We launched the GameDay brand at the start of 2021.
Nearly 12 months on, I’m pausing to reflect on what a year it was, and also look to what “GameDay” is going to mean in 2022 and beyond.

Launching new products

The GameDay brand is just a small part of the whole story, but it’s the public face of a larger body of ongoing work that goes back several years, to produce a ‘grow your sport’ platform that is best of breed in terms of UI/UX, security, flexibility, ease of administration, powerful insights, and ability to connect in all the tools from our labs and our many partners in the wider GameDay innovation ecosystem.
In 2021 we showed you just the start of a number of those new facets of GameDay. Among the bigger announcements were our launches of industry firsts, including:
  • Insights: Our partnership with Sisense – “GameDay View” delivering real insights to sports for the first time.
  • Flexibility: Our multi-partner payment solutions with PayPal, Openpay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, among others, providing huge flexibility to support sport right when they needed it the most.
  • Diversity: Our important support for gender diversity, adopting best practice, in partnership with Pride in Sport, whose work enriches our community and saves lives everyday.
In 2022 we’ll be further deploying the power of GameDay to connect up all the parts of the wider sporting community. 
GameDay sporting partners will grow from strength to strength in their ability to understand, engage with, and grow their whole community of participants and deeper stakeholders – the first part of a wider project that we’re calling GameDay Destination.

Our fast-growing business

We’ve been busy adding new sports and sporting bodies to our platforms & community.
In 2021, we welcomed (or welcomed back) onto live GameDay platforms 15 new governing bodies, among them the International Bowling Federation, Hong Kong Rugby Union, Cricket Ireland and Football Australia, representing thousands of individual clubs, volunteers and players now engaging via GameDay. 
That global coverage is no accident either.
We’ve seen our business grow in all parts of the world; while we started in Australia almost 20 years ago, 60% of our new signings are now outside of Australia, something we expect to continue in 2022 as we continue to invest heavily in our people and our partners in the EMEA and greater APAC regions.
While we have tonnes of growth statistics in our business, one I’m particularly proud of is our new charity auctions team, in partnership with Commerce Dynamics, this year generated more than AU$1.5M in funding for clubs and their related charities, including the UEFA Foundation fund for children. 
We now work with more than 22 elite marquee sporting foundations across the world.

Welcoming new solution partners

Of course, none of our achievements would be possible without our solution partners all working away in their own labs and using the power of GameDay to connect into Sports.
In 2021, we gave our partner programme an official structure and presence in our business; GameDay Marketplace. 
By the end of this year, GameDay Marketplace will have grown to more than 30 amazing businesses, all united in our common purpose of helping sports administer and grow sports.
In 2022, our Marketplace will be truly open for business with lots more trial offers, learning opportunities and even the ‘come and try’ days that are our Direction of Sport in the Digital Age events – pre-register your interest here.

Welcoming new community partner customers

Equally, nothing ever happens without our GameDay customer partners – the governing bodies, leagues and clubs who have chosen to work with GameDay.
In 2021 we decided to formalise – and celebrate – some of our longer standing customer partnerships, announcing GameDay Community Partnerships with Basketball New South Wales, Little Athletics, the Senior Metro Leagues of AFL Community Football, as well as the South Metro Junior Football League and Rugby Football League, which will see us working together on GameDay solutions into 2022 and beyond.
The Community Partners Programme is free, and places our customers right at the centre of our product roadmap via our popular C2C (Concept to Customer) programme, an expression of the human-centred design principles that power our innovation and R&D investment.
Community Partners now also benefit from preferred pricing across our platform and our wider partner ecosystem.

Our people

And what lies at the heart of all this work of course is our people; our developers, testers, sys ops and product specialists, our customer success people, our sports specialists, our project people, our commercial team and our finance and admin, all of whom have had to work smarter and harder over the past year and more, working from home and from offices flung all around the world, tight deadlines and tighter resources, all to stay focussed on giving back to sports at a time when they needed us most.
What can I say except they’ve done it in style.
Each of our team has shown more dedication, more concern for others, more inventiveness, more camaraderie and more openness than any business deserves.
And so while I’d like to close by saying a heartfelt thanks to all our partners, our customers, our supporters, and even our honest detractors and critics, I’d like to save my greatest thanks to the 2021 GameDay team. 
Thank you and I look forward to kicking off with you all in 2022!

Achieve big things in 2022 – reach out to a member of the GameDay team!