The inception of the current reformative ‘digital-everything’ era was catalyzed evidently by data analytics. Almost every sphere of the business world utilizes dso-founder and onecials, given e interview between Insights Success and Simonata analytics to deliver as much distinction as possible with regards to their customers’ behavior and needs.
The world of sports too, hasn’t been aloof of this technological reformation. Data analytics in fact plays a prominent role in accumulating and analyzing statistics of players, pitch information, weather settings etc. which prove to be of significant value for a plethora of reasons.
Organizations working in Sports technology are substantially utilizing data analytics to deliver services, products and solutions that hold the potential to change the industry holistically. One among such profound companies is RefLIVE, a sports technology company located in Melbourne Australia, delivering software solutions to referees and sporting leagues to manage their officiating teams.
Below are the highlights of the interview between Insights Success and Simon Murphy, the Co-founder and CEO, wherein, he shares a few insightful details of the sports industry and how things go about at RefLIVE.
- With regards to your organization’s profound industry experience, how do you think the sports-tech market has evolved and what can be expected in the forthcoming years?
The sports tech market is rapidly evolving as the demand for information exponentially grows. Fans want instant stats and data, as well as additional information surrounding their teams and players; coaches and referees now have an incredible amount of resources to assist them in elevating their performances.
We continuously work on creating a data analytics system specifically for sports officials, given that they’re generally further under-resourced than players and arguably have a more difficult role at the grassroots level.
We’ve also created a state of the art smartwatch solution for soccer referees to manage their match day, and we have some big plans to use this data to provide additional value to the entire youth sports landscape.
- What are the benefits gained by clients/users from your products/solutions/services?
Reduced abuse of sports officials, improved well-being of referees and umpires, and a dramatic rise in the standards of officiating are a few among the list. We provide a solution, enabling referees and umpires to focus on improving, and give leagues the tools to provide opportunities for officials to develop in a world class environment. Referees using our smartwatch no longer need to use pen and paper to record information, giving them a quicker and more reliable method of match reporting that removes the need for any post-match paperwork. Referees can also use our smartwatch tech to track their physical performances and training to optimize their fitness.
- Considering the necessity of adapting to the volatile technological disruptions and/or development of cutting-edge solutions, how does your company sustain its competency in the Sports-tech market?
RefLIVE is always looking to find the balance between listening to our customers, iterating and improving our product and thinking about how we can continue to build an industry leading solution. We also spend a lot of time analyzing trends in the sports tech market and working with a range of companies in the industry to learn and understand synergies with other companies. We’re very lucky to be surrounded by incredible sports tech companies of all sizes in Australia who are very generous with their time in assisting us.
- What obstacles does your organization face while growing, sustaining or retaining its clientele?
Our main obstacle is whether we can grow and scale as quickly as the demand has been for our products. Retaining customers forces us to provide a first class level of support and continue to deliver value with our solutions. Our challenges aren’t too different from most technology companies, and we work with a range of users which forces us to provide simple, intuitive and efficient technology to help make a difference to each of our users.
- Could you list out the most growth-deteriorating challenges for your organization till date?
Being able to keep up with demand for our product and new features is a prominent one. We receive a wide variety of feedback relating to new features and improvements. It is a challenge to focus on optimizing the experience with each of our users without complicating anything or venturing too far from our core product offering.
- Give us a brief overview about you and other co-founder(s) and their contributions towards the company and its success.
I am one of the Co-founders and the CEO of RefLIVE, having created the initial concept. Co-founder and CTO, Ken Chin has been instrumental in taking RefLIVE from a concept to a global product that continues to grow. The entire RefLIVE team from employees to investors and advisors has been critical to the team’s success. The idea stemmed from my obsession with sports data and technology, and we’ve since been through a couple of funding rounds and product cycles. Ken has been enabled RefLIVE to build an award winning tech solution that has grown to over 40,000 users in over 110 countries, and continues to innovate best practice for developing our apps and SAAS solution.
- What does the future hold for your organization in terms of internal as well as holistic development?
We will continue to focus on our core products and maintain our position as a world leader in officiating technology solutions. In terms of holistic development, we will further build our team and expand into more international markets. We started in soccer, and have since grown to offer a solution that is compatible with almost any sport.
