The Challenge: Connecting International Families to Student Football
When Davide and his friends founded Hello Kitties FC—a student football team in Maastricht, Netherlands—they faced a problem common to international university communities: families couldn't watch their games.
"The majority of us are foreigners to this country. I'm, for example, Italian, so my family watching the streams or my friends, would be in Italy," Davide explains. "So it's very limited to access here. So with the streams, that's why the majority of people that watch the streams are either French or Italian or German or most of them are not Dutch because the streams are mainly for the people away."
Maastricht Sunday League, founded in 2021, grew quickly to become the biggest student sports organization in Maastricht—a university city where sports culture at universities is typically weak compared to the United States.
The team tried Instagram Live initially, but quickly discovered its limitations. Viewers had no way to see the score, time remaining, or match context in real-time. The comment section filled with constant questions:
"What's the score? What time? How many minutes left?"
Davide, a second-year synthetic biology student, took on the challenge of finding a better solution—one that would make their streams look professional without requiring a computer science background.
Finding the Right Solution: Overlays for Non-Gamers
Davide's search began while procrastinating from studying: "I needed to find something to help the football team with."
He switched from Instagram to Twitch—a platform better suited for live streaming—but encountered a new problem: Twitch is built for gaming, not sports. Most overlays were designed for gameplay or reaction videos.
"I was procrastinating studying and I needed to find something to help the football team with. And I saw that Canva had different overlays, but again, there were fixed mounted ones that you just put in on the stream, so they wouldn't have been helpful."
The search for sports-specific overlays proved difficult:
"I was having a lot of difficulty finding websites that could help me bring that to life because, again, I don't come from a programming background, I don't come from a computer science background. So I couldn't make my own overlays or own live scores to keep."
Through Google searches and YouTube research about Twitch streaming, Davide discovered the term "overlays" and began searching specifically for that functionality. KeepTheScore appeared in his results.
The Decision Point:
Davide tested KeepTheScore's basic (free) version first: "It worked well, but then I think everything improved so much more when we applied for the pro and got where you could customize it."
The Pro version unlocked customization—team colors, emblems, league logos, custom names—transforming the streams from functional to professional.
What Made It Work:
"KeepTheScore was very intuitive to use... it's all very intuitive, even the editing of the colors and the names, it's very easy to use."
The simplicity mattered because Davide needed to train teammates with no technical background: "I just showed him how it works and everything, because it really works as a scoreboard that you maintain on your phone, has different buttons... It's very simple to use and very easy to use."
The Implementation: iPhone, Twitch, and Two Links
The Physical Setup:
The team's streaming setup is remarkably portable:
- Camera: iPhone 15 on tripod
- Power: Battery pack (streaming + data drains battery quickly)
- Connection: 4G mobile data from the pitch
- Streaming platform: Streamlabs mobile app (easier than OBS for field setup)
- Scoreboard control: Separate device (phone or tablet)
"I have a tripod, I use an iPhone 15, I have a battery pack connected because between the live stream and using the data, it uses a lot of battery," Davide explains. "And then an extra device in order to control the scores and the times."
The Two-Link System:
KeepTheScore provides two essential links:
- Display URL: Added to Streamlabs as a browser source overlay
- Control URL: Sent to the person updating scores in real-time
"I just added a URL of the link that allows you to put the scoreboard on the live game. And then sent another link to my friend's phone or another phone or device that was able, that the link that changed the score and changed the time and kept the game up."
The Learning Curve:
Training the person updating scores took just one demonstration:
"At the beginning it was big... he didn't really understand why there were two links. But then when I showed him how it works and everything... he was like, 'Oh, okay, perfect. Easy.' And smooth sailing, no problems with that on that aspect."
Playoff Expansion:
When the Maastricht Sunday League noticed the team's streaming success, they partnered with Davide to stream all 16 playoff games. This required creating 20 different scoreboard configurations (one for each matchup) and cycling through them over an 8-hour Sunday of continuous games.
"Since each game would have a different overlay, I had other overlays made for each game. So on the website you can have I think up to 20 overlays made at the same time. So I had one ready for each game. And so between each game I'll just change the link on the overlay."
The Results: From Student Team to Streaming Business
Twitch Affiliate Status
The most measurable result: the team qualified for Twitch affiliate status, enabling ad revenue.
"I could see we now qualified for Twitch affiliate, meaning we had enough streams regularly in order to now make revenue off of Twitch. And I could see that the moment we started using KeepTheScore and it grew much more."
The growth wasn't just in viewer numbers—it was in watch time. With the scoreboard reducing confusion, viewers stayed engaged longer:
"Not only did it grow in amounts of views, but amount of people staying in the live stream. Because there was less confusion, there wasn't a confusion on what time it was in the game or what was the score or what point it was in the game."
Reduced Comment Confusion
Before KeepTheScore's football scoreboard, the Twitch chat filled with logistics questions. After implementation, viewers could focus on the game itself:
"It really added a much more clear element to the game and much less chatter of confusion in people watching at home. Meaning that people could enjoy it with less questions."
League Partnership and Board Membership
The league's leadership noticed. They tracked down who was running the streams and invited Davide to join as a board member:
"They asked the team who was in charge of the live stream, then they moved on to me. They asked how it was working and everything... they asked me to join in and help them with that through becoming a board member."
The partnership extended beyond the playoffs. The league now sees streaming as essential to engagement:
"They saw that more people could watch the streams and more people were following their Instagrams, either the league or the teams, they really saw the value in live streaming it."
New Revenue Stream
Other teams in the league began asking Hello Kitties FC to help them stream their games—for a fee:
"Next season though, we're making deals with the teams in order for us to help them live stream so then more live streams can happen... paying us to live stream for them as we have the platform and we have all the accounts and all the setup."
What started as a solution for family viewing became a service business.
Team Revenue Diversification
Hello Kitties FC now generates income from multiple sources: - Jersey sales - Twitch ad revenue (via affiliate program) - Merchandise - Streaming services for other teams - Partnerships and discounts from vendors
"We made some profit this year through Jersey sales, through ad revenue and through merchandise. And also through partnerships with different companies such as KeepTheScore, giving us a discount in order to stream the games."
Geographic Reach
The streams connect families across Europe. Parents in Greece, grandparents in Italy, friends in France—all watching Sunday afternoon matches from Maastricht.
Why It Works for Student Sports Organizations
The European Context
Davide highlights a key cultural difference: "Europe has not a strong culture for sports in universities or high schools. So normally very separate."
Unlike American universities with their robust athletic programs and stadium scoreboards, European university sports are typically informal. This league filled a gap:
"When people were introduced to this league, they had such an admiration for it because they could finally get together with some friends, build a team and actually play together and have pride about something connected through university, but being sports instead of education."
The lack of physical scoreboards at pitches makes streaming overlays even more valuable—they provide information that doesn't exist in-person.
Student Budget Constraints
The team operates on student budgets with no university funding. When Davide wanted to upgrade to Pro, the team chipped in collectively. For the playoffs, the league covered the cost.
The pay-as-you-go model fits student organizations: "It's easier, especially coming from multiple pockets, it's easy to collect money once than multiple times."
Mobile-First Necessity
The field setup makes desktop streaming impractical:
"The problem with [OBS] is that out on the field, we don't have access. I mean, I could bring my computer, but it would complicate everything much more. While it's so much easier with Streamlabs because there's the mobile app."
With everything running on phones, fewer components mean fewer potential failures: "Being out in the open, meaning we have less choices to fix if something goes wrong. So less parts we have moving, easier it is to maintain it running."
The Team Name Advantage
"Hello Kitties FC" wasn't just a fun name—it was strategic marketing that helped with social media growth and viewer engagement.
Transient Membership Structure
Student teams face constant turnover as players graduate or study abroad. The streaming setup needed to be transferable. The simple training process—one demonstration to understand the two-link system—makes knowledge transfer easy.
Key Takeaways
For student sports organizers:
- Mobile-first matters: Field streaming requires phone-based solutions, not desktop setups
- Professional appearance drives growth: Viewers stay longer when they're not confused about score/time
- Start basic, upgrade strategically: Free version proves concept, Pro unlocks growth
- Success attracts partnerships: Quality streams led to league collaboration and board membership
- International students need remote viewing: Families abroad represent your core audience
For Twitch sports streamers:
- Gaming overlays don't work for live sports—you need sport-specific tools
- Qualifying for Twitch affiliate creates revenue opportunities beyond ticket sales
- Reduced chat confusion = higher viewer retention
- Two-device setup (camera + scoreboard control) is manageable for small teams
- Creating multiple overlay configurations enables tournament streaming
For European university sports:
- Student-run leagues can become major campus organizations without university funding
- Cross-border student populations need digital connection to family viewers
Technical details that mattered:
- Streamlabs mobile app (not OBS) for field streaming
- iPhone 15 + battery pack for extended streaming
- 4G data for live connection
- Two-link system: display URL for overlay, control URL for scoring
- Up to 20 saved scoreboard configurations for tournament play
- Twitch platform for better sports streaming than Instagram Live
- Intuitive scoring interface trainable in one demonstration
Feature requests from the field:
Davide suggested several football-specific enhancements like yellow/red card indicators, stoppage time widgets, and replay functionality.
Looking Forward: Sustainability and Growth
Team Longevity
With most players in their final bachelor year, succession planning is crucial. The team is actively recruiting younger players and non-playing contributors to ensure continuity.
Future Growth Plans
The team is expanding to YouTube alongside Twitch and planning enhanced production quality with multiple camera angles and official stats tracking. The league has commissioned a local student startup to build a comprehensive match statistics app.
The Bigger Picture: Culture Through Connection
At its core, this case study isn't about technology—it's about creating community across borders:
"We're all doing this out of fun, out of pleasure. It's not a job for us. So we really enjoy doing all of this."
In a university where students come from across Europe, a simple live score overlay became the foundation for a streaming business, Twitch affiliate status, league partnership, and sustainable student sports organization.
Davide's approach transformed amateur student football into professional broadcasts, one scoreboard overlay at a time.
"I could not imagine not streaming without it or without platforms such as KeepTheScore."
Ready to stream your sports with professional live scoreboards? Get started with KeepTheScore for free and bring your games to families and fans worldwide.