“Willhaben, the ORF, and the Kronen Zeitung are the only things that lie ahead of us.”

LEADERSNET: Dear Mr. Arnitz, In October 2022, Ligaportal.at broke the sound barrier of over ten million visits for the first time. When you first started out, did you expect the platform to ever be this successful, or did it surpass even your most optimistic predictions?

Arnitz: The idea of ​​creating an internet portal for amateur football came up in June 2007 while I was studying business informatics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. After playing in the regional league center myself at the time, I primarily wanted to create a platform that dealt exclusively with the Upper Austrian football lower house. However, we noticed relatively quickly that the community was very popular after the launch in August 2007, which is why we were able to quickly roll out to the other federal states in the following years – with the support of the Styria Media Group AG. At the beginning we had about 50,000 visits per month on the platform, in October 2022 it was almost eleven million. In addition, the official statistics of the ÖWA recorded over 70 million page views and 1.65 million unique clients. As the founder of an Internet platform, one can hope for such numbers, but achieving them is the result of the hard work of many people.

LEADERSNET: What were the key points that made you found Ligaportal.at? Similar offers have already been made.

Arnitz: This is not quite correct. In 2007 there was still no website on which editorial content on the football lower house was published on a regular basis. At that time, the hundreds of thousands of players, coaches, officials and fans were happy when they were informed about the results and tables of the respective classes in the Kronen Zeitung on Monday or in the regional free newspapers such as Bezirksrundschau or TIPS on Wednesday. Officials used to have to call all other clubs after their own game to find out the latest results. That was time consuming and tedious. In 2007, we were the very first in Europe to deal intensively with the subject of “editorial reporting on amateur football on the Internet”. There was no live ticker or live videos of lower house games anywhere else at the time. And if we now look back at the past 16 years, we can proudly claim that we have fundamentally changed and thus revolutionized reporting in amateur football.

LEADERSNET: Where do you see the unique selling points of your platform and the biggest advantages over the competition?

Arnitz: ligaportal.at reports on all 2,200 football clubs from the Austrian Bundesliga to the lowest level (men, women, reserves and youth). Our sports portal also has all top international leagues (German Bundesliga, Premier League, Serie A, Primera Division, Champions League, etc.) in its portfolio. Almost 1,200 combat team games take place across Austria every weekend. The majority of these games are ticked by volunteers such as officials, stadium announcers and spectators. More than 300,000 users are currently registered in the league portal live ticker center (ticker.ligaportal.at), of which around 10,000 are active as live ticker reporters. This means that these people report live via the league portal app – directly from the sidelines or from a stadium – about the game (goals, chances, changes, cards, etc.). In addition, we publish more than 80,000 of our own articles per year.

LEADERSNET: How many employees do you employ directly and how do you manage to recruit the thousands of live ticker reporters?

Arnitz: Ligaportal currently has around 100 employees (permanent employees and freelancers) and, as mentioned, over 10,000 active live ticker reporters. The central element is an incentive model that we developed a long time ago. The more bonus points a user collects, the higher their reputation among fans; we differentiate here between beginner reporters and professional reporters. Those users who tick regularly have the opportunity to win great prizes. There is a maximum of 50 bonus points per ticked game. Today there are users who have already earned more than 250,000 (!) points over the course of time. That is outstanding and shows the enormous importance of football in Austria.

LEADERSNET: How is it ensured that the information from the live ticker reporters is correct? Is there a special control, or does Ligaportal.at primarily rely on trust?

Arnitz: On the one hand, we have a well-functioning reporting system, on the basis of which errors are quickly identified, on the other hand, several administrators check the live ticker every day and ensure order and excellent information quality.

LEADERSNET: Ligaportal.at is majority owned by the Styria Media Group. How does the cooperation work and do you have a largely free hand when making decisions?

Arnitz: Styria Media Group is a great partner who has been supporting us since 2010. Without her, the platform would certainly not be where it is now. Accordingly, we are also very grateful for the great support over the past 13 years. And yes, as managing director I have a largely free hand and in Alfred Brunner, whom Styria has installed as a so-called “controlling managing director”, I have a very competent and experienced partner with whom I can exchange ideas at any time.

LEADERSNET: Would the very complex and resource-intensive operation actually be manageable in its current form without a strong partner in the background?

Arnitz: With the sale of 30 percent to Kleine Zeitung / Styria AG in 2010, we received a very good investment, with the help of which we were able to roll out the whole of Austria. In 2015, Styria then increased it to 74.9 percent, since then my colleague Michael Lattner (IT manager, 6.9 percent) and I (18.2 percent) have still held shares – we therefore still hold a blocking minority. Of course, there have always been challenges over the years that could hardly have been solved alone without such a partner. The construction was capital-intensive, as is the ongoing operation, of course. As the founder, I am very pleased that Ligaportal has been a profitable digital company for many years, which can still look forward to strong user growth for almost 16 years. This is not a matter of course in the often fast-moving Internet business.

LEADERSNET: What challenges does the league portal face every day?

Arnitz: One challenge is to ensure the stability of the overall system at the weekend. During games we are exposed to huge spikes in traffic that need to be managed. Of course, we have taken the necessary technical precautions here, IT boss Michael Lattner and his team do excellent work every day. On Saturday and Sunday afternoon we had up to 50,000 users online at the same time. According to the official ÖWA statistics, the league portal app has been the fourth largest Austrian app for some time – ahead of us are only willhaben, ORF as well as the Crown newspaper.

LEADERSNET: How does ligaportal.at earn its money?

Arnitz: Much of the revenue is generated through advertising. The main advantage of the league portal is that we can play out the campaigns not only across Austria or the state, but also at league and even local level. This makes advertising for companies particularly effective and therefore interesting, our customers have hardly any wastage. In addition, we have some additional monetization channels with the Ligaportal webshop, the sale of football trips and the Ligaportal fashion collection.

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