Apprentice star launches DatePlay dating app to 'gamify' your love life

A new dating app targeting lonely hearts with a penchant for mobile quizzes has launched on Apple's App Store today, from a company helmed by someone who should be a familiar face for fans of UK reality TV show, The Apprentice.

DatePlay sees the BBC series' 2015 runner-up Vana Koutsomitis bring her plan of creating an app that "gamifies the online dating experience" to fruition. The free app claims to go deeper than other online dating apps by collecting personality data through multiple choice quizzes before pairing potential couples using a matching algorithm.

For an idea of how the app works in the beta version, users sign-up, add a profile picture and are then encouraged to play through a series of questions, on topics of varying degrees of irreverence, and selecting one of four pictures as an answer.

An example on the App Store page asks "which are you most afraid of?", with one possible answer being "hate" which is inexplicably pictured as a roaring lion. DatePlay also uses your responses as icebreakers in the app's chat feature, as "fun facts" are thrown in to spice up conversations with suitable matches.

With masses of dating apps available on Apple's iPhone and other iOS devices, DatePlay's main gimmick could appeal to those looking for a mobile matchmaker "based on more than just looks", but it finds itself up against stiff competition in the current industry leader, Tinder. Here is a site that DatePlay clearly takes a few cues from, as compatible matches are accepted or rejected with a touchscreen swipe.

At time of writing almost 30,000 users have been registered according to DatePlay's official website, although CEO Koutsomitis and co-founder Joris Magenti seemingly have big plans for the 'gamification' of the mobile dating scene, stating that "you no longer have to choose between the less than perfect options currently on the market" in the app's blurb.

Koutsomitis will also be hoping the beta launch goes smoother than her encounters with The Apprentice UK star and business magnate Lord Alan Sugar. The former investment banker was aiming to snag £250,000 to invest in her dating app in the TV show's eleventh season, but was beaten in the final by Joseph Valente and his ImpraGas venture.