In Series 2 Episode 15 of the Health Points podcast Ben and Pete welcome Pippa Boothman, CEO at Playfinity to discuss innovative approaches to motivating children to enjoy more sport and exercise.
Pippa transitioned from marketing to spearheading innovative projects. Playfinity targets youths aged six to fourteen at risk of quitting sports due to lack of enjoyment and excessive competition. The company provides digitized sports equipment linked to an app hosting engaging games rooted in popular sports like football and baseball. Gamification elements such as leaderboards and challenges are employed to promote healthier habits, striving for 30 minutes of daily active play per child. Their distribution strategy includes direct sales, collaborations with youth-focused entities, and potential partnerships with established sports clubs. Playfinity envisions evolving into a leading platform for children's activities, akin to "Strava for kids." Their broader goal extends beyond individual success, aiming for a future where physical activity becomes a prescribed solution in medical treatment plans. Amidst declining interest in traditional sports among youngsters globally, Pippa advocates for innovative approaches like active gaming sections in stores to reshape children's perspectives on exercise. By leveraging gamification techniques, Playfinity strives to make physical activity enjoyable and rewarding, combating sedentary lifestyles among youth while addressing significant health challenges.
You can listen to this episode below:
Outline:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Playfinity and Initial Challenges (00:07 - 05:02)
- 00:07: Introduction to the concept of Playfinity and its aim to combine gamification with physical activity.
- 02:11: Discussion on the challenges of creating a new category and the importance of being purpose-driven.
Chapter 2: Engaging Youth Through Technology and Gamification (06:08 - 11:16)
- 06:08: Exploring the use of technology to enhance traditional sports and engage young players.
- 08:02: Example of gamifying activities like kickups to enhance engagement and motivation.
- 10:37: Goal to encourage at least 30 minutes of active play per day among youth.
Chapter 3: Focus on Inclusivity and Non-competitive Sports (13:20 - 15:18)
- 13:20: Differentiating Playfinity's approach from traditional sports tech by focusing on inclusivity.
- 14:26: Emphasis on engagement, experiences, and gamification rather than elite training.
- 15:18: Importance of rigorous testing to ensure effectiveness and impact.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Personalization (16:07 - 19:45)
- 16:07: Utilizing data and feedback to identify engaging game mechanics for youth.
- 18:21: Balancing gamification elements with the young age group and collecting anonymized feedback.
- 19:46: Exploring the role of data collection in improving user engagement and experience.
Chapter 5: Impact on Health and Future Goals (21:07 - 29:26)
- 21:07: Collecting data on age, gender, and play duration to track impact on health and activity.
- 24:24: Addressing the challenge of optimizing engagement levels based on individual preferences.
- 29:26: Discussing the need for innovation and deeper engagement to address long-term health concerns.
Chapter 6: Commercial Strategy and Future Vision (30:21 - 37:23)
- 30:21: Outlining Playfinity's commercial plan, including direct-to-consumer and B2B models.
- 33:10: Emphasizing the importance of innovation and deeper engagement for long-term impact.
- 35:01: Future vision of Playfinity focusing on impact and active gaming for children's health and well-being.
Episode Transcript:
Ben
Hey, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Health Points, where we talk about anything and everything, gamification and health. And today we have with us Pippa Boothman, who's CEO at Playfinity. Pippa has a background studying sociology and criminology before going into marketing and commercials. She's also the chair of the board of directors for the canadian and Norwegian Business association and also a board member for the organization's bike Finder and Carbon concepts. Pippa, thank you so much for joining the show today.
Pippa
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Ben
Be great to know more about your journey and more about playfinity.
Pippa
Well, first of all, I need to say I'm a canadian living in Norway, and I've lived all over the world, so I'm happy to say I'm a global citizen. I've always been active and full of energy and really wanted to help people actually, from a young age. And I became really passionate about selling good quality, useful, healthy, functional products on my way through school, working at the retail level. And then as I started to grow my career, I ended up being on the other side of the table and sort of developing those products and selling those products and commercializing them and really thinking about functional products with new innovations that can really benefit people's lives. It was really important to me. So I started in the apparel industry. So even then I was working with functional fashion.
Pippa
I was working with Canada Goose, which is very innovative, amazing, long lasting products. And then I ended up in the tech space in 2013, where I was working in the iot space. So smart home at the beginning of smart home, which was really exciting, and smart buildings. So again, tech making people's lives more efficient and better, and now very lucky to be at playfinity. I thought I was going to be a lawyer, actually, growing up, hence the criminology. But this is actually much more fun for me. So I'm happy to have found this path. And in terms of playfinity, yeah. So I met the team in 2019 just to really do some banter and help them a bit around branding and commercializing around their new concept. And I just absolutely fell in love with what they're doing and why they're doing it.
Pippa
And it's really tough to create a new category, and you have to be really passionate and purpose driven. And when I met these guys at Playfinity, it was that all over again. So, yeah, I was asked to take the reins in 2022 to help them scale this new concept and category and take the concept to market. So that's where I am now.
Ben
Incredible. When did Playfinity start in that case? And how long have the founders been going before you took the post of them?
Pippa
Yeah, so the company was founded in 2016, and I guess we'll get in a bit more into what Playfinity is, but it was founded in 2016. 1st products to market in 2018. So when I joined in 2022, it was a typical, had some products, had done some testing, had gotten some products out to the market, but really needed to put in some concrete strategies and commercialize and understand how to grow it and make a point out of it and become known in the market.
Ben
In that case, then it'd be great to know more about playfinity, how the technology looks. Who's aimed at, I know is mostly a younger generation, but yeah, tell us about playfinity.
Pippa
Yeah, so our mission at playfinity is to keep kids active, really. That's the base of know, screen time is going up and so is inactivity. So we are essentially combining the worlds of sports and technology and gaming to inspire better habits and most importantly, to help keep kids moving and being active. We focus on youth between six to 14. A they are the most vulnerable for dropping out of sports. B they are also the ones embracing technology at a level that we've never really seen before and engaging with gaming and social media at a level that we've never seen before. So we work with sports that the youth already have a relationship with or are already engaged in. We learned that you can't really create a new sport. That was some of our learning in the early days.
Pippa
So we offer products that are digitized sporting equipment that connects to a free app full of games. And ultimately, you can play and challenge players all over the world through various games that connect to that specific sport. So, yeah, that's a bit about what we're doing. And I think it's important that we call out, we aren't against gaming and we aren't against technology. We really just want to use it for good and inspire better habits through that.
Pete Baikins
That's really interesting. How big is the problem, the youth dropping out of sports? And is there a difference between girls and boys?
Pippa
Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty big question, and I think there's a lot of stats out there. So I embrace as the most frequent stats that we can find are the ones I like to really embrace. But also just what we see in the market is so ultimately, 70% of kids are dropping out of sports by the age of 13 because, quote unquote, it's no longer fun. What does no longer fun mean? It means it's too competitive. It means their friends aren't playing it anymore. It means a lot of kids these days have to focus on just one sport, and it's the be all and end all. And so that takes the fun out of it. They're becoming quite aggressive, some sports, the industry in general, and it's just not what kids are used to anymore.
Pippa
There's a different level of play that they want. So that's one stat. And actually, that stat is from 2016. And since COVID they've shown that it's worse in terms of boys versus girls. That also really depends on the sport and it depends on the stats. You're looking at some new research just came out the other day from 2019 to 2022, that shows that actually boys are starting to drop out faster than girls. But then I hear in some sports that girls are dropping out like flies. So I think it depends on the country, it depends on the sport, it depends on the infrastructure around supporting that specific child and community. But it's a big problem. It's a really big problem.
Ben
Incredible, Pippa. So, in that case, how does play affinity work? How do you use technology to make more games out of pre existing sports that kids and teenagers know?
Pippa
Yeah, as I mentioned, you know, at the end of the day, our products, our games consist of digitized sporting equipment that connects to an app full of games. You can make your own games, and the magic is ultimately that you can challenge all the other kids around the world. So it's just like gaming, right? We use all the parts of gaming and social media that keep the kids stuck to screens. We're trying to use that for better. And ultimately, we saw kids going from hours of sports to hours of screens. So how can we use the best of those both worlds and bring them together? So we use a lot of the gaming mechanics that are used. What's the stickiness of gaming and social media?
Pippa
It's everything from leaderboards to points to rewards to status to discovery, avatars, challenges, being able to figure your own way to play. So we're really trying to use all of those mechanics to engage with the kids. And so at the end of the day, what we like to do is, let's just give a straight example here. So we've just launched a gaming football, which we're really excited about. So with the gaming football, you have mini games, right? So we work with coaches and we work with professional players to figure out what are games or what can we gamify that kids will really enjoy and relate to. And so one thing obviously that kids love is kick ups.
Pippa
So one of our games that you get when you get, so you get a match quality, true football with sensors inside it, connects to an app and in the app you can open it up and you have, for instance, one game that's called kick up. So can you get 20 kickups in a row? And you have three lives? Like, it's really fundamentally super simple. And as you do the kickups, there's noises, there's talking, there's audio, there's visual, there's everything, and you have three lives. So you can play that game and then ultimately you can challenge others also to that game. We also have a game called endless kicker, which is you're just out kicking the ball around and you get energy and points for how much activity you're having with that game and with the football.
Pippa
What we've done is we're actually implementing a new gaming loop to what playfinity does, where we're now presenting and exploring this new concept where your kicks are your currency is what we're calling it. So it's the first football game that's powered by your kicks. So we've not only launched active games in a physical component, but we've also released a virtual game. So we have digital matches, like a video game where you have actual teams with all the other ones who are also playing football. And your energy levels go down as you're playing the digital matches. So you have to go back out and be active with the football to generate energy back in. So we're really creating this complete cycle of play and motivating all sides of it.
Pete Baikins
So how fast is that loop? Am I like two minutes into a digital game? And then, oh, my God, I'm slowing down. I've got to go and do two minutes of physical activity and then back in.
Pippa
Well, I mean, look, at the end of the day, we have to lower the threshold, right? If it becomes a chore and if it becomes exhausting and if it's no longer fun, then we're going to lose the players. So we certainly don't have all the answers. I can tell you that now. What we do know is our ambition and our goal is to keep, is that every youth will play at least 30 minutes of active play a day. That's our goal and that's our ambition. And so we're going to watch closely how we can turn the dials. And if some kids are only playing seven minutes, well, okay, how can we optimize that. And maybe not every kid wants to play 30 minutes a day, but we have to again, allow this sort of flow and this freedom to optimize based on their experience.
Pippa
But we want every child at least to be 30 minutes active a day because we know that ends up in more activity.
Ben
Anyway, so you mentioned the digitized football. So it has sensors in connects to your phone or device, the actual digitized sports equipment. Is it just one type of ball? Do you have multiple types of equipment? And also kind of, how do kids get their hands on these pieces of kit?
Pippa
Yeah. So now we have four products in the market. So our first product, our smart ball, which was our first product ever, which is a squishy soft ball. Originally were inspired by handball, which was a very big sport in Norway. So this was really inspired by handball. Now we really use this as a target for the little ones, right? So to learn to catch and throw because it's soft and it's squishy. And we have games like higher and higher where you just have to throw it a little bit higher each time and you get points and lives for that. Then we have jump games, which is for the trampoline. So we've completely gamified jumping on the trampoline. It's a sensor that goes around your ankle. And for that we have games like Tornado.
Pippa
So how high can you jump and how many times can you spin in 60 seconds? And we had one kid hit a million jumps last year. So it's working, which is great. Then we have a gaming baseball. So after the smart ball was out in the market, we got quite a lot of attention from baseball coaches saying, hey, this could be really great for the players to practice more, to learn how to throw, to catch, et cetera. So we launched a gaming baseball, which is regulation size and weight as a real baseball, because as mentioned, we can't create a new sport. You have to relate to this sport. It has to feel like a real baseball. So that's super important for us. And there we have games like speed test, ground ball, popfly, all the games and drills that they already know from practice.
Pippa
And then we just launched our gaming football. So this is the first ever truly gamified football, the first football game powered by your kicks and really launching a new concept. And we haven't touched on this yet, but in terms of how we focus and target, there's a lot of sports tech in the market right now. And it's fair to say it all focuses on the 2% of youth who are taking the elite track, right. It's all focused on making the best, better training, really single skill driven, very much a training tool. We at playvinity, we are actually the only ones who are focusing on the 98% of kids who just want to have fun. Of course they want to practice, of course they want to better, of course they want to train.
Pippa
But we're using more experiences and engagement and gamification to just inspire them to play more and be able to measure their stats and drills, et cetera. But it's more of a complete experience, so it's more fun to come back and play.
Pete Baikins
Now, I feel like this might be a silly question, but with some sensitive electronics in it, how robust are these things with the baseball? And you're hitting it with a bat. Is that so?
Pippa
I love this question because going back to a bit about me, I only like to work with good quality products. I think fundamentally for me that's really important. And when I joined this company, I was like, oh, even if it's a good quality product, I mean, kids are going to do anything they can to break it, right? Like that is what you do when you're a kid. And just for a perfect example, with the baseball. So first of all, the games are not based on a game of baseball, right? They're based on playing catch and games of catch. So we actually have a sign on it that says not for batting, but we know kids are batting it. So that's just like a little caveat there.
Pippa
But we are partners with the Kansas City Royals professional baseball team, and they've set up a station in their summer camp for kids, and hundreds of kids go through there constantly. And they thought for sure they were going to have to get new balls, like every three or four weeks. They didn't have to replace one ball through the entire summer. So our testing is rigorous. So we test the base 80 times against a cement wall at 100 km an hour with our football. We're doing the most intense tests that they can do in terms of speed and number of tests. We do it with the sensors inside, so they are robust and we love it.
Ben
In that case, you're talking about the hardware. Now, how do you get in? You've clearly created some really interesting games that are about competing with yourself, competing with other people. You've taken concept from really successful computer and video games, particularly mass online games. What is your process as playfinity to identify what are the game mechanics, what are the type of games, and then testing them to feel you have some confidence. They're right. Before releasing them.
Pippa
Yeah. And I mean, this is really interesting, right? Because we're creating a new category. Like active gaming is totally new. So we're the first to say we don't know everything, but we're doing a lot of testing new gaming styles, new gaming mechanics. And also we released products previously where it was like, what do we want? And what do we think is cool? But it's actually really important. What do the kids want, right? Like, what's interesting for them. So we know it's important that we use games that they resonate with, right? We know it's important that they have sporting equipment that they resonate with. So we work a lot with coaches and professional players to say, what are mini games as? Like the fundamental sort of physical part of it. And then within there we are saying we use our data, right?
Pippa
So how much repetition is happening? What games are they playing the most versus not playing at all? Which games are the kids creating? Kids can make their own games. So we look at that, there's obviously seasonal trends, right? So we have to pay attention to that. And some kids we see want to play like crazy for 2030 days in a row, and then they don't play for a while. And I think this is where we really need to respect the fact that we know kids don't want this to become a chore, right? So they need to play at the level they want to play. And we need to make sure that we're feeding that. So we look at the data every day, we try to understand the trends every day, and we try to get a lot of feedback as well.
Pippa
But again, leaderboard, like the typical. The leaderboards, the minigames, the avatars, the community, like, being able to have a community within the ecosystem is also super important. And we see that everyone actually really enjoys it. Right? This actually isn't just for the kids. We see that when the adults pick them up to test them, they have a lot of fun. Because it's fun, right? We all like a bit of feedback. We all like the noise. We all like to see how fast we can throw or how high we can throw. It just has to be fun.
Pete Baikins
Well, I think it's really interesting. One of the most powerful game elements is indeed that sense of community, or how you get people discovering each other. How are you making that work with a young age group? From data privacy and all sorts of other safety respects.
Pippa
So I would say, actually, we've been too conservative and too careful. Up until recently, we haven't collected any data. We've been very sort of like, let's just protect them to the max. So now what we're doing is we're starting to collect more information about age, we're starting to collect at least email addresses. We can engage with them a bit more on the app. Again, it's anonymized. It's more just feedback and questions. We also can see geographical data, but not down to the home or even the postal code. It's very high level. Are working with experts to know how we can get more data responsibly and on the groups and community parts for us. Again, it's like the avatars are critical, so you're not getting personalized information about the kids. And then when the communities come together, it's more.
Pippa
If you can picture Facebook events and communities, right? Like more fan style engagement and community, as opposed to like, hey, let's meet up and play in of. So it's distance and it's respecting the privacy for sure. And no personalized information is being shared anywhere.
Ben
Brilliant. You just mentioned before that question was the stats and data you look at every day. What are those key kind of drivers in terms of your data? What are you seeing? How many people, how many kicks, how many millions of jumps? What's it looking like for playfinity?
Pippa
Yeah, we've been a little bit busy lately getting this football out, but we actually used to track monthly and I can't wait till we actually have a counter on our website. But I mean, for instance, I think it was in July, we had 2.5 million jumps and throws for the month. So we look at everything from jumps, throws now, kicks, of course we look at location. So we have players in over 21 countries. We look at which games are being played. So we really can hone in on every little bit of data that we want and then use that to optimize at best we can. But it's really fun. I mean, for me, fundamentally just country and then numbers of activity, that is just super fun in itself. And you can watch trends when there's large sport tournaments somewhere.
Pippa
All of a sudden kids are a little more active. And with the football out now and all the events that happen globally with football, it's going to be really exciting to watch.
Ben
I mean, you just mentioned about privacy and minimizing or no data collected within the new data you're collecting. What are the kind of things you're hoping to see in terms of impact on health, impact on activity? Are there any things you're going to add in now? That will give you much deeper insights for the future.
Pippa
Yeah. So first we're collecting age, as I said, which we haven't really done in the past. And it's funny because when we first launched it with the baseball, we saw, wait a minute, this is the parents age. The parents are putting in their age. So it's important that we can get the age of the player. It's important that we can get gender right because we want to understand these trends. And it's also important that we can see how long they're playing for. And as I said, our goal is to get them playing more and motivate them at a level that's interesting and not too intense. So just learning how we can optimize based on personal activity levels and experience without being too much, and then we can go. I think the opportunity for me is massive on a public health level, even. Right?
Pippa
Like, we can eventually, hopefully one day work with doctors and we can work with even being given activity as a form of medicine. And we can help track that. We can do friendly challenges between different groups and communities to help engage more. I mean, there's really a lot that we can do, but we're just trying to make sure the ducks are in line so that we can do it responsibly and properly so we don't sort of take on too much.
Pete Baikins
In terms of getting that activity going and keeping it going. So I guess a perfect customer would be their youngest kids age six, all the way up to 13 or whatever. So, like seven years, are you going to have, or do you have different types of minigame for them to play aimed at different ages? How are you managing that?
Pippa
Yeah, not yet, because what we've actually seen is that a seven year old and a 13 year old may want to play on the same level. Right? Age doesn't determine level. And I think that's one reason why kids drop out of sports. I mean, I have a story, many stories, but one that shocked me was my friend in Germany. At eleven, her son had to decide if he was going to take the elite track or not. And because he said no, he literally had nowhere to play. And that's a perfect example. She was like, oh, I just want to get him this so he can go out and then all of a sudden play at different levels again and at whatever level he wants. We have seven year olds who are incredible and eleven year olds who are at that same level.
Pippa
And I think that's probably one of our biggest challenges and roles as a company is to understand how to optimize for. I mean, age is interesting, but it's actually just what's going to get them playing more. Right. And what level do they want to engage at?
Pete Baikins
Yeah, I like that. So actually, your minigames are more about particular skills with that type of ball, aren't they?
Pippa
Exactly.
Pete Baikins
So that makes them less age dependent.
Pippa
Yeah, that's why we work with players and clubs. I mean, kick ups is like, I've got 21 year old step kids, they love doing kickups. And I have a seven year old niece and nephew. They love doing kickups. And actually, one of my best stories that reminds me how fun and playful this can be is I was at a trade show and I'm sure you guys can relate to some of these cynical characters out there that are like, oh, why do you have to gamify sports? It's already a game. And he was totally challenging me. This was at CEs in Las Vegas. I said, okay, just give me 1 minute of your time. Just give me 1 minute. And I gave him this ball, the smart ball, and I made him play higher and higher.
Pippa
And he went from being like, super cynical and he started playing this and he just was laughing and he was having so much fun. And even his friend was like, whoa, I haven't seen you have that. So age doesn't matter, right? We all want to have fun, and I think that's something that we have to remember is the moment kids aren't having fun, then we're not doing our job. So we need to be in the market, we need to get feedback, we need to watch them. We need to be with the teams, we need to be with the schools. We just need to be in the market and make sure they're having fun with the products and the games.
Pete Baikins
Yeah, I was thinking, my partner is a primary school teacher and I'm pretty sure some of the basic ball skills they have to teach are these ones. So are you partnering with schools? How do they go about accessing this for as many kids as possible?
Pippa
Yeah, let me say, that's one of the things that keeps me up at night out of excitement more than anything. So right now our goal is to really mass adoption. Right? Like, let's get as many players playing. Let's get as many kids playing on the other side. We have opportunities. We get inbound from coaches, teachers, parents, camp counselors, insurance companies. We get so much inbound saying we can't keep the kids interested. So actually, one project we're working on now to help develop a multiplayer app. So one interface with many players. So we're working with the Kansas City Royals to help develop that in baseball and then in Austria, actually, we're working with a very large insurance company right now who's funding a few physical education experts to develop a program for all of their phys ed classes with the smart ball.
Pippa
So again, we need to work with the experts in this field because it's totally different relationship. One person with multiple kids and multiple products, right? It becomes a completely different experience. So we need to really make that awesome. But we want to be the platform for activating kids in whatever sport it is. We really want to just be that go to platform, however the activity is happening.
Ben
I would have loved to have seen you tackle and deal with the personal confidence and also to that point as well. Why do even things like sports and activities need to be gamified? Well, I'll tell you what, there's so many appealing things that are not around. Healthy lifestyle choices that are so engaging, even in the UK at the moment. I'm not going to name any particular names. There is a very large fast food chain in the UK that's currently using a very well known board game to use to gamify a marketing campaign around winning their particular fast food.
Ben
And so the moment when these giant companies, multi billion dollar companies, are using gamification and tactics for higher engagement for activities and foods which are not great for people, we have to work so much harder in those activities that are really good for people's lifestyle and health in order to get them to look away from the tasty burger and look towards the healthy snack or doing some exercise or a walk. Modern life is full of temptation everywhere. And most of that temptation is sedentary behavior or poor lifestyle choices, unfortunately.
Pippa
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, we are up against a huge challenge, right, everyone? But if we talk about kids specifically, I mean, everywhere we go, people are stuck to their screens and they're being taken down rabbit holes of behavior that are not making their lives. So we do need to innovate together, we need to collaborate together. We need to really find the people in the community and in the industries who see what we're all doing. Right, Ben? I mean, you guys are doing this as well. I mean, we need to talk more about this and really bring out the story that the kids need us to find these new innovations for them. They need it. This has to be. I mean, I'm the first at every conference and we basically met under these same discussions.
Pippa
I mean, I've been to who knows how many sporting events and conferences and industry this, industry that, and nobody is talking about these kids dropping out of being active. And we have a big challenge, but we need to find ways to engage them. And I mean, look what Pokemon go did, right? It's magical. Yes, there's some ups and downs of everything, but they engaged people in a completely different level that would never have even gone outside walking like that before. So it's pretty special.
Ben
Yeah, I completely agree with you, particularly in the sports tech space. And my frustration is that our sports tech is what we build and deliver is all about activating inactive people, supporting people who have health conditions. Everything else out there, the vast majority of companies out there are marketing, betting, or elite athletes. And it's really frustrating when you're trying to create change in people's lifestyle through exercise and physical activity, which has such an improvement in people's lives. And we get pushed to the side because there's a new betting app or a new marketing program for whatever is frustrating on that point. Then, for playfinity, what is your commercial plan and strategy? How are you growing? What does it look like for you?
Pippa
Yeah, it's really exciting, actually. So in terms of sort of our strategy and our go to market, if you will. So we have one channel that is direct to consumer, right, where we're trying to get engage with players and the youth. So there we sell products through our website. We work with some choice resellers, so retailers and other organizations that really want to help get these products into their hands. Another channel is what we sort of call mission and impact. So we work with, for instance, right, to play. We work with some organizations that their goal is to activate youth and kids. So we work with them by doing affiliate programs, right. So we help get products out and then we get some feedback there. And then on the other side is our B to B model.
Pippa
And this is where we haven't really even touched yet, but there's a huge opportunity. So that's multiplayer apps, that's fan engagement, that's partnerships with some big clubs and teams and XYZ. So that's really a whole other channel. So now it's all about getting products into hands of kids and keeping them active. And that's through our website and through some resellers.
Ben
I wish I had some connections at FIFA or something because this is exactly what the World cup should be doing, right. It's not about the elite athletes, the millionaires on the pitch running up and down. It's how do you inspire the next generation of children to come through and enjoy sport.
Pippa
We can talk about that offline because I've talked to them all. So, yeah, I believe they will circle back and say, okay, we see. Now let's see what we can do together. For the moment, there's a lot of transactional conversations, which we're a tiny company and we can't partake in those kind of things. But I do believe that. And just like the Kansas City Royals, they are so forward thinking. They came to us and they said, this is incredible. How can we work together? How can we support you? How can we use this incredible tool to engage the kids? I mean, that is perfect. In that type of situation, I believe.
Ben
Will start to unfold more and more needed. I mean, even some stats that were released last week in the UK around children, adolescent inactivity, it's going in the wrong direction. There's been decades of policy and funding pots to try and change the direction of the curve at the moment in terms of physical activity for children and adolescents, and it's still not going in the right direction. We need to think differently, we need to go harder, we need to go deeper, because otherwise these are problems that will show their face in 20, 30, 40 years time.
Pippa
Yeah, and I mean, I have to say, and I'm sure we talked about it, but one of the flags that I'm raising as well is that we have to pay attention to this is it's also just the sporting industry in general. I mean, think about this. If 70, maybe 80% of kids are dropping out of sports by the age of 13, what's happening in 20 years when most of those kids, I mean, they say, if you're not engaged in a sport, rarely are you like, a big fan. Rarely are you putting your own kids into sports. Rarely are you engaging at that level with the industry. So in 20 years after today, when we have all these young parents or families and they've got kids, they're not engaging them in sports either. And they're not fans.
Pippa
So fundamentally, from a sporting industry perspective, they should be terrified. But now it's just like, what can we do now with fan engagement? But let's look 20 years down the road, we have to keep these kids active just for the industry in general. And tennis right now, I tell you, their average fan is 61 years old, and they are thinking, how are we going to grow this and keep cricket, same thing. Golf, same thing. So there'll be more eyes opening as they see more and more issues.
Pete Baikins
I love these things. The sports industry should be terrified that there won't be fans and that kids need us to find these innovations for them. There's so much wonderful stuff in this interview already.
Ben
In that case, Pippa, what's the future for playfinity, and where do you think the future in health gamification is going?
Pippa
So the future for playfinity is. So we're really using the football now to optimize this play loop, right. The motivation to keep playing even longer. So we really are focusing on that. Once we've nailed those mechanics and that flow, we want to probably put that into the baseball, right? So backtrack a little bit into our previous products, and then we want to grow with impact. So really looking at where can we have the biggest impact on the most kids with which sports? But ultimately, what I love to say is a, as I already mentioned, we want to be the go to platform. So if you're just going out for a know. So Strava for kids, let's just throw it out there. That's my dream. Right. Strava for kids.
Pippa
So no matter what, if you're being active with whatever kind of interface or game or product, we want to be hosting that and inspiring those habits. And then what I like to say is active gaming, which is the category we're creating. So one day you'll walk into your local, who knows at this point, sports store, electronic store, depends who is really the innovator and wants to embrace it, and you'll see an active gaming category, and that's going to be playfinity. And we're going to have different sport equipment and products that you can buy to really help engage and motivate. That's our big future. And I think in terms of health, as I mentioned before, I want doctors to be prescribing physical activity, and whether they're using our products or someone else's products, I don't know.
Pippa
But if we can be a part of that solution, we already can be. You easily can give a product to a kid and say, come back, and I want to see 100 throws next appointment or 100 kicks. And I think everything has to be gamified. This is the way it's going, so why not gamify everything that we're having challenges with? And I do think that's going to happen within the health space.
Ben
Pippa, it's been great to have you on the show today to talk about playfinity, focusing rather than on the 2% of kids and adolescents who are on those competitive sports track, and instead focusing on the 98% of kids who are often dropping out of sport early, but where fun has been lost from sport and putting fun back into it, and using technology not to create new games in sports, but to be able to measure those sports and activities and add new game mechanics to existing game and sports, which is resulting in kids jumping millions of times a year, having games powered by kicks, and the importance of finding new and engaging ways to motivate kids to be active for them, for their healthy future, and for society at large. Pippa, it's been great having you on the show today.
Pippa
Thank you so much and thanks for everything you guys are doing. This is really great.