Manchester City Scores Big with GlobalLogic

Online sports betting has taken off since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized professional and amateur sports betting in May of 2018. Globally, the most popular sport to bet on is football (soccer to those in the U.S.), making up 70% of the legal—and illegal—wagering, according to Sports Encyclopedia. The NFL receives the second-highest number of bets worldwide, with basketball, tennis, and cricket rounding out the top five. Because of the legal betting surge, sports betting companies have inundated the 58.9bn USD market with consumer-oriented services through the development of feature-rich applications and supporting platforms. In addition, many of these companies embraced a digital product engineering approach to create sophisticated sports betting platforms and software.

Manchester City Football Club 

Founded in 1880, Manchester City Football Club (FC), an English football club in Manchester competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football. They won the Premier League championship in 2018 and all four domestic trophies in England in 2019. The Club wasn’t in the market to facilitate sports betting. Still, they were desirous of improving their online sports fan platform, Cityzens. Unfortunately, the platform garnered lackluster engagement after its debut, and they turned to a partner with Method, – the strategic design arm of GlobalLogic that specialized in digital product engineering for sports & entertainment industry.

Winning with Method

Method is well versed in innovating new products and transforming existing ones. Teaming up with Manchester City FC, they recognized that Cityzens, the first football membership platform focused on digital channels, was an amazing idea that hadn’t come into its own. Research led to the concept of a global fan platform that rewards fans’ loyalty while empowering them with a social tool to create and connect an active, global community. The Manchester City Football Club worked hand-in-hand with Method and GlobalLogic to define, design, build and relaunch the upgraded platform. Our teams at Method and GlobalLogic took a user-centered design approach from the start. As well offered services, including Data Strategy, Experience Design, Product Design, Prototyping, Research & Insights, and Software Engineering.

The platform was relaunch in less than six months and resulted in better understanding of fans’ loyalty and engagement at global scale, reaching approximately 1 million fans worldwide in the first month. The design centered on user experience or UX, but it didn’t forget the analytical needs of Manchester City FC. The admin console provides the Club with the “tools to analyze engagement and behavioral analytics, empowering the club to continually optimize the experience for users—the first football club to do so.”

Success for the Sports Betting Industry

With Manchester City FC, Method and GlobalLogic converted their great idea into a solid, high-performance platform that engages their users and grows their community. We can do the same for sports betting companies and their online sports betting services.

Companies within the sports betting industry, can take advantage of our services (and more) as we partner with them to create, develop, and launch their consumer-oriented services by developing feature-rich applications and betting platforms. (Learn more about this via our recent blog, “5 Things Your Online Gamer is Struggling with Right Now”). 

GlobalLogic CEO Shashank Samant says, “We help our clients design and build innovative products, platforms, and digital experiences for the modern world.”

To learn more, visit the Method website or contact us today. Let’s work together to build the exceptional.