Data security: choosing a reliable competition platform

When you run a competition, your athletes trust you with much more than a payment: name, email, phone, address, sometimes their club. That data flows through the platform you choose. In early 2026, an incident was a reminder that not all platforms are equal on this front.

The Scoring.fit breach, in brief

On 24 January 2026, a confirmed data breach hit Scoring.fit. According to the FrenchBreaches report, the platform's entire MongoDB database leaked: around 83,000 records, including 79,584 users and 883 organizations, plus thousands of transaction and volunteer rows. The exposed data covers full user profiles (names, emails, phone numbers, addresses), clubs' Stripe payment configurations, and the personal data of athletes and volunteers. Sources: FrenchBreaches and bonjourlafuite.eu.org.

Why it happens

Many recent platforms are thrown together fast, sometimes with AI-generated code. On the surface it works. Underneath, it stacks up flaws: poorly isolated data, weakly protected access, databases left open. On a tool that handles the personal data of thousands of athletes, those shortcuts eventually cost you.

The Throwdown approach

Throwdown is built by hand, line by line, over close to two years. No AI-generated code, no shortcuts. Payments go through Stripe: Throwdown never sees or stores banking data. Hosting is in Europe, and security is treated as a feature, not a checkbox.

The questions to ask before choosing

Who builds the platform, and how? Hand-written code beats a rushed assembly. Where is the data hosted? In Europe, under GDPR, is a minimum. How are payments handled? Through a certified provider like Stripe, never an in-house store. Any history of incidents? Look into it before you trust them with your athletes.