Starting July 10th, fans can tip fighters live during matches with the new app, TapStats! #TipYourFighter

What’s up Tapology!

Today I’m hyped to be introducing TapStats, an app that some friends and I have been working on for the past year that we hope will revolutionize how fans watch live combat sports. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll try to keep it short. 

At its core, TapStats provides a gamified experience for fight viewers (we currently support major organizations for MMA, boxing, and kickboxing) through tapping. Tapping your screen acts to record live strike data which TapStats project as a variety of performance indicators, giving the viewer a better way to quantify fighter stats. At the end of the fight, you're given an accuracy score (we’ll be introducing a reward system in the upcoming months, but for now, just have fun comparing your score to other tappers!)

But that’s not all! Over the last couple of months, we’ve been thinking of ways to address the persistent problem that is the underpayment of MMA fighters — most recently highlighted by Sarah “Too Sweet” Alpar, who had to launch a GoFundMe in order to train full-time for her upcoming UFC fight. We believe the answer to this is tipping, just like we do for Twitch streamers and other content creators. TapStats will be the world’s first platform that allows fans to tip athletes directly as the action happens. The app will still be totally free for MMA fans that want to tap or follow the live data — tipping is just if you want to show extra support to a fighter!

Additionally, TapStats’ end goal is to bring awareness and exposure to lesser known, upcoming fighters in the smaller leagues. We know that the sport tends to favor the top dogs, and hope that our app will enable smaller fanbases to give their fighters the exposure they deserve!

On July 10th, the first version of our app will be available on the app store, just in time for UFC 264. Feel free to try it (sign up using the link below) and please let us know what you think. We’ll be adding more exciting features in the upcoming months, so stay tuned!

[Tapping, Tipping, and everything else, explained] (https://www.tapstats.live/app-tour)

Good luck with your app. We can leave this thread up as your announcement of your app, but please do not try to do further promotion after that.

Thank you Gregory! I mainly wanted feedback as well, and would love to hear what the Tapology community has to think about TapStats.

@Allen_TapStats

I think it's a great idea and I would love to see it take off but I'd only tip the fighters through the app if it became big enough that it was commonly used by fans that I knew. If I'm gonna tip a fighter through some app, I'd want to know exactly how that money reached the fighter such as which 3rd parties does it go through, will their managers try and get a slice of it etc.. Plus, I'm British so would I have to work out how much my £10 tip would be in USD or would it accept foreign currencies and convert them automatically? If it accepted foreign currencies and converted it automatically, then that might help to get more international users but realistically, I'd imagine that most of the users would be based in the US anyway so I can understand why a feature like that wouldn't necessarily be a priority.  

As for the tapping every time you saw a strike, I appreciate that the wannabe judges might like this feature but I personally wouldn't use it as I prefer to watch the fight as a fan rather than a judge. I do like to try and score the rounds but only based on the general momentum of the round rather than any stats as I'm primarily watching the fights in order to enjoy them.

In short, I'm not gonna download this straight away but if it becomes more mainstream then I may consider it in the future. Good luck with the app and I hope it does catch on as it would be a nice way to show support for your favourite fighters.

Thank you Stephen for your questions! We will be posting a FAQ on our site today and hope that your answers will be answered. Looking forward to you joining the TapStats community in the future :)

The management has decided that TapStats will not be taking a platform fee. The fighters will get all the tips (minus app store/credit card fees). Let's go!

https://www.tapstats.live/support

@Allen_TapStats

That FAQ answers some of my questions but I've got a new question after reading this part:

"Upon an event ending, any fighter that received tips may reach out to TapStats (via: fighters@tapstats.live) to collect their tips, verify their identity and fighter profile information, provide Tax ID, and sign all requisite legal documents."

I appreciate that arranging payments can be a complex process and if this app becomes mainstream to the point of almost every fighter having at least heard of it then this would work but that does sound like a lot of effort and while this app is still in it's infancy, I'd imagine that most tips would just end up going unclaimed. If Conor McGregor got tipped $125 this weekend, I doubt he'd bother going through all that effort to claim it. It's great that any unclaimed tips get refunded to the users but if most of the tips go unclaimed then it sort of defeats the point of the app. 

I think overall the point I'm trying to make is that I think this app would only work effectively if it became big but the only way for it to become big is by being effective. I hope it does become a mainstream success though!

* Edited at 07.09.2021, 8:27 PM ET *

That's true, we have development in the works for more convenient and efficient payment, hopefully it gets released soon.

Truly appreciate your feedback Stephen!

@Allen_TapStats

No worries and good luck with the app! I'm all for any initiative that helps fighters get paid more for their work.