As popularity of E-Sports sky rockets traditional amateur sports look to keep up with home-grown apps like Huddle.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 (Bernama) -- With all the hype around e-sports there may be cause to assume traditional sports are falling behind in digital transformation. In professional sports, the digital experience is an expected part of the game from being able to watch games live on your phone, up to the second statistics updates, to real time telestration of plays happening on the field.  Are amateur and community sports fated to fall behind on this trend? A company out of Kuala Lumpur has created an app to ensure that traditional amateur sports are brought into the digital age.  Huddle is a mobile app that is part Instagram newsfeed, part ESPN, and part social network with the aim of bringing everyday athletes together.
 
Designed for amateur sports enthusiasts, the app helps you get into the game whether you are a weekend warrior looking to join a community football league or a parent looking for the best coach in town for your kid’s tennis skills. Huddle helps to showcase the fragmented sports market so users can simply search, buy, and join from a vast network of partners and sports organisations.  In addition, the app tracks players’ participation in various competitions providing a unified “career” view regardless of which organiser or association is in charge.  In this way, the highly fragmented sports community is unified.
 
League organisers and venue operators also stand to benefit by going digital and providing value to its communities.  These days no game is played without at least a photo and video of the action.  With Huddle, organisers can better tell the story of their competition and the heroes that play by featuring livestreams, player and club profiles, standings, and statistics.  In this way, players and fans can support the games just like professional sports. Parents can catch all their kids performances. Coaches can scout for upcoming games. Overall, with the increase in the digital reach in the amateur and community sports, more sponsorship money can be driven into the industry which will benefit all.
 
The estimated size of the amateur sports participation market in South East Asia is estimated anywhere between USD $10 billion - $30 billion.  This number increases significantly if you take into account sports apparel sales and sports medicine.  According to co-founder, Rezhan Majid, “Within this fragmented market lies a sizeable opportunity. We believe Huddle is the platform that can unite the market and unlock the value of the entire industry as a whole. In this way, traditional amateur sports can keep up with the competing trend of e-sports.” Developed by AirUpThere Technologies Sdn Bhd and launched with seed funding from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd in early 2019, the app was selected as a finalist for the World Football Summit Asia StartCup competition of the top sports technology startups in the region. Since then the app has partnered with over 35 leagues and academies with nearly 10,000 players participating. Huddle has partnered with the likes of Football Association Selangor (FAS) affiliate leagues and the Malaysian Basketball Association, as well as many private community leagues and tournaments.  While the company aims to double the number of traditional sports partners by the end of the year, Rezhan Majid hasn’t ruled out including e-sports on the app, “and as long as it brings people together for the love of the game, we believe there is a place for it on Huddle.”
 
Huddle is available on Google Play and the Apple App store.
 
About Huddle
 
Huddle is a mobile app platform developed AirUpThere Technologies Sdn Bhd.  Released in the beginning of 2019, it aims to be the platform for all amateur and youth sports in South East Asia.  It benefits sports associations, league organizers, and academies in marketing their programs on a digital platform as well as providing added value to its players and stakeholders using the latest sports marketing technology.
 
For users, including youth players, adult weekend warriors, and coaches, Huddle provides content, livestreams, news, and promotions from events all around the region.  Register for a league or coaching clinic or catch stats and content from leagues at the tip of your fingers.  Players can also track their performance and participation in games and tournaments throughout their careers.
 
Huddle was a finalist at the World Football Summit Asia StartCup in April 2019. The company is also a recipient of the Cradle CIP300 grant in August 2018.
 
Visit www.huddlehuddle.com for more info or download the app on Google Play or the Apple App Store.

Source: Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: 
Name: Rezhan Majid
AirUpThere Technologies Sdn Bhd
Tel: 012 9768953
Email: rezhan@airupthereco.com

--BERNAMA