Safeguarding the game: How wellplayd measures integrity in sports

As part of leonardo’s education and consultancy services, we worked with wellplayd to build a robust Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) foundation from the ground up. By translating complex governance structures into a clear Theory of Change (ToC) and operationalizing it through a scientifically rigorous indicator framework, we enabled this early-stage startup to align its business model with a deep-rooted social mission.

wellplayd, a German social startup dedicated to digitizing and professionalizing "Good Governance" in sports, joined the leonardo. Academy to embed impact at the core of its operations. Unlike established organizations with existing frameworks, wellplayd faced the unique challenge of building an impact logic alongside its product development. Through individual consultancy, we transformed the abstract concept of "integrity in sports" into a measurable, strategic management tool.

"When you're building a solution to a problem you're deeply connected with, you're in a tunnel. Working with leonardo, we were able to step back, see the whole system, and develop a Theory of Change and an impact framework that are both understandable and actionable."

Janina Jaspers, Co-Founder and CEO of wellplayd

Explore how the leonardo. academy, funded by the BMWE and the European Union, can help your organisation strengthen its impact measurement and management.

The Customer: wellplayd

wellplayd is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup focused on responsible club management. With over 90,000 sports clubs and 28 million members in Germany alone, sports organizations hold enormous potential to anchor values like fairness, cohesion, and democracy in society. However, increasing legal requirements—such as the Federal Child Protection Act, GDPR, and the Safe Sport Code, often create a mountain of paperwork that overwhelms volunteer-led organizations.

wellplayd provides an intuitive platform that automates critical "Good Governance" processes. From checking criminal records and digital signatures for codes of conduct to establishing secure reporting channels and case management, wellplayd takes the administrative burden off clubs. This allows sports leaders to move from "paperwork chaos" to legal certainty, fostering a safe and transparent environment for all participants.

The Challenge: Beyond administrative compliance

As an early-stage startup, wellplayd faced a "blank slate" challenge. While the software clearly solved a practical pain point, digitizing the "paper mountain" of compliance, the team needed a rigorous framework to prove that these technical actions lead to a safer, more integral sports system.

The core difficulty was moving beyond technical outputs (e.g., "number of documents uploaded") to build a sophisticated conceptual bridge to wellplayd's long term social impact goals. To achieve this, the project had to address:

• Preventative Complexity: Since integrity work is largely preventative, the framework needed to measure how wellplayd mitigates risks, making the "invisible" success of prevention visible and measurable.
• Stakeholder Ecosystems: Mapping the diverse impact relationships between club administrators, active members, whistleblowers, and oversight NGOs.
• Strategic Integration: Building an IMM system that doesn't just satisfy funders but serves as a strategic management tool to guide future product development and ensure the organization remains mission-aligned as it scales.

By addressing these challenges, the project sought to move wellplayd from a purely functional SaaS provider to a mission-aligned organization with the data to prove its systemic value.

The Approach: Scientific rigor and systematic operationalization

The consulting journey followed a deep-dive methodology to move wellplayd from high-level goals to concrete, empirical measurement.

1. Developing a Complex Theory of Change (ToC)
To capture wellplayd’s multi-layered impact, we utilized the Hivos model. Unlike traditional linear impact models, this approach allowed us to map the systemic nature of the sports landscape, recognizing that integrity isn't just a top-down mandate but a result of shifting behaviors across an entire ecosystem.

We defined the ultimate societal impact: The social potential of sports is fully realized through integrity-protected organizations. To bridge the gap to this vision, we identified and mapped three interdependent Change Domains:

• People (Micro Level): Focuses on the individual experience. By reducing administrative barriers, wellplayd ensures that staff and members can interact in a safe environment where values like fairness and transparency are lived, not just documented.
• Multipliers (Meso Level): Focuses on efficiency and reach. We mapped how educational and advisory actors (NGOs and associations) can leverage digital processes to free up resources. This allows them to shift from manual document management to high-value content work and supporting a larger number of clubs.
• Structures (Macro Level): Focuses on systemic sustainability. This domain tracks the permanent establishment of digital structures and reporting channels that make integrity a non-negotiable standard in sports governance, beyond personal and interpersonal aspects.

2. Operationalization Through a Rigorous Indicator Framework
To move from theory to practice, we developed a comprehensive Impact Indicator Framework from scratch. This step was characterized by high methodological depth, utilizing recognized scientific standards and best practices. Each indicator was defined with:

• Theoretical Foundation: Grounding metrics in established social science research.
• Methodological Clarity: Specifying data collection methods (e.g., pre-post surveys) and precise timing.
• Empirical Rigour: Designing specific survey questions and answer options to minimize bias and ensure reliable data collection.

Methodological Deep Dive:
Measuring Knowledge Sharing To illustrate the scientific depth of the framework, consider the indicator for Knowledge Donating.

• ToC Goal: Club leaders share their developed content and best practices with other organizations.
• Scientific Basis: Adapted from Knowledge Sharing and Donating (van den Hooff & De Ridder, 2004).
• Operationalization: Through a pre-post survey design, we measure to what extent users actively provide materials and templates to others. This transforms a software feature into a measurable metric for a collaborative "integrity network."

By the end of the collaboration, wellplayd was equipped with a fully operationalized IMM system. This provides the team with a scientifically-backed roadmap to track how their platform transitions from an administrative tool to a driver of organizational integrity.

Alongside leonardo’s consultancy, wellplayd’s impact journey was further bolstered by the Impact Factory from Anthropia gGmbH. This unique incubator program provides social entrepreneurs with a collaborative space to scale innovations that solve complex social and ecological challenges.

The way forward

With the Theory of Change in place, the next step was to make measurement tangible and applicable in our everyday work. This is where our partnership with INFOGES (Institut für offene Gesellschaftsstudien, Duisburg) became invaluable. Together, we transferred our measurement instruments into a structured digital survey, seamlessly integrated into the client journey. Beyond the technical collaboration, INFOGES plays a crucial role as an independent external instance: they challenge our assumptions, scrutinize our methodology, and co-interpret the results with us. Having a critical, knowledgeable partner strengthens the credibility of everything we do.

At the heart of our approach are pre- and post-measurements: capturing where clients stand before working with us, and where they are afterwards. We are now eagerly awaiting the first evaluations later this year. The findings will feed directly into the further development of our product. This is how we make sure we keep getting better at creating real, lasting change.

Get to know wellplayd -  and support their amazing work.

‍

‍

‍