George Jurgens

Sportable - Organise & discover local sports activities

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Aya Ahmad
Hey - co-founder of Sportable here! Thanks for the question George. We worked really hard to get the most extensive database of sports facilities in London and ended up finding one for all of England. Our aim is to get people more active by breaking down their barriers while organising sport. One thing we found was that many people didn't have enough information on available sports facilities. We've now made that easily available to them by providing our users with venue information filtered by sport or closest distance. The long term goal is definitely real time bookings but for now users can look up the address & phone number and directly call off the app to make a booking.
George Jurgens
@ayaa112 thanks Aya! Have you ever thought of using import.io (another UK based startup :)! ) to scrape sites like foursquare, yelp etc
Aya Ahmad
@georgejurgens We spent a good chunk of time researching the best option for our database and for England we were lucky to find such a detailed one (more info to be added on the platform shortly). However, the sites you mention didn't have everything we needed - like membership data, sports offered at each venue, etc. That being said, your suggestions will be helpful as we look to progress Sportable on a global scale, so thanks!
Eddie Pratt
Well this is awesome. Think you're onto something here! Clear problem and headache solved for organisers and participants of all abilities? Check. Beautiful UI and delightful UX? Check. Massive audience of people who love sport and want to participate? Check. @ayaa112 I guess your main challenge is just getting the word out and more adoption and use?
Aya Ahmad
@prattarazzi Appreciate the feedback! It's definitely an issue that loads of us have on a weekly if not daily basis. We've only just launched a month ago so working on spreading the word & tweaking the app here and there. Always open to hear further ideas/suggestions.
Eddie Pratt
@ayaa112 One idea to help spread the word could be to find a sports celebrity with a passion for technology who'd like to promote local sports/fitness/health across the UK and then further afield. Just a thought.
Aya Ahmad
@prattarazzi definitely agree how influential that would be! We might have something up our sleeve soon ;) on another note - any celebs out there!? Ha
George Jurgens
Another beautiful app coming out of London :).
Adam Dewji
Hey Product Hunters, Co-founder here. We're really excited to have launched and would really appreciate any and all feedback! Sportable is a mobile app that allows users to seamlessly organise and discover local sports activities. With an extensive directory of sports facilities in England, we help the recreational athlete find and access nearby amenities. Each player decides on a ‘play area’ where they are most active – this allows other users to match up with other local, compatible players. We solve the issue of last minute drop-outs and empty slots by advertising pick up games according to player preferences and location. Sportable advocates the achiever, the passionate athlete, the ones who value an active lifestyle but find themselves hindered by the problems associated with organising activities. Sportable is designed with these athletes in mind – the ones who drive our ethos! Thanks for all the support from the Sportable Team :)
Antonio De Mello
Great Idea! Can you telling me if for collective sports, such as football, there is anyway to invite friend via email, sms, messenger to form a team on Sportable?
Aya Ahmad
@ajdemello yep - you can invite players through other social media platforms or sms (this feature is found on our social tab and also while organising an activity). Once you've got an activity organised you can also share the activity link so non iOS users can view all the details eg. venue directions, time & date and list of attendees. Organisers will also get notified when people cancel or can't attend so you can fill in slots. And feel free to use the group activity chat so your team can communicate before and after a match/practice too! Let me know what you think. :)
Antonio De Mello
@ayaa112 @ajdemello That's great! Like the fact you aren't excluding non IOS users :). Not constraining your users to the IOS app makes a lot of sense. How do you recognise if it is a non IOS user, do you use a smart link? And For IOS users that haven't install your app yet and get an invitation, do you have a way to seamlessly bring them to the event after install?
Aya Ahmad
@ajdemello easiest way to explain it is if you take a look at this: http://www.sportableapp.com/acti... 😀
Frank
Any plans to expand this to the US? We play a few local sports here, too (although I'm not sure why your football players don't wear pads, helmets, and run for touchdowns; all you do is kick the ball 😁)?
Adam Dewji
@fbara Haha yes i guess playing FOOTball with our feet is baffling :D The app is usable in the US, however we just don't have a database for US sport facilities just yet, but you can manually add locations. You can still search for players and organise your local games, & we do have American Football on the app ;)
Frank
Thank @a_dewji, I'll check out the app. I don't know if you're aware of this but there's another app with the same name so you might lose some downloads from confused users. Also, I don't know what the icon is supposed to represent. It doesn't give me any info about your app or what I can do with it.
Adam Dewji
@fbara The icon is meant to represent a bouncing ball that could symbolise any type of ball. Ya we're aware of the other app, but thankfully it's a different concept.
Adam Dewji
@bogomep Yup its on the App store and soon on Android. Would you like to see a desktop version? We really value feedback so please feel free to share your views.
Bogomil Shopov - Бого
@a_dewji @bogomep Yes a desktop version ( HTML5) will be great for those like me that own Windows phones :)
Aya Ahmad
@bogomep Thanks! We'll take your feedback & let you know if/when we launch a desktop version. ;)
George Jurgens
I'm curious as to how you're going to integrate booking locations from within the app - has it been difficult to get the businesses onboard?