Hi Producthunters!

I’m the founder of POULES.COM, and this launch has been a long time coming:

2011 to be precise.

I started this as a bootstrapped project. It was the time of the social platform success stories. I was working at Guerrilla Games (Sony) and I wanted to have financial freedom: how hard can this be??

Over the last 15 years, I’ve put a lot into it: my freelance earnings, years of dev work, and at one point, even my home in Amsterdam (admittedly the worst de-investment ever 🥲).

For years, we followed the traditional path: free play supported by ads. We grew to +100.000 players during the World Cup. But it was hard to earn money. Advertisers mainly care about reach, not deep engagement.

We generated 30 million views during the World Cup, but because it was a "mere" 100.000 players, advertisers were not interested. Clickbait reach earns, quality engagement sadly not 🥲.

In 2022 betting operators became legal in the Netherlands and for the first time I actually made a profit with POULES.COM. Betting companies and sports prediction games were a great match. Until the government put a hold on it at the end of 2022 (rightfully imo). In 2023 all my revenue collapsed. I went from €120.000 to €10.000.

I decided to make POULES.COM paid. I had no clue what it was going to do and I was affraid that a platform that I invested more then a decade in would die. Maybe 90% would stay, maybe 5%. I had no clue and it would not be the first time that I completely under- or overestimated what certain changes would do.

Luckily, it seemed a lot of people staid.

From the 150% year on year growth, it dropped to that year to 60% of players on almost all sports, with about a third paying for the service (first-time players are still free, and I think many used a second email account).

The backlash of making a free service caused a lot of people to go to competitors that offered a free option.

Thankfully they seem to be coming back the last year and for most sports we are back to 130-150% growth. Also, I think in the mean time people appreciate the platform enough that they stopped using their a second email 😄

This world cup I want to launch POULES.COM to the international market and I hope this is a great start.

Why use POULES.COM:

Ad-Free: We traded the "free" ad-supported model for a clean, private experience. No betting ads, no selling data, just the game.
Extreme customizability: Move beyond messy spreadsheets. Set custom rules and branding for many sports, from F1, cycling, rugby, darts and the World Cup. Works perfect for an office pool or as an external marketing/engagement tool!
Built for Everyone: A "Grandma-proof" interface that focuses on two things: your predictions and the standings. Simple and fast on any device.

I’m a developer at heart, and I’ve built this to be the straightforward tool that I still use with my friends.

I’d love to hear your feedback and answer any questions!

Thanks!

Dirk Boer