Playwaze picks up London Youth Games app and web portal brief

London Sport has commissioned sports activity and competition management platform provider Playwaze to deliver a new web portal and mobile app to enable London Youth Games to improve the management and participant experience of youth sports competitions and events across London and its boroughs.

The London Youth Games is Europes largest youth sports festival. The programme consists of 47 annual events days across 30 different sports, giving young people from across all 33 London Boroughs the opportunity to represent their school or borough in their chosen sport. The Games include both School and Community Competitions and are part of the National School Games programme funded by Sport England.

London Youth Games joined forces with British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) in 2017, with investment from London Sport and a detailed market review and rigorous selection process leading to the decision to commission Playwaze to provide the Games’ next generation youth sports competition and activity management solution.

The decision to partner with Playwaze was based on its detailed understanding of youth sport requirements; the fact that its technology is purpose-built for sport through an intuitive mobile app; and the ability for Playwaze to build on its existing safeguarding capabilities to enable parents to manage their dependents’ participation in teams and competitions.

Playwaze is a web and mobile sports activity and competition management platform. The ‘off-the-shelf’ Playwaze mobile app simplifies the way grassroots sport, physical activity and competitions are organised, while enhancing the participant’s engagement experience.

This includes features for delivering group activities, courses, and sessions, running tournaments, leagues, ladders and leaderboards, managing teams, and tracking participant progression and development, with integral communication and payments features built-in.

The platform is also harnessed by organisations for the implementation of cost-effective, scalable web and mobile solutions. These can range from competition and activity management; workforce management, volunteer retention and open data solutions; web and mobile activity finders; ranking and participation reward systems; goal-setting and participant development trackers; and participation data capture, analytics and reporting solutions, with safeguarding features built-in for youth and disability sport.

“The London Youth Games Foundation exists in order to give young Londoners from all communities and boroughs the opportunity to come together to find out just what they are capable of through taking part in high quality sports competitions and volunteering programmes,” said Jon Hughes, CEO of London Youth Games. “We, with the support of London Sport and in partnership with BUCS, are confident that the Playwaze platform will enable us to provide our participants with a richer and more immersive experience, while also giving us communications and analysis options we have not had before, to help us understand and connect with young people in London. We are very excited by the potential.”

London Sport’s investment comes as part of a commitment to enhance the role of technology and data in supporting ambitions to make London the most physically active city in the world. The new London Youth Games platform is expected to enhance both the management of events and competitions, and the level of data available to agencies focused on physical activity and sport in London.

Tim Copley, director of insight and performance for London Sport said: “We are pleased to be able to support London Youth Games and Boroughs across the capital through our investment in this new platform. London Sport believes that good technology innovation will be a vital component in the future of physical activity and sport in the capital. By investing in this new partnership between Playwaze and London Youth Games, we will be supporting both the management of London Youth Games competitions, and growing our understanding of what works in getting young people across the capital to engage in physical activity and sport.”

London Sport, London Youth Games and Playwaze have also joined forces with British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) to deliver a web and mobile competition management solution for intervarsity sport in the UK. BUCS, who are the governing body for Higher Education Sport in the UK, running programmes for over 50 sports for some 170 member institutions. This comprehensive programme sees over 6,000 teams compete in 900 leagues, alongside 140 individual sports events each year.