What does it really take to turn a late-night idea into a global phenomenon? SCORE!: Online Soccer Manager (OSM) — From the Attic to the Arena begins in a quiet attic in the Netherlands, where a teenage football fan starts coding a game simply because he wants to play it.
That small experiment grows into Online Soccer Manager, a platform that would eventually attract hundreds of millions of players around the world. Along the way, Jeroen Derwort pulls back the curtain on the messy, high-pressure reality behind the success: sudden scale, battles with major gaming companies, clashes with football powerhouses, and the personal challenge of growing into leadership while the stakes keep rising.
Quick Look
Author: Jeroen Derwort
Title: SCORE! Online Soccer Manager From the Attic to the Arena
Genre: Nonfiction
Print Length: 202 pages
Publication Date: December 04, 2025
Social media: LinkedIn
Buy here: Amazon
Website: Link
Q&A with Jeroen Derwort
Q: What is your book about and what inspired you to write this book?
A: The inspiration didn’t come from a “sudden lightbulb moment,” but rather from a realization I had after my second company, RosterBuster, was acquired.
I looked back at my twenty years in the trenches and realized that while the tech world loves “overnight success” stories, nobody talks about the endurance required for a twenty-year “overnight” success.
The specific sparks were:
Preserving the Legacy: I wanted to document the “wild west” era of the early 2000s internet. The story of how a few students in the Netherlands created a game that outlived almost all its competitors deserved to be told.
The “Anti-Hype” Manual: I was tired of business books that make entrepreneurship look like a clean, linear path. I wanted to write the book I wish I had read in 2001, one that talks about the loneliness, the legal scares, and the sheer grit it takes to stay at the top for two decades.
Q: When did you start writing, and what made you decide to publish this book?
A: As a coder, I expressed myself through scripts and features for years. But I always had a deep desire to translate that digital experience into something permanent, a physical book that could inspire the next generation of “attic-room founders” to keep going when everyone else tells them to stop.
Q: Which character was the most fun—or most challenging—to write, and why?
A: Javier is a mysterious figure in the book, that plays an important part and suddenly disappears.
Q: What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?
A: In SCORE!, the core message is that long-term success is rarely about a single “eureka” moment, but rather about the resilience to survive the challenges that follow.
Here are the four primary themes I want every reader to walk away with:
1. The Power of “Naïve Ambition”
When I started in that attic room, I didn’t know the “rules” of the gaming industry or how hard it was to scale a global platform. That ignorance was a superpower.
The Takeaway: Don’t wait until you’re an expert to start. Sometimes, not knowing that something is “impossible” is exactly what allows you to achieve it.
2. Resilience Through the “Lean Years”
The tech world is obsessed with rapid growth and “blitzscaling,” but OSM survived for twenty years before its major exit. We faced lawsuits, security breaches, and plateauing user numbers.
The Takeaway: Endurance is a competitive advantage. If you can stay in the game longer than your competitors—learning from the “lean years” rather than quitting—you eventually reach the “fat years.”
3. Radical Simplicity
In a world of high-definition graphics and complex mechanics, OSM won because it was accessible. We focused on the core human emotion: the thrill of being the boss of your favorite club.
The Takeaway: Complexity is the enemy of scale. Whether you are building an app or a service, find the one “core loop” that users love and make it as frictionless as possible.
4. The Human Side of the Exit
Selling a company is often portrayed as the ultimate victory, but it is also an emotional and identity-shifting process. I write candidly about the transition from being “the boss” of a close-knit team to integrating into a global giant like Tencent/Miniclip.
The Takeaway: Success isn’t just a number in a bank account; it’s about navigating the professional and personal changes that come with “winning” the game you’ve been playing for decades.
Q: Were there any real-life experiences that influenced your story or characters?
A: Yes, the story is entirely factual.
Q: What question do you wish readers would ask you about the book?
A: The question I wish more people would ask is: “What was the hardest thing you had to stop doing in order to let the business grow?”
Most people focus on what I added—new features, more staff, more servers. But the true turning point for a founder is often what they are willing to give up.
The Answer: “Killing my inner micromanager.”
In the early days of Online Soccer Manager, I was the one who wrote the code, answered the support emails, and made every single decision. It was my “baby.” The hardest part of the journey wasn’t the 100th million user; it was the moment I had to stop being the “Chief Everything Officer.”
I realized that if I was the smartest person in the room for every decision, the company could never be smarter than me. To scale to a level where a giant like Tencent would be interested, I had to:
Stop coding: I had to trust others to write the core logic of the game I created.
Accept “different” instead of “perfect”: I had to learn that a team doing something 80% as well as I would—but at 10x the scale—is a massive win.
Transition from Creator to Coach: I shifted my focus from the product to the people who build the product.
In the book, I share a specific moment when a major technical crisis hit, and my first instinct was to grab the keyboard and fix it myself. Stepping back and letting my lead developer handle it was one of the most difficult, yet rewarding, moments of my career. It was the day I stopped owning a “project” and started leading a “company.”
Q: Do you have a favorite quote or moment from the book you’d like to share?
A: One afternoon, I was cycling home from the office when I saw two teenage boys sitting at a bus stop. They were about fourteen years old. One was wearing an Ajax jersey; the other was dressed in the colors of their arch-rivals, Feyenoord. They were huddled over a single mobile phone, tension etched on their faces. Curious, I stopped my bike to see what they were watching. Suddenly, the Ajax kid jumped up, cheering. “Yes! Of course! 1-0! Neymar scores! Haha!” The Feyenoord fan slumped a little but kept his eyes glued to the tiny screen. A few moments later, he threw his arms in the air. “Yeeees! 1-1! Equalizer! Go Frenkie!” They were watching a soccer match, but there was no live game on TV that afternoon. And what was Neymar doing at Ajax? Why was Frenkie de Jong playing for Feyenoord? It hit me: They were playing Online Soccer Manager.
Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing or publishing it?
A: There are not many books about game companies out there. It was quite difficult finding a publisher for it. Also there are multiple target audiences: entrepreneurs, game developers or players of Online Soccer Manager.
Q: What’s next for you as a writer?
A: I have exited second company, so it itches to create a book around that too!
Author Bio
Jeroen Derwort is the Chairman of the Dutch Games Association, Manager of GameLab at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and author of the book SCORE!
As a young programmer, Jeroen designed Online Soccer Manager (OSM) from his attic room in Zoetermeer, creating a game where football fans could virtually own and manage their favorite clubs. The game became a massive hit, growing into a global phenomenon with over 100 million players worldwide.
Jeroen has successfully sold two companies, raised financing, and experienced both rapid scale-up scenarios and challenging times. He now dedicates his time to inspiring and coaching starting (tech) entrepreneurs through various mentorship programs including NLGroeit, PLNT, and the Leiden Mentor Network.
Through conversations, presentations, and blogs, Jeroen shares his knowledge and experiences to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed.
Social media: LinkedIn
Buy here: Amazon
Website: Link
We love to read and explore a wide range of genres, including contemporary and historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, nonfiction, and memoirs. If you’d like us to review your book, feel free to reach out—we’d be happy to hear from you!