Many of the world’s top soccer teams have been recently spending big money and devoting serious resources to advanced digital partnerships. This was most notable with Manchester United’s recent partnership with Indian tech giant HCL.
Today the focus on digital continues with the Premier League announcing a multi-year partnership with Pulselive, the digital division of sports technology company Hawk-Eye. The new digital partnership will aim to totally enhance and redevelop the the Premier League’s web and mobile properties in time for the start of the 2016/17 season.
As the Premier League’s new official digital partner, Pulselive will be responsible for revamping www.premierleague.com and building a single native mobile application for the world’s most famous soccer league. The goal of the mobile app will be to focus on key features and functions across existing Premier League properties for iOS, Android and Windows platforms.
This partnership makes a lot of sense as Pulselive has a successful track record with designing and building the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup website and official mobile app which received 4.5m app downloads and record traffic for the sport. Pulselive also designed and built the 2015 Rugby World Cup website as part of the World Rugby partnership. So this partnership with the Premier League seems to be a natural extension of Pulselive’s ability to build out the digital properties for some of the most global sports in the world.
The new platforms that Pulselive will launch for the Premier League are going to combine Fantasy Premier League, live data, social media, video and statistics with localized content to help the Premier League’s 1.2 billion global fans access specific content about their favorite clubs.
Martin Axford, Head of Digital at the Premier League, commented in a press release: “We’re very pleased to announce this digital partnership. Pulselive have a proven track record and their appointment ensures the Premier League’s digital and mobile properties will serve our fans locally and globally as well as complementing our clubs’ own sites and channels.”
Pulselive’s Managing Director, Wyndham Richardson added: “We are thrilled to be working in partnership with the Premier League to maximise the value of their digital platforms in order to serve the wider objectives of the Premier League and respective clubs. At the very heart of this redevelopment is the mission to help fans get closer to the football.”
This is also a big move for Hawk-Eye’s digital division as they are already a leading global sports technology company. Hawk-eye got it’s start as a broadcast tool to analyze close calls in Cricket, and has since grown to have its tech monitor 17 sports and 3,600 games or events across 400+ stadiums in over 50 countries every year.
As for the Premier League, this is a major move that shows a forward-thinking commitment to enhance their League’s digital platforms. Which is a key move for any globally recognized sports brand that has fans covering the globe.