One of Northern Ireland’s most successful digital entrepreneurs, Cecil Hetherington, has significantly increased his investment in Belfast-based sports technology company Pitchbooking, becoming the company’s largest individual shareholder outside of its founding team.
Cecil Hetherington is best known for his involvement with Used Cars NI and PropertyPal, the leading two-sided marketplaces for vehicles and property in Northern Ireland. Both businesses have achieved category leadership locally despite competing with large, GB-based platforms such as Rightmove, Zoopla, and Autotrader.
Founded in 2018 by Shea O’Hagan, Fearghal Campbell, and Chris McCann, Pitchbooking has quickly become the market-leader in modernising how sports facilities are managed and accessed.
Over the past year, Pitchbooking has processed over £25 million in bookings, with its platform powering the operations of organisations including the Irish Football Association, Nottingham Forest & West Ham United Foundations, Soccer 5 USA and multiple UK City Councils.
Pitchbooking is sports agnostic, serving facilities across football, rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis, and fitness.
What began as a simple facility-booking tool has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for sports facilities. Today, Pitchbooking enables partners to manage not just pitch bookings, but also events, memberships, leagues, access control, smart locks, automated floodlighting, point of sale, card terminals, franchising and white-label solutions – bringing every element of sports facility management under one platform.
Cecil Hetherington’s involvement with Pitchbooking stretches back to 2019 when the company secured investment from Aurient Ltd, in which he was involved, as part of an investment round backed by Techstart Ventures and Co-Fund NI, and managed by Clarendon Fund Managers.
The new investment significantly deepens his commitment to Pitchbooking and reflects his confidence in the company’s long-term strategy to become the digital infrastructure for sports facilities globally.
Shea O’Hagan, CEO of Pitchbooking, said: “Cecil understands two-sided marketplaces better than anyone in the UK and Ireland. His success with Used Cars NI and PropertyPal shows a rare instinct for building and scaling high-performing platforms that connect supply and demand at scale. He’s built category leaders before, and we’re proud to have him deepen his involvement in Pitchbooking. His backing is a strong signal of confidence in our long-term vision to make Pitchbooking the go-to platform for sports facilities.”
Cecil Hetherington said: “Pitchbooking has all the ingredients of a global category leader – a scalable model, proven traction, and a market that’s only beginning to digitise. With tens of thousands of facilities across the UK alone and millions globally, the scale of opportunity is enormous. The company is well placed to define how sports facilities operate in the years ahead.”
The latest investment will help Pitchbooking accelerate its expansion across the UK and Ireland and continue developing its product suite to meet the complex operational needs of sports organisations worldwide.