The reason I stopped writing match analysis is actually very simple.
Sports don’t survive without spectators.
Without spectators, there’s no revenue.
Without revenue, players struggle to live as players.
And when that happens, leagues shrink.
The more I wrote analysis, the harder it became to ignore that reality.
I studied sports data and analysis, and for about three years I worked by writing match previews and analytical pieces.
Analysing games wasn’t a hobby for me.
It was how I learned the sport, how I thought about it, and how I contributed to it.
Analysis explains results — but spectators decide survival
Match analysis usually answers one question:
“Why did this game end the way it did?”
Why this team won.
Why that team lost.
Why the tactics worked.
What might happen next.
But over time, a different question started bothering me more:
Even if the analysis is good,
what happens if no one is actually watching the sport?
This question becomes very real when you think about sports in Korea.
The reality of non-popular sports in Korea(My country)
In Korea, only a few sports attract stable crowds and money:
- Baseball
- A well-known football clubs
- Some volleyball teams
- Basketball
Outside of those, many athletes struggle.
Not because they aren’t good enough —
but because there simply aren’t enough spectators.
For many players, being an athlete isn’t financially sustainable on its own.
They have to worry about second jobs, future careers, and life after sport
while still competing.
That’s not a performance problem.
It’s a structural one.
Watching non-popular sports in London changed my perspective
After moving to London, I started watching sports that would be considered “non-popular” back home.
And what surprised me wasn’t the level of play.
It was the crowd.
Even without big stars or TV coverage:
- people showed up
- families came together
- locals dropped in casually
- not everyone was a “fan”
Sport existed as something you could simply attend.
That contrast stuck with me.
It made me ask a different question:
Maybe the problem isn’t that people don’t care about sports.
Maybe they just don’t know what’s happening nearby.
“What if all sports events were visible in one place?”
That’s where this project started.
I wondered:
- What if you didn’t need to be a fan?
- What if you didn’t already follow a league or a team?
- What if you could just see what’s happening today, near you?
If sports events were easier to notice,
maybe a few more people would show up.
Maybe that alone could make a difference.
So I started building a platform that aggregates sports events by location and time.
Then I discovered the uncomfortable truth
Once I started building and observing behaviour, two things became clear.
- Sports fans
- focus only on the sport they already love
- don’t really explore other sports
- People with little interest in sports
- don’t explore sports at all
- they don’t even open a “sports discovery” product
That’s where the contradiction appeared.
I wanted to expose sports to people who weren’t fans.
But those people don’t actively look for sports in the first place.
That’s when the product’s purpose started to break
My original goal was simple:
“Create a new entry point that brings spectators.”
But in reality:
- fans don’t need discovery
- non-fans don’t want discovery
Trying to force exploration didn’t work.
So the product slowly shifted.
From discovery
to confirmation.
What Sportsive is now
Today, Sportsive isn’t trying to convert people into sports fans.
It’s not trying to persuade anyone.
Instead, it’s for a much narrower moment:
When someone is already thinking
“Should I go out tonight?”
Sportsive answers
“Yes, something is happening” or “No, it’s quiet.”
It’s a checking tool.
If someone opens it for a few seconds, gets an answer, and leaves —
that’s success.
Why I really stopped analysing matches
If I had to summarise it in one sentence:
I became more interested in why spectators aren’t there
than in why a match ended the way it did.
That’s why I stopped analysing games
and started experimenting with how people even discover that a game exists.
I don’t know if this turns into a business.
I don’t know if it actually helps sports in a meaningful way.
But the problem feels real enough to explore.
If this sounds familiar to you, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
👉 https://sportsive.vercel.app
One last line
Match analysis explains sport.
Spectators sustain it.
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