Meet Sam from The Football Game Co.

Here at Tide, our members are front and centre of everything we do, and our Member Spotlight series is no different! In this series, we share a little bit more about some of our brilliant members.

Today, we introduce you to Sam, one of the founders of The Football Game Co. The business was founded by Sam and two of his best friends after creating The Football Game, a card game that tests obscure football knowledge under pressure. They created the idea many years ago, on the coach back from a school trip – since then, it has grown to be enjoyed by many.

Hi Sam, can you tell us more about The Football Game Co. and where the idea came from?

We came up with the idea of the game on a coach ride back from a school trip to a Devon waterpark, when we were 16! Myself, the other co-founders, Jack (Levick) and Jamie (Smith), as well as our best friend Simon (Appleby) were bored and started a simple game – naming footballers, managers, clubs, and other football-related criteria against each other. It quickly became a go-to for us on nights out, at the pub, and while traveling. 

In the summer of 2021, after many years of playing the game together, as well as introducing it to others,  we decided to turn it into a card game that people could easily pick up and enjoy. That’s how The Football Game Co. was born!

Your backstory spans over a decade – can you tell us more about your journey of running a business with two of your school friends?

It’s been fantastic to launch this business with friends. We’ve always been close, and working on a shared project has been really rewarding. Over the years, we’ve all gained different skills – Jack brings a creative and videography background, Jamie has strong video editing expertise, and I focus on anything “operations”. It’s been great to combine our strengths and spend more time together, whether that’s working on the business, going to football matches for research, or just enjoying the game ourselves while introducing it to others.

What made you want to launch The Football Game Co. into the world?

Honestly, our favourite thing is sharing the game with others and seeing people play it, especially for the first time. We love seeing the game bring people together, allowing them to bond over obscure footballers or footballing memories.

Can you share a proud moment in your journey with The Football Game Co. so far?

One of the proudest moments was probably in 2023, when we hit the £4,000 milestone we needed during the Kickstarter campaign to produce the first batch of the game and launch the business. We went on to hit over £6,000 in the 30-day campaign and sent more than 300 copies of the game to 22 countries. We were refreshing the page every 15 minutes for a month, so when it finally came to packaging up games together in my living room and seeing everywhere they were going out to, it was a real high.

Having launched your Kickstarter campaign in 2023, is there any advice would you give to other small businesses looking to crowd fund?

It’s quite a lot of work to do well, but it’s a fantastic way to get up and running, and it feels even better knowing a community has helped you do it. I think the main thing we did right was building a social presence before launching the campaign. We showed how the game worked with plenty of clips of other people playing it and really enjoying it. We also engaged with our audience as much as possible, before and during the campaign – answering questions, live streaming an evening of us playing the game, and reaching out to people with an online following to help spread the word.

What challenges have you faced as entrepreneurs in the sports and gaming industry, and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced so far is the seasonality of the business. More than half of our yearly sales are between September and December each year, as the game makes a great present or activity to enjoy with the family at that time of year. This means we have to significantly ramp everything up for 3 or 4 months a year, but we really enjoy the challenge. We’ve been sold out every mid-December since launching, giving us time for a much-needed rest until the New Year.

You’ve created a special partnership with award-winning brewery, Round Corner Brewing – could you tell us more about this?

Round Corner have been really amazing with us. Even before we launched the Kickstarter campaign, they were super positive about the game after seeing it on our social channels. We had a few conversations, and they helped us out by running a joint competition with us on Instagram – the winner picked up the first ever copy of the game aside from any that Jack, Jamie or I had seen, as well as a load of beer and other merch from Round Corner. 

We’ve also run events and filmed content at their taproom, which has always been incredibly fun, not least because their beer is absolutely exceptional. If you don’t believe me, give them a Google – they’ve won some massive awards in the world of beer!

What’s next for The Football Game Co.?

We’re really proud to have grown steadily and largely organically. Many people who picked up the game during the Kickstarter or from our website have gone on to share it with friends and family, who then go to buy their own copy. 

Our main focus for now is to keep using the game as a way to bring people together. For us, this means everything from running social media competitions to bring a bit of daily football trivia into people’s lives, continuing to partner with amazing people in the football industry on joint ideas, to getting the game into the hands of more groups of friends who can then take it to the pub and do something a bit different on a Friday night.

Lastly, what’s your favourite football team?

Arsenal! I was born in London, moved to Devon when I was 6, but then returned when I was 25 and lived quite literally on the grounds of the stadium for the next 3 years, going to as many games as I could. COYG.