golf outings. While this aspect continues to be a major segment of its business, Jason Stoop, VPAR’s President and Managing Director, informs SportTechie that it provided a nice launching point in which to grow the brand, pivoting its technology into mobile apps. The reception for this app within the European market was quite significant from the outset, which led them to expand across all major golf target markets by licensing their technology. Eventually, they came around introducing the app to the American market, the largest in the golf world, with feedback and desired accomplishments being quite positive.
“Our priorities now are ensuring the VPAR technology performs as well on the Android operating systems, taking incremental steps to significantly increase our app community, and brand awareness–without sacrificing our renowned service and quality,” says Stoop.
Furthermore, everything that they do revolves around pushing the envelope for the marriage between golf and technology–encouraging more golfing and help grow the game, too. Mobile has spurred notable growth, bringing interconnectivity across large geographic regions. Beyond the live scoring facet, VPAR tested out its tech in order to connect rounds played on different courses at different times, and being able to see live where the user, themselves, stands.
Accordingly–virtually akin to what ShotTracker is doing for basketball–VPAR partnered with Your Golf Travel (YGT), a United Kingdom-based golf travel company, to power an event called Your Golf Championship, where the latter sends over 250,000 golfers away each year to take part in a tournament that doesn’t require them to be physically present together until the last round of play.
“All Your Golf Travel players will receive a free premium version of the VPAR app to download. The app normally requires a $8.99 yearly subscription, so this represents a significant value added for YGT to provide its customers. The tournament, itself, is a chance for golfers from all over Europe to see live how they stack up against their peers,” Stoop states.
“They’ll also be competing for prizes on a monthly basis, from partners, like Cleveland Golf, Srixon, and others, for things often unrelated to performance, to help encourage more golf. For VPAR, we’re introducing our product to a huge market of passionate golfers and adding to the experience of playing a round of golf on their breaks and holidays,” continued Stoop.
To enter, it’s quite simple: all golfers have to download the VPAR app. The first step that users will see on the home page, if their smartphone is in the UK or Europe, is the Your Golf Travel icon. Once they click that, they can set up their round of golf. This event is a pairs competition, entering as many times as they want between June and October, with as many different partners of their own choosing. When the user scores their round, they’ll be able to see a live scoreboard of where they currently stand as well as those who have played that course previously. At the end of the round, the user’s other playing partners will verify their respective scores; the top 15 pairs will then win a spot in the tournament’s final being held at Morocco.
Considering the amount of research showing that golfers are switching off from the sport and finding it increasingly difficult to attract a new, younger fan base, VPAR sets off to change the on-course experience for avid golfers and those inclined to use their smartphone as an entry touchpoint to a brand or service.
“The type of golfers who utilize Your Golf Travel’s services are active and engaged fans of the game. When they realize that VPAR enhances all the best aspects of the game–socialization, competing, self-improvement through stat analysis–they’re very welcoming of the app, just as they would be of a new piece of equipment. Those golfers act as ambassadors for VPAR and through social media we help spread the word,” Stoop contends.
“Also, with so many amazing prizes to offer, there is a big incentive for our current users to get involved. Not to mention the opportunity to play a round of with Darren Clarke, Ryder Cup Captain, for the overall winners,” added Stoop.
Going forward, VPAR believes that live competition in golf will boost in conjunction with new technology, like its own. This trend has been evident thus far from the likes of Strava among the cyclist community, even a startup such as Swim.com for swimming presents this promise as well. Competing against friends and others while not being constrained to physical or time restrictions could remain a constant in this environment.
Stoop thinks this style of play redefines how golfers connect, socially interact, and compete–outside geographical proximity and synchronized timing notwithstanding. VPAR has packaged the necessary components pertinent to this movement into an intuitive system, confident that it will strike a chord with golfers.
“We want to make golf more fun, engaging, and attractive a mobile-savvy generation. We hope that golfers will see VPAR as an essential piece of equipment that complements what’s in their bag and gives them a unique experience on the links,” says Stoop.
VPAR’s efforts towards offering the first-ever virtual golf championships eliminates barriers for players to partake in rounds with others far and wide, with the only barrier perhaps being the app’s high subscription price.