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Futbology is a football app for fans that watch football live in the stadium. With more than 2,000 leagues and competitions covered, the app makes it easy to locate matches wherever your are in the world, or plan to be. Futbology lets you keep track of your attended games and rewards you with badges for special matches and milestones. You can add friends in the app and keep track of their activity as well.

Futbology is used all over the world by different kinds of football fans: Those that only follow their club and are not interested in watching anyone else, groundhoppers who want to visit as many different stadiums as possible, football tourist who might want to see a game when they visit a new city, and all categories in between. The feedback they all give is that Futbology makes it more fun to watch football live in the stadium!

So there you go, now you know what it is and who uses it, lets sit down with Lars and delve a little deeper into how this all came about.

1. What motivated you to create Futbology, particularly with a focus on non-league football and groundhopping culture?

The first version of the app was released around 12 years ago and was actually called “Groundhopper”. We were looking for an app like this and saw that it didn’t exists, so I decided to go ahead and create it. To begin with, the main focus of the app was on ticking off visited stadiums, hence the name.

Over time, with new features steadily added to cater for a wider audience, it became clear that the app needed a different name. Not only is the term “groundhopping” virtually unknown outside Northern Europe, but regular football fans were put off by the name to some extent. The app is still widely used by groundhoppers, but the majority of the users today would not claim to belong to that category.

2. How did you approach the development process to ensure Futbology would meet the specific needs of non-league fans and groundhoppers and what were the biggest technical challenges in building an app that covers such a wide range of leagues, from top-tier football to non-league matches?

The app has undergone major changes at regular intervals over the years as the user base and coverage has grown. Today, the database covers around 100,000 stadiums (or grounds) and around 40,000 clubs, and the number of fixtures on a busy Saturday exceeds 3,000. The technical challenges have mostly had to do with scaleability – to ensure that all this data is searchable and retrievable quickly and efficiently in the app.

Of course, as the number of leagues and tournaments has grown, keeping everything updated is also a major task. While much of this by now is automated to a large extent, there is also a large number of volunteers who help out. Quite a lot of the lowest level leagues in the app are managed by external volunteers, for instance level 11 in England and level 8 in Germany.

3. Can you describe the process of gathering and organizing data for non-league matches? How did you ensure the accuracy and completeness of this information?

For the majority of leagues and tournaments in the app, the data is bought from third-party API providers. However, for the lowest leagues this data can not be imported automatically, and that’s where the volunteers come in. Also, users of the app can request fixtures to be added, and also make corrections directly in the app if for instance a fixtures is listed in the wrong ground or with the wrong date or kickoff time. Users are also quick to report back whenever a club moves to a different ground.

4. How much is the app to use and what features do you get that you get that are not included in the free version? 

The app is free to download, but certain features require a Premium subscription. This is currently £8.99 per year or £0.99 per month.

Premium gives you the “Nearby fixtures” feature and the ability to list fixtures per ground, per club etc, and also access to the entire match database with results going back to 1970.

It also removes limitations on photo uploads, lets you send messages to non-friends in the app (provided the recipients allow it), and a few other things besides.

5. Non-league football often has a unique, passionate following. How did you ensure that Futbology resonates with this community and enhances their matchday experience?

Fans of non-league football, whether in England or elsewhere, clearly appreciate the coverage of leagues and tournaments in Futbology. Groundhoppers can use the app to locate matches in new grounds and keep track of which ones they need to complete a league, for instance. Other users are just happy to be able to register their matches and share their activity and milestones with their friends in the app. In that regard, there is no difference related to which league level your club plays at.

6. What kind of feedback have you received from non-league fans and groundhoppers since the app’s launch? How has their input influenced updates and new features?

Futbology users generally provide a lot of feedback, so there is a constant dialog with users both via email and in our social media channels. From groundhoppers in particular, there is a constant craving for new grounds to be added, even though by now just about every football pitch in England is in the app. We’re down to public parks now. 🙂

But of course, feedback from users plays an important role in the prioritisation of new features in the app, whether they are non-league fans, groundhoppers or neither.

7. How did you build a community around Futbology and what strategies helped foster loyalty and engagement?

A lot of Futbology users share their statistics, badges or match memories from the app on social media. This has helped build a community around the app that also is important in attracting new users. Our @futbologyapp Twitter/X feed is full of content shared by users.

8. What role does the inclusion of lower divisions and non-league games play in differentiating Futbology from other football apps? How do these leagues enhance the overall user experience?

The main thing that differentiates Futbology from other football apps is that it revolves around actually watching football in the stadium. Futbology is not a live score app, and you can not check in to a match from your sofa in front of the TV. The inclusion of lower leagues in Futbology means that local games are there in the app just about regardless of where you are. I don’t know of any other app that has the same coverage.

9. What has been the most rewarding aspect of seeing Futbology adopted by groundhoppers and non-league fans? Are there any stories or feedback that particularly stand out?

It has indeed been rewarding to see the reception of the app around the world. The feedback is almost exclusively positive and there is by now a large number of users who use the app actively every week. One common feedback is from users who say that they have rediscovered their love for football thanks to Futbology, having become disillusioned with ticket prices etc in the top leagues.  

10. What is your favourite memory from the creation of the app? 

It is not one particular memory, but rather the overwhelmingly positive feedback from users all over the world who love the app. This is what makes it worthwhile to put so much effort into it. 

11. What is your favourite personal memory from you actually using the app yourself? 

I use the app myself all the time, and have so many wonderful football memories as a result. A recent highlight was the Copa Libertadores final in Rio de Janeiro last year, where I met both Brazilian and European Futbology users and had a great time. Meeting users of the app and watching football or having a beer is always great. 

12. How many grounds have you visited to date and do you know how many grounds are currently the highest out of all of your users? 

I have at the moment visited 265 grounds in 28 different countries, which places me nowhere near the ranking lists in the app.

A German user holds the record, having registered matches in 7857 grounds!

13. What would you say to someone who is unsure if they should download and use the app? 

Well, the app is free to download try out, so go for it!

14. And Finally, looking forward, how do you see Futbology evolving to better serve the groundhopping community and non-league fans? What future developments are you most excited about?

I have lots of plans for new features in the app that will hopefully appeal to all football fans regardless of category. Alongside the app development itself, there is a constant demand to keep increasing the coverage of leagues and tournaments. Just in the recent weeks, and much thanks to groups of volunteers, the app now includes the Régional 2 leagues in France, Thai League 3, two new league levels in Hungary, just to give a few examples.

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A massive thank you Lars for giving up his time to talk us through the journey he has been on to take Futbology to where it currently is, and also touch on how the app actually come to fruition. I know alot of you rely on this wonderful app and have leaned on it when looking for a local match or even just as a personal diary of your football journey. However you have used it or however you intend to use it, enjoy it!!

And remember…you only have 7858 more stadiums to visit to take the crown from the current unnamed German app user!

Until next time!