Net Solutions built a native Android version of Stats Zone, the real-time football analytics app from Haymarket’s FourFourTwo brand. The app had launched on iOS only. Net Solutions engineered the Android app from scratch, processing up to 1,500 live data points per match across six major European leagues, while matching the iOS app’s features, look, and performance. The result was a highly rated app that helped Stats Zone grow to more than 2.2 million monthly active users and win three industry awards, including App of the Year at the PPA Digital Publishing Awards.
Haymarket had been a trusted name in sports media for more than 60 years. One of its brands, FourFourTwo, built a loyal following among UK football fans. As the company moved into digital products, it launched Stats Zone, an iPhone app that pulled real-time football data from the Opta feed and let fans follow matches across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and the UEFA Champions League.
Stats Zone let users:
The iOS app performed well. The problem was that it only existed on iOS.
Haymarket’s engineering team had built Stats Zone exclusively for iOS. That left millions of Android users, including large audiences in markets where Android was the dominant platform, unable to use the app at all. With no in-house Android expertise, Haymarket needed an outside partner who could build the app from the ground up rather than adapt existing code.
The technical requirements were demanding:
The app had to parse, store, and render up to 1,500 live match data points per game, across six leagues, without any changes to Haymarket’s backend systems.
The chalkboard view let fans scrub back and forth through a match to review passes, shots, and player movement. Standard Android UI components were not built to redraw hundreds of overlapping data points at speed.
Fans wanted to export short tactical video clips and share them on social media. Generating that video had to happen on the device itself, with no server-side rendering.
Anything less than a close match to the iOS experience risked damaging the Stats Zone brand.
Net Solutions treated this as a client-side engineering problem rather than a simple app port. The team, based in Chandigarh, India, worked directly against Haymarket’s existing APIs and Opta data feed, with no changes to backend infrastructure. The focus stayed on three things throughout the build: data handling, rendering performance, and matching the iOS experience screen for screen.
Net Solutions rebuilt the experience in four parts: a local data layer fast enough for live match updates, a rendering engine that could redraw the chalkboard without lag, an on-device video pipeline for social sharing, and an asset system built to run across six leagues at once.
Net Solutions built a parsing engine that pulled raw data from the Opta feed and stored it locally in an optimized SQLite database on the device. This let the app query match telemetry, player stats, and historical fixtures instantly, without repeated network calls. Batching incoming data into single-pass transactions, instead of processing records one at a time, cut local data sync times from 15 to 20 seconds down to under one second.
Instead of relying on standard Android view components, the team built the chalkboard on an embedded canvas element. Match events read from the local SQLite database were drawn directly onto the canvas, so the app could cache visual states and scrub through a match at 60 frames per second without stutter. Fans could also filter the view by player, team, or event type, with results pulled instantly from the local database.
For social sharing, Net Solutions built a video generation module using open-source libraries that ran entirely on the device. It mapped player coordinates from local match data, drew tactical arrows and team badges frame by frame, and compiled the finished clip in local memory, with no server-side video processing required. Finished clips and comparison graphics were compressed and pushed to AWS storage, and shareable links were passed directly into social and messaging apps.
The app lets fans set alerts for specific match events, like lineups, goals, and red cards, as well as alerts tied to favorite teams. Behind the scenes, Net Solutions built an asset pipeline to manage kit designs, badges, and sponsorship rules across six leagues and multiple time zones, so seasonal updates could roll out without requiring a full app update or any downtime.
Local data processing time dropped from 15 to 20 seconds down to under one second.
Opening a global Android audience that had previously been unreachable.
App of the Year (PPA Digital Publishing Awards), Grand Prix Winner (AOP Digital Publishing Awards), and Best Media Innovation (AOP Digital Publishing Awards).
Across up to 1,500 live data points per match, with no frame drops during timeline scrubbing.
After launch, Net Solutions continued building alongside Haymarket’s iOS team, including a later feature that let fans track individual player influence on match outcomes.
Media companies that built for one platform first often face the same problem Haymarket did: how to expand to a new platform without slowing down or rebuilding the systems that already work. This project shows that a client-side rebuild, one that reuses existing APIs and data feeds rather than re-engineering them, can deliver full feature parity, handle high-volume real-time data, and scale to millions of users without added backend cost.
Stats Zone is a real-time football analytics app from Haymarket’s FourFourTwo brand. It uses the Opta data feed to give fans second-by-second match stats, player tracking, and a visual chalkboard for reviewing gameplay across six major European leagues.
The original Stats Zone app was written natively for iOS, using code and components that only work on that platform. To reach Android users, Net Solutions had to build a new native Android application from scratch while replicating the same features, data handling, and visual design as the iOS version.
Up to 1,500 live data points per match, sourced from the Opta feed and covering the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and the UEFA Champions League.
By batching incoming match data into single-pass transactions and storing it in a local SQLite database on the device, instead of processing records one at a time over the network. This reduced sync time from 15 to 20 seconds to under one second.
The chalkboard is a canvas-based visual timeline that shows player movement, passes, and shots during a match. Users can scrub back and forth through the game to review any moment. Net Solutions built it on an embedded canvas element rather than standard UI components, which allowed 60 FPS performance even with hundreds of data points on screen.
No. The tactical video clips fans share on social media are generated entirely on the device, using open-source video libraries. This avoided the cost and delay of server-side rendering.
App of the Year at the PPA Digital Publishing Awards, Grand Prix Winner at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards, and Best Media Innovation at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards.
No. Net Solutions continued working with Haymarket for several years after launch, including building new features like player influence tracking alongside the iOS team’s ongoing releases.
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