The founders of SportIn launch Challenges by SportIn, the application through which companies can reward Romanians if they do sports, and organize the first event through which entrepreneurs take 15 million steps

• Through this application, the target is to engage at least 3 million people who find monthly challenges and actively participate by the end of 2025.
• Romanians will be rewarded with vouchers, discounts, money, virtual currencies, prizes, surprises and other benefits if they use the Challenges by SportIn application.
• Employers in Romania can also reward employees who play sports and create team competitions, with a long-term loyalty effect.
• Brands can build followers and turn Challenges into a marketing and sales tool, while adopting a brand image that promotes sports and an active lifestyle.

Two young entrepreneurs, the founders of the tech startup SportIn, are launching the first application through which companies can reward Romanians for being physically active, through prizes, vouchers, discounts, money, digital currencies and other benefits, thus managing to keep them loyal.

At the same time, through the application, the first event will be organized through which 100 Romanian entrepreneurs are challenged to be active and take 15 million steps together in 15 days, becoming an example for their followers.

Unique in its approach to open this ecosystem of challenges to companies and users, the Challenges by SportIn application is designed by entrepreneurs Adrian Pantir (40 years old) and Mihaela Pantir (29 years old), founders of the SportIn platform for the digitalization of the sports industry. The application was developed through an investment from the company Code11. The mobile application is available in the App Store and Google Play and can be installed on any smartphone.

“Romanians’ interest in sports is growing, but there are still significant challenges related to adopting an active and healthy lifestyle. Romania is in the top five European countries with the most sedentary inhabitants – Romanians are the least physically active in the European Union, with only 7% practicing sports regularly, while 63% do no physical activity, according to the European Commission. The Challenges by SportIn application will introduce Romanians to a new and exciting way to get involved in sports through competitions and challenges. This will foster healthy competition and create an environment where users will feel motivated to actively participate and improve their performance. The application is also a marketing channel for companies that want to motivate more Romanians to do sports and have a healthier lifestyle. Brands from various fields can create their own challenges and competitions through the app in order to make the brand more visible, retain existing customers and attract new customers. We estimate that at least 3 million people will use the app in the first year, and we aim to create a reward fund worth 100,000 euros for granting numerous benefits. We believe that, through tangible and useful rewards, Romanians will be motivated to do sports for their own health and physical condition and to in turn inspire the people close to them to become active for their own good”, explains Adrian Pantir, co-founder and CEO of SportIn.

At the same time, through the application, the first sports event for entrepreneurs, unique in Romania and in Europe, will be organized, which will take place between October 15-30, 2024. More than 100 entrepreneurs from Romania are expected to register for the competition offering – as an example for their effort to achieve together 15 million steps in the 15 days.

Romania, set in motion by a unique application: how Challenges by SportIn works

The application brings together brands, gyms and employers who, by offering benefits, vouchers and prizes, will stimulate the increase in the number of Romanians who are physically active.

Challenges by SportIn works on the basis of creating challenges – sports goals that can be set by users, individually or in competition with other users. Users can also enter challenges already created by brands in various fields, fitness centers or employers who want to motivate their teams. Each challenge or competition will have multiple rewards, by difficulty level, that will be awarded once the preset goal is reached. Rewards are granted by willing companies, brands from sports, retail, fashion or any other field, or by employers.

Once installed on the phone, Challeges by SportIn can use various existing metrics in health monitoring applications, such as Apple Health or others specific to the phone, such as number of steps, calories burned, breathing, distance covered, effort exerted or custom metrics from which it can create real time rankings.

Artificial intelligence will help the user to dose his effort to win the prizes

Integrated into the SportIn ecosystem, the application offers personalized suggestions, including the recommendation of challenges. Users can access challenges that best match their ability and difficulty level, monitor their progress, and adjust workouts to meet set goals.

At the same time, the technology will suggest to users those challenges in which people with the same performance level can participate, but it can also identify users who try to cheat through various methods, ensuring the fairness of competitions.

Challenges by SportIn also integrates the concept of sports through gamification through the use of game elements and techniques, a form of entertainment that boosts motivation and increases the spirit of competition. Each public challenge winner’s profile will also display the number of medals and points collected that can be spent at one of the sponsoring partners.

The application can also be used as a live tracking ranking tool for marathons and sports competitions where spectators receive the status of the participants in real time and can encourage them through reactions in the application, such as the use of emoticons .

New unique events in Europe through the Challenges by SportIn app

In the coming months, two new events will be organized through the application, which are unique in Europe. The Steps League, which is expected to take place in March 2025, will be an event structured similar to the Champions League, where more than 100,000 participants will compete in steps for prizes worth 20,000 euros. The app will monitor the entire competition.

Next year, the founders of Challenges by SportIn will organize the biggest step marathon, the Ultra Digital Marathon, where more than 1 million participants from Romania and other European countries are expected. Given their scale and uniqueness, these events have the potential to enter the Book of Records.

“The application is an ecosystem for accelerating sports in Romania, through which brands can offer benefits to active Romanians, sports clubs can increase their number of members, and employers can motivate their employees. The challenges can have several stages and degrees of difficulty, and the objectives are concrete and for a given period. An example of a challenge could be reaching a number of hours of physical activity or training at the gym, jogging certain distances, adjusting weight or increasing muscle mass in a month or other period. We aim to have up to 100,000 individual or group challenges created in the application by the end of the year, and in the first year after launch to attract up to 1,000 companies to offer valuable rewards to Romanians who do sports to inspire as many as possible many people to be physically active. Also, as part of our mission to get as many Romanians as possible to be physically active, the next step is to organize the biggest step event in Europe, The Steps League, next year. The event will be based on the structure of the European Championship and we are expecting over 100,000 participants for whom we will offer benefits of tens of thousands of euros”, explains Mihaela Pantir, co-founder and COO of SportIn.

Currently, SportIn has partnerships with several companies in the sports, IT or banking fields.

The app can be used by companies for their employer branding as part of their employee recruitment and retention strategy. Corporate wellness programs can be revitalized through competitions that motivate employees to be more active, thereby improving overall health and productivity in the workplace.

The new application, Challenges, is integrated with the SportIn platform, a CRM-type software solution for the digitalization of the sports industry. It allows the management of sales operations and communication with the customers of the sports centers and includes a ticketing system for the purchase of subscriptions or for access to sports events. SportIn is used by gyms, riding clubs, crossfit, fitness, dance, pole fitness, basketball, soccer and personal trainers and has over 4,000 constantly active users.

For the development of SportIn, business and sports experts were attracted: Matei Dumitrescu as an investor for the expansion of the business in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, Ciprian Harabagiu as a Business Advisor and Ionuț Rada, a former football player at Steaua and CFR Cluj, who will coordinate SportIn’s expansion into performance sports through the digitization of stadiums and gyms.