I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author Jeroen Derwort shares the way his passion for Soccer turned into an online empire in the book “SCORE!”
The Synopsis
One attic. One idea. A hundred million players.
Jeroen Derwort was just a teenager when he started coding Online Soccer Manager (OSM) from his bedroom in The Netherlands. His dream? To let football fans experience the thrill of managing their favorite club.
He didn’t know he was building a global empire.
SCORE! takes you behind the scenes of a startup that exploded from a hobby project into a tech giant with fifty employees and millions of obsessed users worldwide. It is a candid, unfiltered account of the chaos behind the success: the high-stakes encounters with corporate giants, the fight against digital hooligans, and the boardroom clashes with the world’s biggest football clubs.
But this is more than a business book. It is the personal journey of a shy nerd who had to learn to lead, negotiate, and survive in the Champions League of the gaming industry.
From a lonely attic to the “Top 100 Self-Made Millionaires” list—this is the ultimate playbook for anyone who dares to dream big.
The Review
This was such a heartening and empowering read. The author found a great balance of passion for soccer, the gumption to strive out on his own to create a business for that passion, and the power that comes from finding your own community in the process. The insight into the lessons the author learned from a business perspective and the attention to detail the author poured into the book while maintaining a fairly fast pace was the perfect reading experience.
The heart of the story was in the author’s honest and personal writing style and the heartfelt connection the author made with readers. Many readers, especially those growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, will recognize the author’s feelings as they struggled with having a mind for education and what today is celebrated as nerdom, and yet back in the day was an isolating thing that kept most people alone amidst their student peers. The way the author used that feeling to not only find a community but build a business around it and the way each chapter also showcased how the author learned from each failure and venture into this online world made for a brilliant read.
The Verdict
Memorable, engaging, and thoughtfully written, author Jeroen Derwort’s “SCORE!” is a must-read nonfiction book on business and empowerment. The entrepreneurial spirit courses through every chapter of this book, and yet retains the heart and passion for the author’s special interest in soccer and the rich and recent history of online business building that allowed the author’s personal experiences to come across to readers in an impactful way. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
About the Author
Jeroen Derwort is a tech entrepreneur who turned a childhood passion into a global phenomenon. In 2001, while still a computer science student living with his parents, Jeroen launched Online Soccer Manager (OSM). Critics were skeptical, but twenty years later, his “attic project” had evolved into a powerhouse with 50 employees and millions of players worldwide. After securing partnerships with top-tier international football clubs, Jeroen successfully sold the company to Miniclip (a Tencent subsidiary).
