Italians who practice sport in an organized and continuous way, according to Istat data, are over 20 million. Many begin to do it already around 3 years of age, e currently the rate of sedentary people (35,9%) is the lowest since 2001. Yet, it is not always easy to organize this activity, as popular as it is healthy. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that continuous practitioners drop from 11% to 17% in boys between the ages of 61,5 and 50,5, while in the first two years of adulthood the drop reaches 39,5%. Maybe because it's difficult to reconcile friends, study and sporting activity? Or is it because of the competition from PCs and smartphones?
The answer to these and other questions comes once again from technology: the TIFO app has been presented, the first application in Italy designed for the world of amateur sport, which promises to make the smartphone not an enemy of sport, but a support to do more of it and also to manage it better and comfortably online. But how?
What is TIFO and how does it work
TIFO is in fact a platform “all-in-one”, a digital ecosystem alongside the sportsman but also associations, clubs and federations. Anyone who uses TIFO will not only be able to play more sports, but will also be able to manage it conveniently online. How? Among the main advantages: the sportsman will be able to receive summons from his coach but also invitations to club events, and will be able to pay the fee for sports activities much more comfortably; clubs and coaches will have a quick and effective tool to reach their members, better organize appointments and collect payments. Tifo will also be very useful for sports federations and promotion bodies because they will have at their disposal a tool capable of reaching millions of sportsmen and women, profiled on the basis of age, gender, sport practiced and geographical origin, with a click.
Carrying out transactions with TIFO will be really simple and immediate: upon registration, each user – whether a club or an athlete – will automatically be the owner, free of charge, of a wallet, with his own Italian IBAN and a connected payment card. By combining organizational functions and mobile payment technology, TIFO will allow users to send money and pay directly from your smartphone. A trend that is becoming increasingly popular in Italy too if we think that in 2018 Italian owners of a smart wallet used it at least once a week and that the value of purchases made from mobile sites is almost 9 billion euros or apps with 40% growth over the previous year. Through TIFO it will therefore be possible, in addition to paying or collecting membership fees, to also purchase sports products, contribute to a through crowdfunding and much more, making transactions and payments easily, quickly and transparently.
The functionality of "groups"
The strength of TIFO is the functionality of the groups, i.e. the possibility that each user has to create their own groups of family, friends, colleagues or school and team mates, to interact quickly, create events, share information, photos, videos and documents and above all exchange money completely free of charge. It will also be possible to create personal fundraising campaigns (crowdfunding) with commissions much lower than those of the market.
Benefits and Incentives
Tifo brings together clubs, shops, sponsors and families by offering the possibility of earning money: a club with 200 members, 6 affiliated shops connected to the Tifo regional sponsor network, can earn up to 10 thousand euros in the first year . In 2018, the analysis of the world of sport revealed the growing economic difficulty of sport, connected to the economic crisis, the decline in users, late payments and bank credit difficulties. Typhoid is an innovative solution at no cost which introduces mobile payment, payment card and IBAN into the world of sport with immediate advantages.
The Roadmap
TYPHUS will be officially available from next year and its The roadmap is characterized by two important appointments: January 2020 - when the beta test will start on a selection of some Italian clubs - and April 2020, when it will be possible to download the app on iOS and Android devices. TIFO will operate in Italy as an agent registered with the ACPR (French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority) and Bank of Italy.
“TIFO – he commented Sébastien di Mauro, founder and CEO – aims to simplify the organization of activities related to the world of sport and promotes a "fair play" society based on ethics and social responsibility, increasingly oriented towards digital payments. We have decided to take the field and come out before the release of the platform scheduled for 2020, to give greater resonance to the platform and raise awareness of sports associations, bodies, institutions, public and private subjects to experiment with this innovative digital payment solution, which operates and guarantees the principles of maximum transparency, speed and traceability of transactions”
With a view to rapid expansion at the national level, TIFO has already signed agreements with three national sports organizations recognized by CONI, namely ASI (Italian Social Sports Associations), MSP (Movimento Sportivo Popolare) and Unione Sportiva ACLI, which together represent 20 % of athletes registered with a Sports Promotion Body. Furthermore, the beta-test will start in January to verify the functions in the field and evaluate the user experience with the SanPaolo Ostiense sports club in Rome, a structure of excellence that has more than 1000 members, 80% of whom are minors and which hosts 7 sports.
In addition to the founder Sébastien di Mauro, the TIFO team is made up of Geronimo Emili, CMO, for over 20 years in strategic consultancy and specialist in fintech communication and digital payment services; Giovanni Procaccino, CFO, organization expert, specialized in Computer Science and for 28 years in Accenture as Managing Director, then in DGS Group, as BU Director and William Franchini, CTO, with twenty years of experience in the development and implementation of business software.
Among the partners supporting the project, the French Treezor, a Fintech company of the Société Generale group and payment institution authorized by the ACPR; to support Tifo on the legal front instead Tonucci & Partners, one of the main Italian law firms with strong expertise in the sports sector.
