Preston studio Soccer Manager launches first game in China

CEO Andrew Gore said: “As well as translations and amends to the design, we have had to adapt the game to suit the way people play and pay in China.

“Unlike in the West where a number of big players dominate the market, in China there are hundreds of app stores. Crazy Sports decided to work on 19 of them, so we have had to create multiple interfaces. The Chinese market is also more regulated and it can take months to get the right licences and approvals.

“Although we already have players worldwide, the Chinese market is very difficult to penetrate. Crazy Sports has a very strong foothold in the market. This is a huge opportunity for Soccer Manager and one that will eventually allow us to reach games fans throughout the whole of Asia.”

Soccer Manager was founded in 2004 by Gore along with his brothers Steven and Chris and friend Peter Adams. It now has more than 20 million registrations worldwide, bout 700,000 active players and 15,000 new accounts created every month.

Crazy Sports is part of the V1 group, one of China’s largest internet companies whose own sports platform has over 100 million users.  

Soccer Manager, which employs 29 people in Preston, received initial support from Mercia in 2013 in the form of a £100,000 loan from Rosebud Finance, which is managed by Mercia on behalf of Lancashire County Council.

Since then Mercia has invested a total of £2 million.