FanHub – The new app which rewards your loyalty to the Albion

Imagine an app which could track your loyalty to Brighton & Hove Albion. The miles you have travelled, the wins (and defeats) you have witnessed and the grounds you have visited. And then the same app rewards the top fans with rewards for their loyalty. Brighton supporters, welcome to the world of FanHub.

“Strava for football fans” is how it was kind of sold us earlier in the summer. Not that we needed much selling. Ever since the WeAreBrighton.com team trekked to Hartlepool United for an FA Cup first round replay on a Tuesday night in 2008, we have longed for a method of keeping track of the madness of supporting the Albion.

FanHub provides that for Brighton supporters and football fans everywhere. Those 92 hardy souls who were at Victoria Park that evening would have had the 648 mile round trip logged, plus the fact they went all that way to witness a 2-1 defeat. The developers should probably consider an add-on which would have referred them for a psychiatric check up too.

With FanHub, you will be able to see your best winning streak of matches attended. You will also be able to see your best winless streak, which could provide thoroughly depressing yet at the same time fascinating revelations when you realise you have not seen a Brighton away win for two years.

The statistics side of FanHub barely scratches the surface of what the app does, however. Not only do you get a record of your career as a Brighton supporter, but FanHub will also rank your loyalty.

Every action you take as a Brighton supporter through the app helps to build a fan score. You receive points for attending games at the Amex, putting yourself at risk of catching TB and other 19th century diseases at Selhurst Park and getting to Middlesbrough for a lunchtime kick off.

There are points available for actions you take in the app, too. Predicting the Brighton starting XI (easy under Chris Hughton, impossible under Chris Hughton) and reading and interacting with pieces of content about the Albion through FanHub will earn you further recognition.

If you live and breathe Brighton and are always reading news and views, then the app recognises that your loyalty goes beyond what happens for 90 minutes on a Saturday. Especially if you read articles from WAB, which will be published through the app.

These points then translate to your FanScore, allowing you to see how your loyalty compares to other Brighton fans, friends who support different clubs and the wider footballing public in general.

League tables will show your own personal ranking, as well as which club has the most loyal supporters. We would be sticking a cheeky tenner on Plymouth Argyle topping that particular list, given they can take over 1,500 fans to Sunderland.

And then comes the really clever bit – FanHub will reward the most loyal supporters for their dedication. Those who top the loyalty leader boards will find themselves earning prizes and recognition for their dedication to their club.

Whilst we here at WAB Towers are swooning over the statistics side, the real aim of FanHub is to see supporters rewarded for the part they play in making English football what it is.

“The beautiful game has lost its heart – football without fans is nothing and yet they receive nothing in return,” reads the FanHub mission statement.

“By attending games, creating and consuming content, and engaging with other fans we are putting a lot of time and passion into something that does not give us the reward we deserve.”

“By creating a fan-centric app we will empower fans and change the dynamic of the modern game. By completing actions of loyalty within the app, fans will earn a FanScore.”

“This score will see them receive recognition across the football leagues, placing them on a leaderboard against other fans. This will also see them rewarded for their performance like they deserve, putting the power back in the hands of football’s most important stakeholder.”

Sounds bloody good, doesn’t it? This is only the beginning too – our suggestion to the FanHub team was that they find a way to reward supporters for drinking pints on football days, even though that may prove detrimental to our Twitter account when we are 15 pints in and have just lost 3-1 away at Burnley.

The FanHub app is expected to launch soon – by which point supporters will hopefully be allowed back into stadiums. If you want to gain early access to the app to start tracking your support of the Albion, then you can sign up for early access to FanHub here.