UEFA are one of the largest sporting organisations in the world, predominantly as the people behind all European-based football. UEFA organise and promote huge football tournaments featuring the finest teams in Europe, such as the Champions League and the newly named Europa League (previously known as the UEFA Cup).
After the development of Euro KickOff back in 2008, UEFA approached us to consult and implement the development of a similar system for all their annual tournaments.
Understandably, this was quite a significant request, one that required thorough planning, discussion and brainstorming before implementation. Collaborating with an international body with such a large target audience wasn’t going to be a simple task but, always prepared for a mammoth challenge, we jumped at the opportunity.
After liaising with the manager of UMET (UEFA Media, Entertainment & Technology department), we agreed to develop a prototype for the remaining 2008/9 season. This was to establish and thoroughly test the foundations for a full season of events, as well as discover whether there was a demand for such a service. We knew, from previous experience, calendar-based solutions were highly desirable to the technically-minded, but testing such a service on a different demographic would allow us to clearly identify the next step.
Thankfully, demand was high. Calendar downloads and subscriptions directly from uefa.com reached over 10,000 within two weeks of launch. These numbers were enough to convince UEFA to continue the project and develop the calendar solution further for the 2009/10 season.
After a couple of months development and regression testing, the updated service was relaunched in time for the Group Stages of the UEFA Champions League tournament – one of the highest sought-after tournaments on the sporting calendar.
We have now established a great relationship with UEFA on the calendar service and will continue to develop the service over the next few years into a highly desirable solution for everyone interested in European football.