Manage 1.000+ unique club sites with one multisite solution.
Introduction
Bridge is a popular sport in the Netherlands. There are approximately 1,050 bridge clubs with around 100,000 members affiliated with the Dutch Bridge Federation (Bridge Bond). A well-functioning website is therefore essential to inform and connect all members and to grow the community.
The original custom-made website did not meet the requirements. The site struggled with performance issues at the most important times of the week, match nights. In addition, posting content and creating events were too complex.
The solution turned out to be twofold, a club site generator for the Bridge Bond and an accessible CMS for the webmaster of the club. Thanks to the club site generator, each club now has its own separate website and peak loads on match nights are a thing of the past. These sites can easily be filled with a user-friendly CMS, even by webmasters with little digital skills. With this scalable multisite solution, the Bridge Bond is ready for the growth they want to achieve.
Customer
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Peak load, downtime and complex content management
The Bridge Bond offers a platform on which more than 1,050 clubs and their approximately 100,000 members can compete with each other and share knowledge and results. In addition, the webmasters of the clubs keep the specific club content up to date and coordinate events.
The former situation cause some problems for the users. Clubs often play matches on the same evenings, resulting in downtime as soon as the members check their scores on the site at the same time. Also, posting content and organizing events was too complex for the webmasters, who are often active at their club on a voluntary basis. That is why, together with the Bridge Bond, we looked for a way to offer each club their own easy-to-manage site that can handle the enormous peak load.
Each club site has its own CMS and user-friendly interface
To begin with, we mapped out the wishes of the federation, members, and clubs. This led to the development of the club site generator. Thanks to this solution, each club site runs in its own ‘Kubernetes’ container, and the traffic on game nights is no longer processed centrally, but on each site separately. End of peak load!
The next step was to focus on usability. Thanks to the club site generator’s management app, new club sites can be created within a few clicks, equipped with their own CMS and log in. This CMS has been redesigned and fully focused on the knowledge level of voluntary and often older content managers at the clubs.
We also built an advanced event wizard based on the feedback. In fact, there are many different types of bridge events; with possibilities too complex to summarize in one screen. Thanks to the wizard, it is now possible for everyone to create events. Management is also the responsibility of the organizer, rather than the webmaster, and that makes a big difference to this voluntary content manager.
Multisite solution for sports federations
As a sports federation, uniting the members and promoting the sport has probably got the highest priority. A multisite solution will help you achieve those goals. With our tool, you can easily centralize communication while maintaining the individuality of each club. Curious about the other features and benefits?
Over a thousand unique club sites combined on one platform
By using the club site generator, the Bridge Bond is finally able to run every game night without any problems. The more than 1,050 easily created club sites run stably in their own Kubernetes container.
The sites are provided with the most up-to-date information and events because even non-technical users can now effortlessly add content. Due to the scalability, the reach of this solution en with that the reach of the sport, can only increase in the future.
Dotlab always thinks along. There is always someone ready to help us. Thanks to their technical knowledge, we now have a user-friendly platform that can withstand large crowds.
High-tech, user-friendly solution with complex functionality
This solution consists of a specially designed Kubernetes cluster. With Helm charts and Docker the possibility has been created to give all club sites a separate (hosted) website. Thanks to the Kubernetes cluster, new features are rolled out fully automatically across more than 1000 websites, without downtime. By providing the club sites with a strong UX design, smart APIs, integrations, and a Single Sign-On (SSO) server, we created an optimal user experience.
The membership administration is connected to the central management app via APIs. When a new club registers, the website is automatically created. Then the SuperAdmin, together with the webmaster of the new club, can prepare the website for launch. The data of club members and competition are also fully automatically arranged and continuously updated via connections with the membership administration.
A very extensive wizard and the SSO account is the solution for the organization and management of events. Any member can now create an event, while the publication remains in the hands of specific roles. After publication, the organizer can communicate all matters surrounding the event with participants via the application.
A smart plugin with SSO connection only publishes the events on the relevant websites. This way members only see the events for which they can register. That keeps the information clear.
