Sporting operations and teams move fast, but the underlying tech stack is often a collection of disconnected platforms.
There’s a ticketing platform in one corner, access control in another, retail somewhere else and inevitably a tonne of legacy spreadsheets struggling to keep up. Our mission at Art of Cloud has always been simple: seamlessly link your existing tech directly into Salesforce so everything talks to each other, speeding up your operations and furnishing your commercial teams with accurate, real time data they can actually use.
In our ten years experience working with sporting clients from esports, betting, football, rugby and Formula 1, we’ve seen firsthand the varied, and sometimes unique challenges these organisations face. Here are just a few examples of how we put our in-house expertise and skills to use by solving long term headaches with innovative solutions…
The SeatGeek Connection: Direct sync without the expensive ‘Middleman’
The challenge
SeatGeek is used by sporting organisations around the world, but connecting it directly to Salesforce traditionally requires expensive third-party middleware: an additional platform sitting between the two systems.
This can introduce extra licence costs, more technology to maintain and delays in data transfer. During high volume periods like match days, slow or unreliable data flows can leave commercial and marketing teams working with information that’s already out of date.
Our solution
– We designed and built a native ‘SeatGeek-to-Salesforce’ connector specifically designed for sporting organisations.
– No separate middleware layer: Reducing unnecessary technology and costs
– Built for scale: Designed to handle huge matchday data volume without hitting platform limits
– Resilient by design: Automated recovery and retry mechanisms to help protect data and keep information flowing even when there is a problem
– In the right place at the right time: Ticketing information becomes available within Salesforce alongside wider customer, marketing and commercial data – a full 360 view.
We put this connector through its paces alongside our long-time client, AFC Bournemouth, using real operational requirements and data volumes. The result is a reliable connection that gives faster access to the ticketing information they need, without relying on yet another technology.
Sponsorship Management Tool: Multi-year allocation and delivery tracking
The Challenge
Partnership and Sponsorship teams often find themselves heavily reliant upon manual, clunky and high risk spreadsheets, with no one really knowing which version is the most up to date. Therefore, producing an accurate view of available inventory, contracted rights or outstanding delivery obligations can involve lengthy email chains, multiple manual checks or yet another meeting.
The ‘default’ solution had been to invest heavily in third party platforms, meaning additional licence costs, limited flexibility and support.
Our Solution
– Our Technical Architect and Solution Architect combined their expertise with our in house deep understanding of the sports organisations to design and build a custom multi-year solution, from scratch, which sits directly inside Salesforce.
– Live asset tracking and allocation: Sales teams can instantly see what assets are available, what’s on hold and what’s already been allocated.
– Multi-year management: Rights and assets can be quickly allocated across different seasons and contract years, all from one screen
– Clearer reporting: Management gains accurate visibility of inventory, delivery status and asset value.
– Cost efficiency: The tool sits within Salesforce, reducing the need for another standalone platform and subsequent integration.
We’ve deployed this solution across Premier League football clubs and incredible Formula 1 teams to resounding success.
Our clients have reported substantial time savings, better internal collaboration and improved visibility throughout every stage of the sponsorship lifecycle. That supports quicker sales and renewals while helping the club deliver an overall better experience for their partners.
Integration should create commercial value
Successful integrations and tools aren’t simply about moving data from one system to another.
It’s about giving people the right information at the right time: helping a salesperson better understand a customer, enabling a partnership manager to track every contracted benefit and giving finance teams live visibility of commercial performance.
If ticketing, sponsorship, finance or any customer data remains disconnected within your sporting organisation, we can help you map the gaps and build a Salesforce eco-system that supports the way your teams actually work.
