The Playeasy Highlight Reel
What a year! In 2021, Playeasy played harder and grew stronger. Throughout the year, we forged new partnerships, attended sports conferences, implemented new groundbreaking product features like analytics, and learned so much from our customers along the way. Here’s our highlight reel, a collection of the year’s biggest moments at Playeasy.
By the Numbers: Ending the Year Strong
Let’s check out the numbers for the year. Here’s how things started in January 2021 compared to where we are now as we close out the year:
Transforming the Industry with New Teammates
We joined forces with industry leaders to enhance the future of sports. Here’s a look at our partnerships:
Sports ETA – In January, we started the year strong announcing our monumental partnership with SportsETA, a collaboration that will lay the foundation for the future of sports tourism. The partnership connects Playeasy’s online marketing, market analysis and lead generation software platform to Sports ETA’s established network of sports destinations, industry partners, and facilities and rights holders.
Threshold 360 – In April, our partnership with Threshold360 went live, allowing our customers to implement immersive Threshold Virtual Tours within their Playeasy profiles. Threshold 360 is the leading platform for 360° virtual tour creation and delivery in the Hospitality & Tourism industries, and adding their technology to Playeasy will help accelerate the sports events & tourism industry in an increasingly digital post-pandemic world.
TeamSnap – Flash forward to October, we announced our strategic partnership with TeamSnap. This collaboration lays the foundation for the amateur sports industry’s first-ever event marketplace; an immersive two-sided marketplace which surfaces thousands of events created on Playeasy to TeamSnap’s highly engaged audience of over 6,000 sports organizations, 160,000 monthly active teams, and 25 million parents, players, and fans.
Building a New Playbook
Behind the scenes, our product was our biggest playmaker. Here’s what we built:
Venue Marketplace – We set off to create one digital space to organize a city/state’s venue inventory in one place to expand your reach. The Venue Marketplace hosts our inventory of 13,000+ sports facilities on Playeasy. You can search & filter venues on Playeasy, and can use this tool to learn more about event organizers that post events in your area. If you would like to start the relationship directly, you can message them right from our platform.
RFPs – Event organizers submit RFPs that connect to destinations and venues to consistently give them fresh, new, qualified leads. Destinations and venues can learn more about the event and message the event organizer right from Playeasy!
Analytics – With Playeasy Analytics, we introduced your very own metrics page to provide you with tangible evidence on your growth. With this feature, users can measure the quantity and quality of visitors to your profile with key metrics including total profile views, unique visitors, viewing time, profile views by region, and more.
Posting – We listened to your voices and knew your own stories and announcements deserved their own space on our platform. So, we released Playeasy Posting, allowing our customers to create their own posts to advertise on the Playeasy newsfeed, the largest network for sports tourism. With a click of a button you can tell your story, reach your target audience, and generate leads.
Event Marketing – Why not build a portfolio of your successes? Gain credibility with your target audience by marketing your events. Each of your marketed events will be aggregated and displayed on your Event Organizer or Destination profile, seamlessly ensuring your organization profile is always up-to-date for interested customers and partners to review.
Away Games
Throughout the year, our team attended multiple conferences and visited some of our partner cities. We were excited to meet many of our partners in person and celebrate the return of sports. Here’s a quick replay:
Connect – In September, we wrapped up our summer with a fantastic week at Connect sharing why sporting events start with Playeasy! Our team loved meeting with event organizers, catching up with our destination and state partners, and hosting a joint happy hour with Threshold 360. Check out some photos from the conference floor and our happy hour with surprise guest Ric Flair!
TEAMS – Ryan Quigley, Co-Founder & Head of Event Organizers, traveled to Atlantic City in September for the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s leading conference and expo for the sports-event industry.
“It was a pleasure to meet with both destinations and event organizers at this world-class conference in Atlantic City. It’s always a pleasure to see familiar faces and make new connections. Sharing Playeasy’s story and mission will always be exciting!”
Ryan Quigley | Co-Founder, GM: Event Organizers
Sports ETA – In October, the team headed down to Birmingham, AL for Sports ETA’s annual Symposium. After nearly two years apart, we had a great time meeting with our partners in person to discuss the future of Playeasy. We were also able to make new connections with Destinations & Event Organizers and share why Playeasy is the future of Sports Tourism. Continue reading to hear some highlights from Symposium 2021.
“Our team had a great time this year at Sports ETA. We always look forward to attending Sports ETA’s Annual Symposium, but this year was extra special as we were finally able to connect with our partners in person. It was inspiring to hear all of the great things they’re doing in each of their communities, and we were excited to share our future plans for Playeasy! We are looking forward to connecting again soon in Fort Worth.”
Kerri Shields, Co-Founder | President | CPO
US Sports Congress – Wrapping up the year, our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Flaherty visited Frisco, Texas for the annual US Sports Congress Event.
“It was great getting to connect with some of the best in the sports event space in a more intimate and relaxed environment at US Sports Congress,” said Sean Flaherty. “It’s a great conference to really get to know people, and Frisco was the perfect host for the event.”
Wrapping it Up
We’re so grateful to Techstars, Sports ETA, Threshold 360, TeamSnap, and all of the incredible destinations and event organizers that we’ve worked with over the past year to help Playeasy grow. This is just the beginning. We’re excited to continue to innovate together as we bring our vision for the sporting event industry to life. We’re still thinking bigger and writing a new playbook. Playeasy will tee off in the new year with more momentum than ever, simplifying and expanding your business in new ways we have built from the ground up. You won’t want to miss this. Stay tuned for a part 2 of this post in the new year where we will be sharing about all of the updates to come.
Thank you for being here with us. We’re honored to be a part of your story. Here’s to more sports, more events, and new connections in 2022!
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