Player Acquisition Platform
Evolution is a player acquisition and squad-planning platform designed to help football clubs make more informed recruitment decisions.
With more than 83,000 players in its database, clubs could search, discover and compare potential signings, while using analytics to assess risk and model future squad scenarios.
We worked closely with Twenty First Group across digital strategy, product design and sports-data visualisation.
Discovering smarter opportunities
Recruitment often starts with a clear requirement, but there can also be value in surfacing players a club may not already know about.
Twenty First Group’s analytics considered factors including physique, performance and market data to generate potential player recommendations. We designed a card-based discovery experience that made those recommendations easy to explore.
Turning recruitment needs into search criteria
In many cases, clubs already had an idea of the type of player they were looking for.
We designed a flexible filtering system that allowed users to translate those requirements into structured search criteria and see results update in real time.
Rather than forcing every criterion into the same interaction pattern, each control was designed around the data it represented.
Making player risk easier to understand
Once a potential player had been identified, the next challenge was helping clubs evaluate whether they represented a good acquisition.
We designed the player profile around the factors most relevant to that decision, including condition, performance, experience and comparisons between the player’s current club and the buying club.
Different visualisations helped turn a large amount of underlying analytics into something recruitment teams could understand and discuss quickly.
From individual players to squad planning
Player recruitment rarely involves assessing one option in isolation.
Evolution allowed clubs to shortlist potential signings and model them alongside the existing squad, considering factors such as finances, player age and squad depth.
This moved the experience beyond immediate recruitment, helping decision-makers understand how today’s choices could shape the team several years into the future.
Research wherever decisions happen
Recruitment research doesn’t always happen at a desk.
We adapted Evolution for mobile so users could continue researching players, reviewing opportunities and accessing the same underlying information while travelling or working away from the club.
