Back in May Berlin-based The Football App – a popular mobile football app amongst European fans – raised its first institutional funding — a €10 million Series A from a syndicate led by Earlybird Venture Capital also in Berlin. It now claims to be experiencing rapid growth, hitting 10 million downloads across all mobile platforms (iOS , Android, WinPhone, Windows 8, and Samsung Smart TV coming soon). Today it introduces new social features, new user profiles, better social media integration, and a an interface uplift.
Prior to today the app did not have much in the way of social features. Now, users get a personal profile, a new Fan Zone integrates live commentary from social feeds, alongside professional media content, around any match, news story, or development from the world of football.
Lucas von Cranach, CEO and founder says the app now has 4.5m monthly active users and up to 1.5m currently logging in on single match days, across Europe’s five major competitions – The Barclays Premier League, The Fußball-Bundesliga, La Liga BBVA, Serie A TIM, and Ligue 1.
He told me: “The end game is to be the number one global, social football destination.”
The strategy contrasts with GiveMeSport which is a pure content approach, but which has also been making waves recently. Its owner SportsNewMedia has raised money from global sports player IMG.
Meanwhile FTBpro, a large fan-generated content platform, boasts $5.8 million from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures to fund global expansion. On FTBpro, fans can publish and interact with each other and FTBpro’s editors. The site features match predictions, videos, imagery slideshows, team line-ups and player rankings amongst other features.
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