The Irish Times buys live GAA scores app Score Beo

Platform will help enhance Gaelic games coverage across titles, says media group

Kilmacud Crokes v Naas: the Score Beo app provides GAA fans with live scores from inter-county, underage, club and schools’ games. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho
Kilmacud Crokes v Naas: the Score Beo app provides GAA fans with live scores from inter-county, underage, club and schools’ games. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho

The Irish Times has acquired live GAA scores app Score Beo, it has announced.

The app, which launched in May 2021, provides GAA fans with live scores from inter-county, underage, club and schools’ games, along with news of the latest fixtures, line-ups and competition rankings. It has more than 190,000 unique users in over 110 countries.

“The acquisition of Score Beo helps us to enhance coverage of GAA in our titles by meeting the needs of fans around the world for live scores and match information from the hundreds of games taking place every weekend,” said group managing director Deirdre Veldon.

It follows the media company’s acquisition in May of online death notice platform RIP.ie, while in August, the group also acquired the 50 per cent interest in magazine publisher Gloss Publications that it did not already own.

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Accounts for Score Beo Limited filed at the Companies Registration Office show that it earned a profit of about €22,000 in the year to the end of October 2023.

Irish Times group returns to profit as revenues climb 5%Opens in new window ]

Score Beo founder Fergus Grimes devised a business plan for the app while studying for his degree in Galway, releasing it shortly after he graduated.

“It’s exciting to get this over the line,” Mr Grimes said. “I’m looking forward to continuing this journey of growth serving the needs of Gaelic supporters all across the globe and opening doors for new possibilities.”

Earlier this week, the company behind The Irish Times reported that it had returned to profit last year, recording a pretax profit of €2.1 million in 2023 as group revenues climbed 5 per cent to €115 million.

As well as The Irish Times, the group owns the Irish Examiner in Cork, several regional news titles, property website MyHome.ie and a majority share in radio station WLR FM.

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Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics