England Rugby Has New RFU Website And Features Powered By deltatre
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has a new website that was designed by deltatre to enhance the fan experience for the England Rugby community in the UK and around the world. I am exciting to share this sports tech news about the re-launch of the RFU website user interface and functionality with the Sports Techie community blog readers. The fully responsive web site has enhanced the user experience as the leading portal for RFU digital content.
England Rugby
Rugby is gaining popularity around the world. The 2015 Rugby World Cup is to be hosted in the UK. As a result, the RFU and deltatre have teamed up on this sports tech project and launched a riveting new Internet hub that functions as England Rugby’s online home at www.englandrugby.com.
According to Mark Killingley, RFU Head of Digital and CRM, “Our new website is for everybody interested in English rugby – with important offerings for all our visitors: fans, players, volunteers and administrators. It fundamentally supports our aims to grow the game in line with the values of the sport.”
The passion the RFU and deltatre share for supporting this popular sport with the best sports tech available is apparent. The goal was to create a grassroots and elite rugby digital home for the national governing body via a personalized platform that allows all levels of fans, players and sponsors the ability to be on the same evolving web page.
The rebranded site, from RFU.com to englandrugby.com, has robust rich content tailored to the British rugby community, with exciting new information and data that fans, players, and coaches, plus referees and volunteers will find appealing. Schools are another key demographic group the designers at deltatre and the administrators at England Rugby are targeting with specific content.
Killingley said, “The look and feel of the site reflects the clean white color from the England Rugby brand and offers really useful functionality to our visitors. There are England team hubs which are multimedia centres for news and information around all our teams, plus clear ways to get involved in the game, whether playing, coaching or refereeing.”
This is the first and last web stop you will need to follow all the news and information on every England Rugby team. The site offers clear pathways for people interested in rugby to support, play, coach and referee – helping the RFU with its endeavor to grow the game.
The ‘My Rugby’ tab navigates users to a section where you can personalize the online experience by featuring news and features of your choosing, according to personal preferences. A sports business component of the new website is the integration of a CRM system, delivered in conjunction with IBM. By promoting engagement the NGB can be more targeted with custom content and marketing opportunities. The CRM tool gives the RFU an added sense of togetherness with their online rugby community.
“The My Rugby area of the site becomes not only the portal for our Supporters Club members, but also the point of entry to all of the club administration tools needed to register players, update fixtures and results,” said Killingley.
The focus of the new site was an improved user experience complimented by personalized content that loads easily if you are browsing on a PC, mobile or tablet. Fans can look forward to exclusive player interviews, personalized updates and inspirational video from England Rugby TV, created to be sticky so supporters will stay longer, have less of a bounce rate and be impressed with the variety of integrated social media activity streaming to 1.4 million Facebook and Twitter followers, which is growing fast.
Hugo Sharman, Director at deltatre, complimented the launch by stating: “Over the past year we have worked incredibly hard with all the key stakeholders in England Rugby so that the best content is presented in the best way to all users, regardless of where they are and what device they are using. Not only is the design new but so is the technology supporting it, including deltatre’s Content Management System, Forge, which specifically meets the demands of live sport”.
A multi-platform solution, Forge 2014 comes with new features and benefits including:
• Independent Workflow: enhanced user ability to personalise web pages, including the layout, management and content positioning;
• Multi-Configuration: a single centralized configuration which automatically adapts to all scenarios (e.g. multi-language and multi-platform) thus reducing duplication;
• Menu Management: user autonomy in the management of the navigation menu; and
• Speed and Simplicity: reduction of inefficiencies during the development process;
A critical asset is the website’s architecture scalability that meets the demands high traffic peaks can place on servers during live games and via real-time results during events on a global scale. The IBM TryTracker is a returning key feature that is setting the standard for live sport, showing visual data during England’s critical games on the march to Rugby World Cup 2015.
The proprietary LiveBlogging component created by deltatre’s tech team will be an integrated feature within IBM TryTracker from now on. By doing so, coverage of live events with social content, pictures, videos and event updates will sizzle while navigating straight to a live stream on the website. The technology allows an interactive story of the match to unfold. England Rugby Editors can contribute from any stadium, from the studio, all with an emphasis of putting the fans central to the games constant ebb and flow.
About the Rugby Football Union:
Headquarters in the 82,000-seater Twickenham Stadium, the home of England Rugby, the Rugby Football Union is the national governing body for grassroots and elite rugby in England, with 2,000 autonomous rugby clubs in its membership. The RFU has a 550-strong workforce helping to grow rugby within clubs, schools and universities, right the way through to professional level. The RFU has a significant digital presence through online, mobile apps and social media channels. For information, visit www.englandrugby.com or follow us on Twitter: @EnglandRugby
Sports Techie, We support the English Rugby vision of the future in today’s fast evolving digital world which is thanks in part to their partnership with deltatre. Next year will be here soon enough but right now you can visit the rugby world’s top website built for England Rugby that is full of innovation, communication and love of rugby, all in a digital format.
I for one have never visited England but like many of you, would enjoy the 2015 Rugby World Cup in person, or virtually via the website delivered by deltatre, either way as a fan, we win and have a ball.
See y’all later here in Atlanta.
I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie @THESportsTechie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie
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