Former Springbok Bryan Habana’s app scores big 

World Cup-winning Springbok star, Bryan Habana, has announced the first two months of traction achieved with his award-winning creative team‘s MatchKit, an innovative platform that gives athletes a ground-breaking solution for commercialising their digital brand. 

MatchKit has partnered with the  JVW Football Club

According to MatchKit, a reported 2.6-million fans have utilised the app within the first six weeks of its launch. The app is currently focused on providing female athletes a platform to commercialise their brands. 

A new partnership 

In addition to gaining traction, a secondary milestone has been scored as MatchKit has partnered with JVW Football Club, owned by Banyana Banyana Captain, Janine van Wyk.

 JVW Football Club focuses on the development of female football players and the new partnership with Matchkit will allow users and athletes to reach higher levels in the sport. 

Janine Van Wyk explains that the partnership will continue to elevate the status of her developing athletes.

 “I am so glad that companies and brands are starting to see the great investment in the ever-growing Women’s Football market. I hope that through this partnership and platform, more of our athletes will not only be able to be exposed to professional clubs but to start branding themselves in a way that will influence more sponsors to come on board. I am excited about the future of this partnership, and know that this is still the beginning of many more great things to come.”

To date, MatchKit claims to have signed up athletes who are connected to 2,600,000 fans globally, generated R44 000 in revenue and the tech has been used to crowdfund an additional R29 000 for charity. 

Bryan Habana, co-founder of Matchkit comments on the roaring success of the app.

“There is never a right time to start a new business but my team and I are proud to have leveraged the opportunities presented during the lockdown as well as my insights associated with athlete personal branding to bring a digital product to market that is already enabling all athletes / their agents generate an income in new ways,” 

MatchKit co-founder Mike Sharman adds, “We are buoyed by the caliber and diversity of our athlete sign-ups as well as the sporting bodies and representatives that have signed up to use our minimum viable product (MVP) to date.”

Matchkit has concluded the following deals to date: 

• Janine van Wyk’s JVW FC, where we are working together to help elevate the personal brands of the young women associated with the club
• Irish Women’s Rugby, where we are currently onboarding the international 15s team
• ProSport International, one of South Africa and Africa’s largest management companies
• ProTouch professional cycling team all onboarded to enhance marketability and rider reporting for the benefit of sponsors 
• Pollywog, surfing brand that will leverage our tech, in order to scout a new ambassador

Habana’s team went from registering the domain to launching MatchKit.co in a matter of three months. 

The app has garnered attention having already attracted international sporting icons such as Thembi Kgatlana (Banyana Banyana and SD Eibar player), Tammy Beaumont (English cricketer), Rachael Burford (English rugby player), Brandon Stone (Professional golfer), and Henri Schoeman (Olympic Bronze Medalist) to name a few.

Read more: Habana scores another try, as Retroactive launches sports promotions app
Read more: Former Springbok Bryan Habana’s Paymenow nets R4m seed funding round

Featured image (from left to right): Mike Sharman, Bryan Habana and Ben Karpinski. Not pictured is Shaka Sisulu (he wasn’t in town when this image was shot) (Supplied)