It gave Galway’s All-Ireland winning hurler Paul Flaherty a business idea.

“I had the idea for What’s The Scór in my head for a while. One evening in August 2018 myself and a friend were looking for a live feed of a club game, the result of which was significant as it determined whether we were still in the football championship or not.

“That same day we had training an hour after the game in question. We needed to know whether to go training. If the result didn’t go our way, we were out of the championship. We looked up all the usual social media platforms with no success and that’’s when it clicked that this service was needed.”

The Abbeyknockmoy and Monivea/Abbey clubman contacted App Development company Boon Agency in Galway. They loved the idea, knew it had great potential and he’s been working with them since.

How does it all work: “Basically there are two apps; What’’s The Scór (WTS) and Pitchside. Pitchside is the admin side of the What’s The Scór app, where PROs or club officials update games,’ said Flaherty.

"I trialled the app for the Ladies Football National League game between Westmeath and Galway earlier in the year. I found it very easy to use, a simple press on either goal or point and it takes you to the next page to add the scorer. And the score is updated. Speaking to some of the Galway team afterwards, they were delighted to feature in the first Ladies Football game to appear on the app, with most of them saying that they already use it."

Flaherty has been delighted with the success to date, with over 50,000 downloads: “The feedback has been overwhelming. We released the app in April 2019, at the start of the Galway Hurling Club Championship. On the first weekend the app crashed as we had too many users, which was a good complaint to have, but not at the time.

“We expected about 500 but got over 3,500, highlighting the demand for such a service. The messages of support from GAA supporters at home and abroad make all the hard work worthwhile. We have followers from places as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Cape Town, Europe, Dubai etc. Club officials find it quicker and more user friendly than other platforms.

With games on hold for the foreseeable future, Flaherty now has time to reflect on the business: “We have looked at what has worked well and what hasn’’t and we’re trying to build a better product for clubs and for users. We are preparing for when games do come back and we’’ll try to hit the ground running.

“I have extra features which I hope to add in the future, when sport finally returns. At the moment I’m concentrating on the GAA but I do intend to move into other sports like rugby, handball, basketball and volleyball.

"Clubs have the option of paying a service fee or getting an advertiser to cover costs. Supermacs and Go Bus have advertised on our platform and were very impressed. I’m very grateful to them for their support.”