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Ulster Rugby launch new official app with InCrowd

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The new official Ulster Rugby App is now live!

As part of their digital transformation and to accompany their new InCrowd built website launched in November 2021, Ulster Rugby and InCrowd have teamed up to deliver a club first with the launch of an Official app.

With the fan very much first in mind, the new app will be the ultimate Ulster Rugby companion; alongside native, stats driven match centres, the app will deliver exclusive news, personalised content, competitions and gamification to fans and provides new sponsorship opportunities.

Another exciting step for Ulster Rugby and InCrowd; keep an eye out for new features in the future as the team continue to develop the Ulster Rugby experience, #ForEveryFan…

Find out more HERE


Rugby League World Cup Agency Roster Announced

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Activity is starting to ramp up for the Rugby League World Cup 2021!

Ahead of the competition kicking off in October, RLWC21 has announced an incredible roster of individuals and business partners to deliver a truly memorable tournament for fans of Rugby League, old and new.

InCrowd are supporting the RLWC21 takeover of the The Rugby Football League’s official #OurLeague app for the build up to and duration of the tournament.

RLWC21 will be able to immediately connect with the 210K+ Our League members via InCrowd’s intelligent, data powered marketing technology and introduce new fans to the sport through exciting new activations. The Our League app will become a second screen companion to the tournament with sophisticated match centres, polls, exclusive news and personalised content bringing fans even closer to the event.

In addition audience driven, content and personalisation tools will offer brand partners new, exciting and hyper targeted sponsorship opportunities to drive ROI.

Find out more HERE


Rugby League – A Sport Like No Other.

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In my 10 years working in the sports industry I have been lucky enough to work on a variety of sports including football, motorsport, rugby union, tennis and cricket. One sport that had evaded me until last year was rugby league, a sport that I only had a passing knowledge of. Since June ’17 I have immersed myself in all things rugby league through InCrowd’s relationship with the Rugby Football League (RFL). I’ve attended the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final, Betfred Super League Grand Final, visited most of the grounds in the Super League and met some great people along the way.

To say this sport has been a breath of fresh air to me would be an understatement. Rugby League can boast an enviably diverse fan base, competitiveness & entertainment, passion & pride and down to earth, approachable players invested in growing their sport.

So what makes rugby league so special, and how are we working with the RFL to engage their already voracious and loyal fans? Let me tell you about my most recent experiences with the sport….

Membership

I project managed InCrowd’s development of the RFL’s free membership platform and app, named Our League. The platform that encapsulates all things Rugby League, launched on the 16th October 2017. Our League evolved quickly providing a second screen experience during the Rugby League World Cup 2017 with exclusive live streaming and behind the scenes footage. It also produced over 1,000 winners via the “predict & win” competition including tickets, signed shirts and a trip to Australia to watch the World Cup final between England and Australia.

Since then, the benefits have extended to loyalty schemes, ticket discounts, more exclusive content and a recently created a player dashboard for players to see their stats and compared themselves with others in their league. The successful predict and win competition has extended in to the Betfred Super League season with nearly 14,000 players to date, while Our League members have control of the Betfred Man of the Match vote as presented during live Sky Sports broadcasts. Development is also underway to extend the match centre to include community leagues and there is far more to come in the near future to engage all corners of the Rugby League audience.

Season Launch

In January this year, I was lucky enough to attend the RFL season launch. Our League, and its importance in growing the sport between now and the UK hosted 2021 Rugby League World Cup featured in Interim CEO Ralph Rimmer’s keynote speech. Super League representatives from all clubs were in attendance. Players and coaches from all clubs were in attendance including 2017 Man of Steel Luke Gale, England World Cup star Jermaine McGillvary and Harry Sunderland Trophy winning Danny McGuire. After photos and press interviews the players took part in sponsor led challenges whilst coaches were quizzed on their hopes and expectations for the coming season.

I got the chance to speak to some of the World Cup predictor winners; Rob, James  and Antony. They told me that they had played for fun and love of the game. They were extremely surprised to hear that their engagement in the predictor had culminated in such an amazing prize. That prize was 2 premium tickets to every major event this year including the England vs New Zealand series. The guys also recalled several pieces of content and polls that were published during the World Cup and spoke highly of the app’s user experience.

Antony said “my wife didn’t believe I had won and thought it was a scam. It’s a good job I didn’t win trip to Brisbane. I’d have had to choose between my wife and son!”

James took to Twitter to post the following:

 The Future of Rugby League

I feel that one of the biggest challenges facing rugby league in the UK is the lack of awareness and engagement in the south. Rugby union dominates there and the annual Challenge Cup Final provides only a glimpse of what this sport has to offer. I took my 10-year-old nephew to the Challenge Cup Final, teaching him the rules on the journey and he thoroughly enjoyed the whole occasion. However, without my involvement he would not have known that this event, or maybe even the sport even existed.

The road ahead is challenging but I think that rugby league is on the cusp of grabbing more attention from media and commercial partners. This will be rewarding to see for the players and fans of this entertaining and inclusive sport and I am excited to join the RFL on this journey. 2018 is already shaping up to be an incredible season with entertaining matches and some unexpected results already. I’m very much looking forward to the remainder of the season complete with drama, passion and an ever growing audience.

To get involved in the action, you can download the Our League app now:

Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incrowdsports.rugby.rfl

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ourleague/id1292250629?ls=1&mt=8

OurLeague Website: https://membership.rugby-league.com

The Rugby Football League partner with InCrowd to launch their Our League membership platform

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In 2017, InCrowd partnered with the Rugby Football League (RFL) in order to build, launch and deliver priceless experiences for fans in time for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup and the 2018 rugby league season.

The Rugby Football League (RFL) approached InCrowd to realise their ambitions to build a world leading membership platform for spectators, viewers and participants of rugby league. Plans for a membership website and mobile apps included exclusive content, member benefits, participation features, a ticketing integration, gamification and polls to help drive fan experience and return on investment for the RFL. The launch was planned to perfectly coincide with the 2017 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2017) in Australia, giving new members the chance to support England in their quest for glory.

InCrowd provided the necessary resource and expertise to ensure the deadline was met, resulting in the on time launch of the official Our League app and website. InCrowd worked with many of the RFL’s partners integrating Tickethour, and a loyalty scheme via Rewards4 Rugby League. Working with StreamAMG, the platform also saw live streaming of a match 4 days post launch, which proved a successful addition to increase registrations with over 40,000 live views of England’s warm up fixture against Affiliated States. Live streaming was also delivered for the Women’s Rugby League World Cup (WRLWC2017).

Fans were able to fully immerse themselves in the RLWC2017 and WRLWC2017 for free, including behind the scenes content and huge prizes, including Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final ticket discounts, signed England shirts and premium tickets to all major UK rugby league events in 2018. The Grand Prize was an all expenses paid trip for two to Australia, to watch the RLWC2017 final. One lucky member, Neil Cunliffe, and is wife were flown to watch England in the final in Australia as a result of finishing top of the membership leaderboard after the Quarter Finals.

 

2018 Rugby League Season

After RLWC2017, work was extended to the 2018 Rugby League season. In the first seven weeks of the season the Our League platforms powered by FanScore had already seen nearly 12,000 participants in the Betfred Super League predictor game and consistently receives 3,000 – 4,000 Betfred Man of the Match votes, thanks to InCrowd’s first live participation TV initiative with Sky Sports. Since launch, over 12k Our League members have voted for their Man of the Match.

“Membership is a significant step forward for the Rugby Football League. In September we didn’t have anything and now in February we have a membership system with over 36,000 active members.”

Richard Donlon, Systems Manager, The RFL

Working with Sports Technology Group (STG) and FluidCM we have been able to deliver a rugby league player dashboard showing stats and comparison to other players within a player’s division.In addition to this, InCrowd and the RFL have big plans for the future of Our League. These plans include a wider ranging comparisons within the player dashboard, a Betfred Super League to community leagues match centre, private predictor leagues, head-to-heads, coaching content and personalised membership experiences. We are excited about our continuing work with the RFL to engage the rugby league audience.

For more information, or for details on how InCrowd can help you reach out to your fans, please contact enquiries@incrowdsports.com

Visit the Our League website here

Download the iOS app

Download the Android app

 

About InCrowd

InCrowd provide a fan engagement & sponsorship activation platform. Our understanding of the avid and emotional mindset of a fan is combined with in-depth data analysis and ground-breaking digital technology to offer rights holders and brands a unique opportunity to reach out to sports fans in the moments that really matter. Many of the world‘s top rights holders & brands use InCrowd’s fan marketing platform to collect more fan data, sell more tickets and increase sponsorship revenue. We also help sponsors connect with new customers and convert fan interaction into revenue & advocacy.