While sports clubs have embraced the use of data analytics to ensure their players stay in perfect condition, few have opted to use it to better understand their fans. Fulltime Analytics, a new Irish tech start-up is hoping to change that.
The sports company tech company has just launched after a successful pilot project with League of Ireland football club, Shamrock Rovers.
Using analytics it wants to support clubs to increase growth across, ticketing, merchandise, fan engagement and sponsorship.
The brainchild of Greg Slattery, the company is primarily focused on the Irish market although it has already had preliminary talks with a number of Premier League squads about using its software.
Fulltime Analytics is as a joint venture between Irish sports and hospitality agency, the Hospitality Partnership, where Mr Slattery serves as business development director, and Platformo.io. The latter is a start-up founded by the people behind Showtime Analytics, a company backed by Alibaba that has created a technology platform for the global cinema industry.
The new enterprise has created a bespoke analytics and marketing software offering tailored for the needs of the sports industr that helps them organise, analyse, and monetise data better.
"Team such as Liverpool and Manchester United are looking to use data more efficiently off the pitch but at present they are using disparate systems that aren't designed for the sector. That is where we come in. We've built a solution that can help them maintain and build their brand while also keeping fans onboard," said Mr Slattery.
“We’ve been developing the platform for between 12 to 18 months and while our immediate goal is to help organisations in Ireland we are looking to expand into Britain and the US as early as possible,” he added.
Mr Slattery said Ireland has a good track record in producing sports tech companies, among them Statsports, Orreco and Kitman Labs. However, he noted that these are firmly focused on athletes.
“We’re hoping to complete the circle really by helping with the commerical side of the business to ensure that as looking after fans better, clubs can help grow their revenues,” he said.
