Case Study: USA Water Polo and Sport:80

When USA Water Polo approached us, it became clear that they needed a Platform with an easy-to-use and efficient rostering system for their tournaments and leagues.

Having configured our technology to suit their specific needs, we delivered a solution that is making roster registration up to five times quicker for their members.

Time to stop wasting time

While USA Water Polo’s former membership and events platform supported rostering, the user experience was making it difficult to use, negatively impacting customer service, and creating additional workload for their coaches and teams. Its dated appearance created an experience that was off-putting and confusing to users.

We were able to configure bespoke rostering functionality that was slicker and more efficient than their previous solution, within a Platform that was much easier to use.

“A process that was previously taking our users 10-15 minutes per roster is now only taking them two or three minutes,” said Katie Wieber, Director of Events at USA Water Polo.

“There are around 300 tournaments a year and participating teams must enter a roster, or multiple rosters, for each one, so the rostering part of our process is really important.

“Our old system was able to do all of that, but one of the big complaints that we constantly received was that every time someone was trying to submit a roster into the system, they basically had to start from scratch.

“One of the huge benefits of the Sport:80 Platform is that it has given our members the ability to save previous rosters, and so the amount of time the new system saves for them is huge.

“They enter their teams for so many different tournaments throughout the season, and some of our clubs have 10 or 12 rosters they enter for each tournament.

"Overall you’re looking at potentially hours of time saved for some of these clubs."

“This has been a huge breath of fresh air for our coaches, who are all starting to see where this partnership can go, and they are getting very excited about it.”

How we adapted our tech to meet their needs

The rostering solution is just one part of a long-term project to transform USA Water Polo’s digital capabilities, and that evolution is still in the early stages with many more exciting developments yet to come.

What has made this project so exciting is that it has presented us with an opportunity to demonstrate how different components within our technology can be adapted, and has enabled us to develop functionality that will benefit both the NGB and its members.

Our COO, Jonny Turner, explained why this partnership has been so special to us. He said: “Having never worked within the sport of Water Polo before, we were very excited to get involved in this project as it represented a great opportunity for us to learn about their sport and its specific needs.

“We know that every sport has its own nuances, and it is always interesting for us to get into the detail about what those specifics are, and how we can help.

“After our initial conversations and having met the fantastic and passionate people at USA Water Polo, it only made us more excited to get stuck in and support them in their journey, but it was clear that we needed to adapt our technology to do this.

“The rostering functionality was highlighted as a critical business function and an area that USA Water Polo stressed was of the highest importance to get right for their membership, as well as their own internal operation.

“Although we had worked with team sports previously, the way USA Water Polo wanted the rostering module to function provided a fantastic opportunity for us to completely rebuild our capabilities in that department to suit their specific needs.

“It’s really pleasing for us to see them getting so much out of the solution already, and we’ll always be grateful to USA Water Polo for putting their trust in us to deliver a tool that not only works well for the Water Polo community, but can be offered to any of the other sports using our technology.

“As with everything we do, the work never stops and I'm sure with the progressive and innovative team at USA Water Polo we will continue to advance our capabilities to better serve the community.”

We developed the rostering solution for USA Water Polo alongside the standard functionality that comes with the Sport:80 Platform, and it helped to provide a far more intuitive experience for their members.

It also became clear early on that their Junior Olympics event was extremely important, and they needed a system in place that was able to cope with the demands of a large competition.

“With over a thousand teams participating, the Junior Olympics is huge for us,” said Katie.

The rostering system for the event was quite complex, as it needed functionality to enter teams to both qualifying and finals events in different divisions.

Previously, they were utilising a dual registration system, so teams were having to do two separate roster registrations for the event. Not only did this take more time than was necessary, but it was also very difficult to navigate and was a complicated process for users.

Our Platform streamlined this and provided a solution where each team only had to create one registration for the whole tournament.

“The new system is not only far easier to use but takes half as long to operate. It makes it a lot easier on us and a lot easier for the end user.”

A partnership that benefits everyone

This is yet another example of an effective collaborative project between us and one of our partners.

We continue to have weekly meetings to discuss how the Platform is developing, allowing us to manage multiple projects and developments to support USA Water Polo in improving and scaling its digital services.

Thanks to the fantastic relationship and collaboration between our two organisations, USA Water Polo have a Platform in place that is beginning to make the lives of their users easier, and according to Katie, they are already feeling the benefits.

“It’s been great working with Sport:80, and their Customer Success Team have been especially helpful when it comes to trying to understand our needs.

“They’ve taken the time to get a good grasp of our organisation and get into the nitty gritty of what we need to work well.

“It required a lot of custom functionality, but now I’m really happy with where we are.”

Even more significantly, though, is the way that this partnership has benefitted the wider Sport:80 community.

Having delivered to the specific requirements of USA Water Polo, the rostering functionality can be adopted by other organisations who need something similar in place.

As the USA Water Polo Platform continues develop, it will only have a positive knock-on effect to everyone else using Sport:80 technologies.

To learn more about what we do here at Sport:80, or to enquire about how we can help you, get in touch!