![\"Christer](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754752512_679_960x0.jpg\")
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Christer Nordvik, the CEO of FotMob, launched the app in 2004. Over two decades, the platform has notched more than 100 million downloads.<\/p>\n
FotMob<\/p>\n
Golden rays of sunlight warmed his face as he lounged in a beachside shack in Thailand. Christer Nordvik was on his honeymoon with his wife, Linda. It was the perfect tropical escape. But after a week, the sound of the seawaves had lost its charm, leaving Nordvik dreaming not of sunsets, but scorelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to follow my local team SK Brann,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut it was impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 2004. Mobile phones were around, but the internet was patchy at best. Keeping up with live scores, especially from 5,000 miles away, was more fantasy than reality.<\/p>\n
But for Nordvik, it was a challenge he was ready to accept.<\/p>\n
After returning home to Bergen on Norway\u2019s southwestern coast, he teamed up with his brother Tommy to create the first version of FotMob<\/a> \u2013 now one of the world\u2019s leading football platforms with more than 20 million monthly active users.<\/p>\n Christer Nordvik and his wife, Linda, during their honeymoon in Thailand in 2004.<\/p>\n Christer Nordvik<\/p>\n From live scores and stats to player ratings and personalized insights, FotMob has become a go-to for fans of the world\u2019s most popular sport.<\/p>\n A father of four, Nordvik worked part-time on the app for nine years, spending his evenings and weekends coding.<\/p>\n During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a shoutout<\/a> from The New York Times, which called FotMob the go-to Android app for \u201csimple scores and stats\u201d, helped the platform welcome a flurry of new users.<\/p>\n Three years on from that, Nordvik decided to go full-time with his venture. But it wasn\u2019t until 2022 that the app \u201creally took off\u201d, as the Norwegian describes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went from nine million users to 15 million users,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were a lot of reasons for it: Apple had launched their \u2018Live Activities\u2019, where the lock screen widget gave you scores without having to open the app.<\/p>\n A screengrab of an iPhone lock screen featuring the live score widget of FotMob.<\/p>\n FotMob<\/p>\n \u201cWe were working with Apple at the time as part of the Beta program. They launched Live Activities at the same time as the World Cup in Qatar, and FotMob went viral on TikTok as the app to use during the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cJack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, tweeted that the FotMob app is amazing for the World Cup. That was kind of a \u201cwow\u201d [moment].\u201d<\/p>\n The bootstrapped company, run by a small team of 30, has notched over 100 million downloads.<\/p>\n From Niche To Mainstream<\/p>\n As the English Premier League returns in the upcoming week, FotMob has big plans for the 2025-26 season. For the first time, physical data collected by Opta, such as top speed and total distance covered, is available for every Premier League player, and fans can access it freely on FotMob.<\/p>\n \u201cI think those things are what people care about, but it\u2019s never been possible to find the numbers anywhere. You couldn\u2019t find who was the fastest runner in the Premier League or who\u2019s the fastest running center-back. But now you can,\u201d Nordvik said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a huge belief that this season it will make its rounds on TikTok and Instagram. People will talk about FotMob a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Nordvik says FotMob aims to strike a balance between serving the so-called football nerds and the casual fan who checks in now and then.<\/p>\n One of the most popular metrics to emerge over the past decade is \u201cexpected goals,\u201d or \u201cxG\u201d \u2013 a measure of how likely a shot is to result in a goal. Once considered niche, it has now become part of football conversations, both online and offline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the first app to introduce <\/a>xG,\u201d the FotMob CEO said. \u201cAt that time, we were a bit hesitant because I always thought that xG might be over the top.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then, suddenly, especially in the UK and here in Norway, people started talking about the xG. Journalists spoke about it, commentators used it during live matches, and I think Jose Mourinho and a couple of other coaches, as well, in the Premier League, started quoting xG numbers in interviews. So it kind of matured a lot over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Football Rises In The Ranks<\/p>\n Owing to its global appeal, the Premier League is unsurprisingly the most-followed league on FotMob. But there also exists an interesting trend in some countries.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s football is widely followed in countries such as England and Germany, two European powerhouses. The Lionesses\u2019 triumphant run<\/a> at the Women\u2019s Euro 2025 was among the most-followed on FotMob.<\/p>\n A list of most-visited matches on FotMob in the UK in July.<\/p>\n FotMob<\/p>\n