What do you get when you mash an adult athlete and an ex-Google developer together? You get Gametime Hero, a disruptive new sports app explicitly designed with the adult athlete in mind.
(Keep reading to find out how to get in on early access and possibly be a beta tester).
A Man On A (Sports Application Development) Mission
AR Bell is a man on a mission. AR sees a gap in a market flooded with sports league and team management apps and software, as well as Facebook groups for sports leagues or pickup games. So he’s using his software development skills as a Google alum and his passion for playing sports to create something new.
Most current sports app offerings are team and league centric and don’t necessarily provide a space for individual athletes, especially adults. Gametime Hero aims to provide a platform that gives equal opportunity to both. Teams can use Gametime Hero to find players, while athletes can use the app to find teams or games, but more on that later.
The intent is to eliminate the need for multiple platforms, like one for scheduling, one for messaging, one for payments, and instead create an easy-to-use all-in-one sports management app.
At Adults Play Sports, we’ve even discussed integrating Gametime Hero into our platform, which currently offers a searchable directory of adult sports leagues, to add the player connection piece to our website.
The Nuts And Bolts Of Gametime Hero, The Sports App For Adult Athletes
Here are the main highlights of Gametime Hero:
- You can search for players based on location, sports preference, skill level/rating, etc.
- Use the team/group builder to connect with your team/teammates for messages, polls, payment, etc.
- Rate positive aspects of athletes you play a sport with
Use Gametime Hero To Search For Players Or Teams
Gametime Hero’s player and team matching system is really the backbone of the app and what sets it apart from others.
AR explains how the idea for the matching feature was born. “Sports have been a very, very important part of my life,” he says. “As I’ve grown older, I realized it’s really hard to generate new connections in sports as you move to new cities or change jobs. It’s hard to find people at the same action level or availability, so I wanted to put all that together.”
AR’s real-life experiences as an adult athlete make it easy for him to recognize and incorporate features that those of us who still play sports into adulthood would like in an app.
How The Search Feature Works
The way the search feature works is this. Athletes create individual profiles to describe themselves and the sports they play or are interested in playing.
The profiles will also include the player’s hometown, as well as their current location if traveling away from home.
Players can then add other relevant information to their profile, like their DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), skill level at specific sports, and gender, along with preferences of which gender(s) they prefer playing with (same or co-ed).
Once profiles are set up, players and teams can start searching for each other. Since profiles are pre-populated with player stats, sports preferences, and more, it’s easy to find athletes for pickup games, subs, or permanent team additions based on that information.
Let’s say you’re traveling out of town but are fiending to play pickleball. Search for an opponent using Gametime Hero and narrow down your choice by DUPR rating and gender.
Or, say you want to put together a soccer scrimmage but don’t have enough players. Blast that out on Gametime Hero so every member in the area can see details about it and get in on the action if they want to join your game.
I’ve been around long enough to remember when people used to do this on Craigslist, which was hit or miss at best. Some leagues also put individual players looking for teams on a waitlist, but that takes the power away from the player. Gametime Hero lets the individual adult athlete have more control.
As Gametime Hero continues to collect feedback from beta testers, they’ll likely integrate other things like team profiles, golf handicaps, NTRP (National Tennis Rating Program) ratings, preferred positions, and more.
Communication, Scheduling, Payment: Do Them All In One Place With Gametime Hero
Some teams use Evite to schedule games, text messaging and email to communicate, and Venmo to handle payments. I know this because this is precisely what the soccer teams I play on do. We’ve tried using various other apps, but they always end up feeling a bit clunky.
This is what’s exciting to me about Gametime Hero. Fortunately, I get to be one of the beta testers, and I’m hopeful that it’ll be the panacea to all that’s been missing in other sports apps. Keep an eye out for a review of Gametime Hero in a future blog post.
Gametime Hero’s Unique Player Rating System
Another cool aspect of Gametime Hero is its rating system. While the initial test allowed feedback of any kind, it’s now limited to positive feedback to encourage a positive environment. This feedback can include things like the player shows up on time, is friendly, and promotes teamwork.
This feedback is seen by others on the platform, so if you have a team whose players are always notoriously late, you might want to search for other teammates who are timely.
More About The Man Behind The Sports App
AR’s passion for sports began as a kid. Basketball, baseball, soccer–you name it, he probably tried it. He didn’t play sports in college but picked them up again shortly after graduation.
AR spent a lot of time playing volleyball, and, most recently, he got hit by the pickleball bug. Besides getting out there and being active, the friendships formed on the court or on the field are ultra important to AR.
“Connection for me is the best,” he says. “When you can find people who want to be active and share the same interests, you can build friendships really easy because you already have the shared connection of sports.”
He also wants adults hesitant about playing sports to put their fears aside. “It’s never too late,” AR emphasizes. “I literally went to a park yesterday and saw somebody on their first day of playing pickleball at 70 years old.”
Join The Gametime Hero Waitlist Or Be A Beta Tester
The app isn’t quite ready for full release yet, but you can join the waitlist to hear the latest developments and be notified of Gametime Hero’s actual launch date.
If you want to beta test the app, shoot AR an email and let him know you’re interested, and he’ll see if you’re a good candidate.
We hope you’re as pumped about the potential of this sports app as we are. It’s nice to see something created with the adult athlete in mind.
