StatsOne taps into the hugely popular realm of junior soccer and will enable players to compare their game statistics with peers worldwide. 

Basketball and rugby league versions will follow.

Launched this week, after two years of development, iPhone and Android users in Europe have already begun to download the app and upload their personal game statistics.

“We never planned to have a worldwide start-up out of Maitland,” Smart Sports Solutions CEO Pierre Malou said.

“[But] we’ll go big in the next six months.”

Described as a cross between Facebook and LinkedIn the app will soon include a social media aspect so that friends can compare game stats.

Parents can also take part and log goals, penalty shots, throw-ins and passes from the sideline as just the start of an extensive list of performance markers. 

Players and coaches can then tailor their training through the app’s analysis while talent scouts will be able to scour the world for future sports stars.

Mr Malou, who is based at the Maitland Business Chamber offices in East Maitland, said StatsOne is available for download through iTunes and GooglePlay for free but, like the world’s big social media sites, faces one major challenge.

“It’s only when we hit a million users that we’ll start to make some money out of it,” Mr Malou said. 

“That said, we want to bring employment to Maitland we don’t want to go to San Francisco or Sydney.”

The app, which has cost $200,000 so far to develop, aims to replicate the high level of statistical analysis that exists within professional sport.

“All of these aids don’t exist at the grass roots level,” Smart Sports executive director and chief of R&D Keith Hallett said.

The world-travelled software engineer has helped major banks develop programs in Hong Kong, New York and India.

Now based at Congewai, near Cessnock, Mr Hallett has worked with six web developers from the Maitland, Newcastle and Port Stephens areas through the trial phase and the release.

StatsOne has even gained support from Microsoft cloud-based storage.

“I’ve worked on a lot of exciting programs in my career but this is by far the best,” Mr Hallett said.

Sutherland-based director Benjamin Rehmie is the team’s third director and one of StatsOne’s nine team members.

He will soon move to Sweden where he will lead the app’s European roll-out.

StatsOne is a finalist across three categories in the regionally focused NEWi Awards for Digital Creativity, which have attracted entries from as far afield as Western Australia.

The statistics-based app is a finalist in the best start-up, best app and best health solution of the year categories.

Venture capitalists and investors will attend the Newcastle awards ceremony on October 2 ready to write cheques and further support development of such apps and digital concepts.

“The more we build awareness of the Hunter the more companies like Smart Sports [StatsOne] will gain attention,” The Lunatiks Society Society president and awards organiser Gordon Whitehead said. “Companies like this often go under the radar.”

For information on the awards visit www.thelunatickssociety.com.au.