The European Tour, IAAF, Premier League and RFU came together last week for a “Share and Learn” Digital Workshop hosted by deltatre debating the future of digital and sport.
Delegates from four of deltatre’s key federation clients explored the successes and challenges around data, broadcast, digital, mobile, social and fan engagement during a series of presentations at Sestriere near deltatre’s Turin base in Italy.
Key note presentations from Mark Lichtenhein, The European Tour’s Head of Television, Digital Media and Technology, Emanuele Perotti Nigra, Director of Technology and Information at the IAAF, Nick Morgan, Head of Production at the Premier League, Mark Killingly, RFU Head of Digital and CRM, and Carlo De Marchis, Chief Product Officer at deltatre, sparked lively discussion among the digital teams.
Shared experiences of pioneering technologies, innovations and initiatives from the four sporting bodies provided plenty of business intelligence and invaluable insights into how sport will be covered and the story told looking ahead to 2015 and beyond.
The workshop followed the announcement that The European Tour has renewed its contract with its digital media supplier deltatre for a further four years, enabling them to work together until 2018.
Since 2009, deltatre has provided a variety of services for The European Tour, including the design, development, hosting and maintenance of europeantour.com, as well as user experience design services and the build of the European Tour’s iPhone App. Their website is based on deltatre’s sport Content Management System, Forge, which due to its robust and scalable nature makes it perfect for the challenging needs of a sports website receiving high peaks in traffic on weekly basis as a part of the tournament schedule.
Speaking about the renewal, Moe Hamdhaidari deltatre’s Head of Online said: “deltatre know how committed The European Tour is to celebrating the game of golf, which is why we are proud to continue our collaborative work, pushing boundaries with innovative solutions, to provide fans with the best access and coverage possible.”
Integrated into the site is deltatre’s LiveBlogging tool, used to engage golf fans further and to increase The European Tour’s reach. LiveBlogging enables The European Tour to provide live coverage of tournaments via the website, by posting comments, videos, pictures and social content to a live stream. Included in the website is the ‘My European Tour’ section, giving members access to exclusive content such as competitions, offers and The Fantasy Race.
Alongside the online platform, deltatre has worked with The European Tour on other ventures including the launch of its digital golf channel, European Tour TV, which is now available on mobile, tablet and desktop. The fully responsive platform enables fans to watch live play, as well as highlight clips; streamed into markets where golf has limited television rights.
deltatre’s video player, Diva, integrates real time data such as player stats and scores, as a data overlay. With functionality to rewind and pause, fans can return to key moments of action via chapter markers on a timeline.
Lichtenhein added: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with deltatre for a further four years, to deliver the best possible consumer experience of the European Tour and explore innovative opportunities to grow the engagement with our global fan base.”
