Italians may still be crying into their gelato after their football team were crushed by Spain in the final of Euro 2012, but now there’s reason to rejoice: Lieferheld has revealed that the Italian national dish was the most popular order amongst German football fans during the competition. Have a pizza that!
Marguerita-style pizza held off a surprise challenge from the Greek dish gyros to be named the food ordered most often in the three weeks of football, which finished on Sunday, by the German online ordering service – which has even created a knockout chart for its, ahem, European chompionships.
There was more doom and gloom for Germany, whose entry, schnitzel – presumably coached by Yoghurt Löw – mirrored its real-life counterpart by being knocked out in the semis. For once, however, there was no Spanish domination in sight, with paella failing to rice to the occasion after losing in the last eight.
Fish and chips was also knocked out at the quarter final stage, going down to schnitzel – although rumours that the plucky English food battered the Germans in normal time but missed out, with cod all at sea when it came to penalties, have not been confirmed.
The food ‘contest’ is a valiant effort to harness the dying embers of the Euro 2012 bandwagon, to mix a few metaphors, and only took into account the most popular specialty from each country.
But fun stories aside, the event in Poland and Ukraine – which eventually saw Spain retain their title after a 4-0 thrashing of Italy in the final – saw an increase in business for Lieferheld as many fans stayed in and ordered food to watch games. According to co-CEO Fabian Siegel, that increase amounted to an 8 percent improvement on the average; perhaps not a remarkable figure, but still reasonable considering that public viewings of matches are as popular as ever in Germany.
The service allows users to see restaurants and delivery services around their location, from a list of more than 6,000 across Germany. The company is part of Delivery Hero, which has more than four million customers worldwide.
And Lieferheld won’t be the only startup eagerly waiting to see what kind of a boost the quadrennial European Championships has provided to its business.
Those offering healthy lifestyle services, however, probably won’t be among those; but rather hoping for an increase in users looking to detox after over-indulging…