June 23, 2021 - The Sportyn app will activate its new Challenge feature at the international youth football tournament Dalmatinko Cup this week, where the best footballing skills presented via the Sportyn application will receive the grand prize from Croatian football star Ivan Rakitić! 

Organized by the Dalmatinko Association, Dalmatinko Cup is one of the largest international youth football tournaments in Croatia. It is also the first youth football tournament with competition for both boys and girls in its program.

Guided by three components - sports, tourism, and social responsibility, the organizers endeavor to allow the youngest footballers to socialize through sports competitions with peers from other areas, all while promoting Dalmatian tourism, healthy living, and helping those in need. 

Dalmatinko Cup

“The Dalmatinko Cup was created in 2016 after I visited many football tournaments with my eldest son and saw that the vast majority of them are reduced to just playing football. My desire was to provide children with much more than that - I wanted children to enjoy sports, socialize, and accept tolerance and equality to become better people.

I wanted to create a project that will give children from all over the world, coaches, and parents the opportunity to get to know Croatia's beauties, culture, and heritage. So we created a synergy of sports, social responsibility, and tourism, and then difficultly, created friendships and partnerships with many clubs. Over time, the story of the Dalmatinko Cup, a top organization, children's development, and the values ​​we promote, has led us to today, and we now cooperate with clubs from 23 countries. As a result, Dalmatinko Cup is one of the largest sports projects in Europe,”  said Dalmatinko Cup organizer Domagoj Bojčić. 

Dalmatinko Cup organizers strive to be active participants in society and community development, promoting sportsmanship, fair play, tolerance, and quality of life. They thus hope to engage in long-term cooperation with international sports teams, the local community, and the local economy. 

“The goals of the Dalmatinko Cup are to promote tolerance, gender equality, fair play, and equal opportunities for all children. Our slogan is ‘More than football,’ and in addition to the exceptional sporting quality of the tournament, we offer all participants a whole range of additional facilities, tours, excursions, and the feeling of playing the World Cup. Furthermore, Dalmatinko Cup is the only tournament in Southeastern Europe in which both boys and girls participate. We have 7 men's and 3 women's categories, and many looked at me in amazement when I decided to create a tournament for children of both genders. We are proud of this achievement.

Horizontal goals have imposed themselves. The development of sports tourism in Croatia has been a priority for us from the beginning because this tourist niche has huge potential. We have a beautiful country, a God-given climate, and top sports results, and we have to do everything to take advantage of such comparative advantages and create a real tourism product. The Dalmatian cup gives just that.

Another horizontal goal is to foster social responsibility and an awareness that we must take care of others. We have to teach children the right values, after all, 99% of them will not be professional athletes, but our task is to create better people. Also, altruism, volunteering, and the desire for the community in which we live to be of better quality must be our priorities,” added Bojčić. 

In 6 years, the Dalmatinko Cup has gathered over 15,000 athletes from 23 countries. While the COVID-19 pandemic has set limitations in holding this year's tournament, it could not stop the organizers from letting the kids play, all while following epidemiological measures, of course. 

Dalmatinko Cup

Despite the pandemic, this year’s tournament boasts 170 teams from 11 countries. 

“We will have about 12,000 overnight stays, and our guests will stay for a few days after the tournament is over. The promotion of Croatia through the Dalmatinko Cup is fantastic, and the strength and quality of the tournament is at the very top of Europe,” said Bojčić. 

Thus, from June 24 to 27, Dalmatinko Cup will be held in Kaštel Gomilica (NK GOŠK), Trogir (NK TROGIR), Solin/Vranjic (NK Omladinac), and Split (HNK Hajduk), including around 2,000 participants from Croatia and abroad, in under 8 to under 17 age groups! The opening ceremony will kick off the tournament on the evening of June 24 in Marina Kaštela. 

But the beauty of the Dalmatinko Cup is that the football competition is only part of it. 

The Dalmatinko Association prides itself in a completely new sports marketing model, which can be seen in the unique offer outside of football. The tournament not only encourages participants to explore the region with organized excursions to Split, Poljud Stadium, or in the museum town of Trogir, but they can even take part in an unforgettable ride at sea on the Plurato Sailfin electric hydrofoil board, suitable for both beginners and experienced watersport enthusiasts. 

However, the standout activity at this year's Dalmatinko Cup is presented by Sportyn, an AI video-sharing app to empower all athletes, designed to change the future of player promotion, developing funding, and sports recruitment. 

New on the app market, Sportyn was launched by a team of innovators, pro athletes, and entrepreneurs and has even joined forces with former FC Barcelona player and Croatia national team member Ivan Rakitić.  

Doing for sport what LinkedIn does for business, Sportyn harnesses the power of vertical integration in social media to level the playing field of sporting opportunity for 2 billion people, and it's activating its new Challenge feature at the Dalmatinko Cup.

So, what is the Sportyn Challenge feature all about? 

Across 4 days on these 4 Dalmatian football fields, Sportyn promoters will encourage all attendees to become a part of the Sportyn worldwide sporting community by downloading this application for free. Sportyn promoters will show players and attendees how they can participate in Sportyn challenges to win attractive prizes at the tournament.

Two unique challenges will be presented at the Dalmatinko Cup, where players will demonstrate their football skills and tricks, namely, through ball precision and football techniques to a global audience. 

Daily winners will be selected by the number of views, ratings, shares, comments, and others generated by their Challenge video within the Sportyn app, with daily winners awarded and the MVP player of the tournament named based on an all-time high score! In addition, the MVP will get to take home the grand prize - brand new football cleats signed by Ivan Rakitić! 

“Sportyn is happy to be a part of the Dalmatinko Cup, a sports tournament that shares our same values. We work hard to empower athletes and strive to find ways to support and promote sports and athletes. We hope that all participants will download the Sportyn application to promote Dalmatinko Cup and become a part of the world's fastest-growing sporting community,” said Sportyn founder & CEO Ivan Ilečić.

Sportyn will also host a meet & greet with Croatian football greats, including Stipe Pletikosa, Robert Jarni, and Mile Rapaić! 

The Dalmatinko Cup closing ceremony and awards will take place after the tournament’s last game. Held at NK Trogir, team and individual awards will be enhanced by 2 acapella singing groups, brass music, and entertainment for all ages. 

The matches of the tournament are broadcast live, with the images of Dalmatinka and Dalmatia reaching all over the world. 

“The final, which takes place in Trogir at perhaps the most beautiful stadium in the world, which is literally on the sea and between two towers, is something to experience first hand,” concluded Bojčić. 

All will have a fab footballing time!

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

To learn more about sport in Croatia, CLICK HERE. 

Zagreb, May 14, 2021 - An old-fashioned type of center-forward, Mark Viduka terrorised Premier League defences leading the line for Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United for almost a decade from 2000 to 2009. His was a glittering and prolific career which netted 258 goals in only 507 appearances, and included captaining his country, Australia, in the 2006 World Cup, surely one of the greatest honours for any sportsman.

I remember watching Viduka as an Aston Villa fan almost 20 years ago, a formidable opponent whose journey to the Premier League from his native Melbourne was anything but straightforward, and it was great to catch up with the former Australian hitman in Zagreb recently, as Viduka explained his latest connection to sport through his joining the rapidly expanding SPORTYN team.

He was kind enough to give me some time to talk about his own journey, as well as why he is so passionate about the new SPORTYN project which already boasts Croatian World Cup Finalist Ivan Rakitic as its Brand Ambassador. Rakitic is just one of several top stars working with SPORTYN to give back to sport by helping encourage and develop young talent for the future. 

Australian by birth, Croatian by heritage, we met in the Croatian capital, where Viduka runs both a successful property business, as well as a cafe in the upper town of historic Zagreb.

Let me ask you firstly about THAT match. You are a proud Australian captaining your country in the 2006 World Cup against the country your parents are from – Croatia. Tell us about that experience.

It was a hugely emotional occasion for me. Croatians are very emotional regarding their homeland. My parents emigrated to Australia form Croatia in the 1960s when it was socialist Yugoslavia, which they did not support. Growing up as a kid, Croatia was not an independent country, but we all dreamed of seeing Croatia play in the World Cup one day.

And then it happened – against Australia, with me as captain. I knew a lot of the guys personally, and their coach, Cico Kranjcar, was my first coach in Europe when I moved to Zagreb in 1995. 

We may have been mates off the pitch, but once the game kicked off, we were fully focused on the football. To be honest, the Croatians were a little arrogant in the media before the match, saying we were kangaroos with no idea how to play. This gave us more motivation. It ended 2-2, with Australia going through to the next round.

Your journey to the Premier League was not direct, and you have rather an unusual story of your first transfer to Europe.

Yes indeed. I was already known a little in Australia, having won the Young Player of the Year award two years in a row, when my parents got a phone call. The President of newly independent Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, invited us for dinner at a Croatian restaurant in Melbourne. He was on a mission to get Croatian sporting stars back to Croatia and to build part of the country's image around sport. And so it was that I found myself in Zagreb in 1995, having signed for Croatia Zagreb (soon to become Dinamo Zagreb) with the war still ongoing.

I stayed in Zagreb until I moved to Celtic in 1998, and then to the Premier League with Leeds in 2000. 

You are now living happily in Croatia, with a great cafe and successful building company, but sport remains close to your heart. Tell us about your new interest, SPORTYN.

I have to say I love it. The best way to describe it would be from the App Store:

SPORTYN is an online hotspot for all athletes, their videos and unique SPORTYN IDs. Think of LinkedIn for sports. It is an AI-powered video-sharing mobile and web application for athletes of all sports designed to change the future of player promotion, development funding and sports recruitment.

It is incredible. Here is a piece of technology that has better engagement than Facebook, is getting kids out of their bedrooms, and engaging in sport, and it is bringing democracy to sporting talent all over the world. Kids can pit their skills against their peers, put their abilities in the shop window for agents, while agents can find an incredible array of talent all over the world from the comfort of their own home.

A few months ago, I was thinking that there was nothing really like this. Then my good friend Joe Basic showed me SPORTYN, and I was hooked. (You can learn a lot more about SPORTYN on this Medium article)

When I was a kid growing up in Melbourne, Australia was not really known for football. For someone in the suburbs of Melbourne to go to national prominence to Croatia to Scotland to the Premier League took years. Now a scout can see and sign-up talent very quickly, allowing the athlete to shine in his career that much earlier.

I know the Croatian boxing coach, who is a big fan of the app, after I showed him. Now he can check out all the young boxers in the country. There are over 90 sports featured on SPORTYN, and the vertical integration of social media makes it much better than other forms of social media, as it is 100% niche, with all users 100% focused on their particular passion.

I also love to encourage young kids whose techniques and skills impress. I often give them a 'like', knowing how encouraged I would have felt if that had happened to me as a young wannabe footballer in Melbourne.

Everything these days is so instant, and so different to my childhood in Australia. Everything used to get reported 24 hours later, there was no live football. I remember waiting each week at the newsagents for the latest edition of Shoot and Match.

How things have changed! Everything is now instant, and a 'like' from an ex-pro can be a huge motivation. What I really like about this project is how technology is getting kids more active, not less. I have three boys who are always on their computers, especially during lockdown. This gives them a big motivation to get outside and be active.

Tell us a little about how you would practice as a kid.

As a kid, I used to spend hours kicking a ball against the wall. I drew a target out of chalk - my dad was a builder and I got lime from the cement and made the lines myself to a pitch. It was pretty lonely at times and needed to motivate myself to keep going.

Anything that gets kids off computers and outside is great for their health. But SPORTYN is healthy tech, this is really a positive, and it enourages kids to work hard at their game, be it basketball, football, or boxing. The health benefits are amazing. It is also somewhat ironic that an app can have this positive health effect for free, when the Australian health system spends millions on programs to get kids to get out and play. With little success.

You are not the only famous footballer to get involved with SPORTYN. Tell us a little about giving back.

Ivan Rakitic is the brand ambassador, and many other well-known athletes from different sports are recognising the benefits SPORTYN offers and the desire to support and get involved. In most cases, these successful athletes recognise how fotunate they are to have succeeded and want to give back and improve the chances of future talented athletes. SPORTYN allows athletes to present themselves to a worldwide audience and eliminates that chance for success by putting all on a global level playing field.

Simple things such as that 'like', “rating” or “comment” from a pro can be great for motivation, but I also really like the concept of the SPORTYN challenge, whereby a star will do a trick, then encourage the kids to do the same and post their videos. The algorithm will do the rest, with the best kids winning exclusive prizes, all under the watchful eye and engagement of the star performing the challenge.

In order to broaden its message and reach more young athletes, SPORTYN will be supporting one of the biggest football tournaments in Central Europe the Dalmatinko Cup in June. Over 100 clubs from all over Europe will take part in the tournament in Split, Kastela, Solin and Trogir. There will be a SPORTYN Challenge Corner, where kids can register for challenges and be able to compete amongst peers to be the best and win exclusive prizes including autographed football gear from Ivan Rakitić and others. This will be streamed live, and it is a prototype to be replicated in similar events all over the world.

What do you like most about SPORTYN?

Apart from the whole concept of the democracy of talent and the health benefits associated by encouraging youth athletes to go out and be active, I also love the layout. It is user-friendly featuring high-quality video in a big format that is easy to view and search for the content that interests you most. I find that SPORTYN offers me so much more content I enjoy and feel that it is relevant to me, which I don't get with YouTube or other similar applications I have tried. I am a visual guy, not interested in wasting my time with irrelevant content and for this reason, SPORTYN has been able to get and keep my attention. Simply love it!

I also really like the rating system and the interaction it provides. This feature is like no other social media and for this reason alone I find myself using it and for the first time have created my own SPORTYN profile, never before was I compelled to do so and in many ways, now I feel like I am re-connecting with fans and reliving my early fame.

I am really excited to be part of the SPORTYN team and to give something back to sport, as well as encouraging kids to pursue their dreams with the healthiest technology I have come across.

To learn more about SPORTYN, visit the official website. 

For more from the world of Croatian sport, visit the dedicated TCN section. 

March 24, 2021 — Doing for sport what LinkedIn does for business, how the SPORTYN app is harnessing the power of vertical integration in social media to level the playing field of sporting opportunity for 2 billion people.

She smiled. She was not alone.

All those thousands of hours of solitary training in her village in Peru to help realise her dream of winning Olympic Gold in the 100 metres were starting to get noticed. All over the world, people were watching her training videos, despite her never having left her native country.

How ironic, the mother smiled to herself, as she filmed her son showcasing his basketball moves in her native Vietnam, the fourth day in a row that her son had asked her to do so. In an era where gadgets alienate relationships between parents and children, here was a growing bond, and a healthy one.

Amazing, exclaimed the teenager from Belarus. His new footballing friend from Georgia just had his video liked and commented on by Croatian World Cup star Ivan Rakitic. Imagine such a star watching our videos!

Taking a shower after scoring the winning goal in the Champions League qualifier, he reflected on how his huge success could so easily have come to nothing, had not that chance encounter in his village in Mali not resulted in him being spotted. How many fantastic talents are out there, waiting to be discovered? If only there was a simple way to give back.

Four seemingly random stories from all corners of the planet, but all connected in two important ways.

The first is through sport, a passion for them all, from world-famous professionals to aspiring amateurs. The power of sport connects them, and they are not alone. There are over 2 billion people engaged in sport all over the globe, of whom only 500 million are professionals, and just 5% of those become stars in their respective sports. For many, it will be a case of what might have been, as they are unable to reach the limelight to showcase their considerable talents. Without a chance encounter such as the one in Mali above, how would agents and talent spotters find them?

There is now a way, with the launch of a new app that uses the power of vertical integration of social media, AI technology and the finer aspects of established global social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok, to level the playing field of sporting opportunity as never before.

The second thing which connects the four stories above is SPORTYN.

As a result of the tremendous early interest in the SPORTYN application, it has already been featured as App of the Day in the App Store in 5 countries — the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Videos have already been uploaded from more than 80 countries.

SPORTYN has been developed based on a natural evolution of social media, building on the success and affirmed benefits of earlier platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok.

With the continued development and process of change, users are always demanding more from social media. As a result, SPORTYN provides these answers in a specialised vertically integrated form for sports and athletes seeking a community of like-minded individuals with a specific purpose to promote themselves and their sport to a global audience.

Since its launch in October, 2020, SPORTYN has attracted users from some 85 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Canada, Brazil are Turkey are the top ten.) More than 30% of users have uploaded video content of aspects of their engagement in sport, and the engagement is quite incredible.

Facebook is a multi-billion dollar company in business for over a decade, and with an average session duration of 4.82 minutes. Just a few months old and on a fraction of the budget, Sportyn’s average visit time is 30% longer, a staggering 6.43 minutes, and still growing. Part of the reason is that SPORTYN is at the cutting edge of the next generation of social media, harnessing the power of niche and vertical integration.

While your Facebook feed is filled with photos of your friends’ cats, children, ‘meaningful’ life quotes and memes, and your own posts are only seen by 5% of your followers, SPORTYN provides only engaging content for the niche and passion of the user.

Passionate about archery and training 7 days a week? What could you learn and how could you compare your skills with other budding archers from around the globe? Simple video uploads no more than 60 seconds each, showcasing the individual talents of amateur (and professional) athletes all over the world quickly forms a niche community where the content is 100% relevant to the user. Add the social media tools of shareability, virality and comments, and a new world opens up for that athlete in her village in Peru in the first story, above.

The power of vertical integration of social media is enhanced with the powerful ‘filter’ feature built into the SPORTYN app, which allows users to quickly search for their favorite and targeted athlete / athletes based on many different categories including country, sport, age and many more. No other SOCIAL MEDIA application offers this advanced and valuable built in feature.

And what a simple and effective way for that famous Mali footballer with the Champions League winner to give back. Checking out some young Malian footballer displaying their talents. A comment, or a ‘like’ from the Mali football legend who made it in Europe would do wonders for confidence and encouragement.

As parents worry what their kids are watching in their rooms behind closed doors, SPORTYN takes a different approach. It is based on sport, healthy activity, and encouraging its users to be the very best they can. Parents wanting to encourage their kids to achieve their sporting dream can now participate through the same technology that is alienating so many parents and children with less healthy purposes.

Croatian World Cup finalist, Ivan Rakitić, is the Brand Ambassador of SPORTYN, one of many top professional athletes who recognise the power of SPORTYN, as well as its ability to afford more opportunity for talented young athletes who are starting to get noticed.

“No matter what part of the world you live in and in what conditions you train in, SPORTYN helps you show off your talent to a global sporting audience and those who, recognising your potential, can change your life literally overnight,” he said.

Rakitić is one of many stars who will take in what promises to be perhaps the most viral aspect of SPORTYN’s appeal. SPORTYN will soon launch sporting challenges, whereby a global star will demonstrate a particular skill and invite others to post a similar video to pit their skills against the stars. The star player will comment, like, and engage with the audience taking part, a huge motivating factor for youngsters such as the teenager from Belarus, above. Web searches for Rakitic now return results which include SPORTYN videos.

A unique opportunity to pit one’s skills against both peers and a global superstar simultaneously. Those who successfully complete challenges will be rewarded with unique awards, including signed jerseys, digital meet and greets, and other unique and memorable experiences

SPORTYN will use both AI and its own customised algorithms to analyse and rank athlete profiles, videos and other criteria by both country and at a global level. Every 12 year-old basketball player will want to be a Top 10 SPORTYN athlete in their city or country to get recognised and be able to say they are among the best.

With more than 90 sports already featured on the app and users in 85 countries, SPORTYN is literally tearing down the sporting barriers on every level. Fringe sports which did not have a global audience are now hosted on a platform that is both proactive and educational. Fringe sports athletes are slowly getting connected through vertical integration of social media in their niche. In what can a very lonely activity, training and challenging oneself has additional motivations, as well as an audience to provide feedback and encouragement.

One of the first athletes to upload videos to Sportyn was Nicolas Radičić, a 16-year-old Croat, who had moved from Zagreb to Texas. An outstanding talent at both soccer and American football, Radicic has made excellent progress, helped in part by SPORTYN, and he is the number one kicker for his age group for American football in the USA.

SPORTYN goes much further than just providing a platform, however. One key aim is to build a database of athletes around the world. Using AI to analyse every video, including speed and number of touches, SPORTYN can rank athletes using the platform based on ability for various criteria. Excellent news for talent spotters, as well as those athletes in remote places with no other option to promote their skills.

The SPORTYN community is already bringing positive examples for users, developing role models, mentors and inspiring stories to motivate younger generations to aspire and achieve more.

SPORTYN is the brainchild of former professional footballer, Ivan Ilečić, whose 16-year-old son plays for Dinamo Zagreb. Already well-versed in developing sporting apps, including Once, Ilečić explained his vision.

“We had a clear vision to offer athletes a unique and powerful virtual community and a tool for their easier and direct promotion globally. What LinkedIn is for business people, SPORTYN is for athletes. It’s a platform where you simply have to be present to expand your networking, be noticed or contacted by the right people who can change your life in seconds. Parents and athletes often film and archive videos from their sports competitions in the hope that at some point they will be able to send them to specific agents, scouts, or anyone who could help them show off their talent. We believe that currently billions of sports videos are left unused on computers. Some of them were published on the most famous social networks but as these platforms do not allow reaching the target audience, it is almost impossible to find them.

“We solved that problem with the SPORTYN app and, additionally, with the launch of the unique SPORTYN ID, we solved another important problem in promotion of athletes. Namely, we created a central place for all sports data and CVs of athletes that are currently dispersed on thousands of different websites, which is why they were unusable and did not bring any benefit to athletes or those to whom such content is important”, said Ilečić, the founder and CEO of Sportyn Inc.

The Olympic Games is every athlete’s dream, a chance to compete with the very best every year. SPORTYN provides athletes to present themselves globally every day and as an application has the ability to generate tremendous awareness for the most popular of sports football to new and upcoming sports like snowboarding.

Finally, an application that levels the playing field for all, promotes healthy activity, gives hope and inspiration to potentially billions, and which will also make finding the next Ronaldo that bit easier.

To learn more about SPORTYN, visit the official website.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 16th of November, 2020, the Croatian-American company Sportyn INC presented the free Sportyn application (app) in Zagreb. By exchanging video content, as the main medium, the app enables the promotion of athletes on a global level, changes the image of sport scouting and financing the development of athletes, using all aspects of modern social networking concepts.

Experts in the field of developing new technological solutions from Sportyn are otherwise experienced entrepreneurs and world-famous sport ambassadors, and they consider this application a kind of revolution for the sporting community and redefining the path of young athletes to success.

Sportyn, they say, wants to become a platform to promote athletes globally, and is the first on the market to offer real benefits to those who are serious or amateurs in sport, such as athletes, spectators, coaches or scouts. It is the first and only platform in the world that, by the use of an advanced algorithmic search engine, enables agents and scouts, but also all sport lovers, to quickly find any athlete, amateur or professional, regardless of their age, country or sport, even if the athlete's name is completely unknown.

''Millions of talented athletes face the same problem today - insufficiently targeted visibility and connectivity with desired audiences, sport recruiters and organisations. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are massive channels that offer fast, unfiltered and typical content for viewing by the general population, but they lack the special focus needed for athletes, especially younger people, for competitions and sporting entertainment that is only served casually. This means that there are no real and functional filters, and the videos are scattered around and virtually invisible to the target audience for which they were created. Sport recruiters therefore don't rely on these channels as reliable resources or talent search platforms. We saw space for Sportyn there,'' said Ivan Ilecic, the founder and CEO of Sportyn Inc.

With the help of the special Sportyn algorithm, it is possible to rank and compare athletes according to different criteria. The platform will also contain detailed biographies of the athletes, their athletic characteristics, achievements, statistics, club history, contract and agency status. It is easy to use, available at sportyn.com/app/, and the main communication tool is video clips lasting up to 60 seconds, which are archived and easily accessible, even if the data was published in the application as long as a few years ago. Special emphasis is also placed on data security.

"No matter what part of the world you live in and in what conditions you train in, Sportyn helps you show off your talent to a global sporting audience and those who, recognising your potential, can change your life literally overnight," said Ivan Rakitic, an ambassador of Sportyn.

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