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CASE STUDY: How Fobi Helped bdG Sports Stay Operational Through the Pandemic

Written by Fobi | Apr 27, 2021 12:00:20 AM

Client Profile

bdG Sports is a representation, event management, and public relations firm operating on an international platform within the sports marketing industry. bdG manages multiple college basketball and college hockey events in the United States each season with events in Southwest Florida, Las Vegas, Canada and The Bahamas as well as two Korn Ferry Tour events and the Nike Golf Invitational series.

 

The Problem

Responding to pandemic restrictions on travel and public gatherings, the sports industry pivoted to prioritize streaming and maximizing sponsor value through digital fan engagement channels. For sports industry operators like bdG, the challenge was twofold:

 

Challenge #1

Create a safe environment for sporting events to occur that complies with health guidelines and minimizes exposure risk for attendees.

Challenge #2

Monetize fans by driving sponsor value with digital fan engagement in lieu of ticket sales and in-stadium ads.

To successfully address these challenges, bdG was seeking:

 

  • A way to quickly and reliably deploy secure, on-site event bubbles over all event attendees, including players, staff, officials, and fans.
  • Automated access validation, exposure tracing, and alert notifications in the case of exposure risk.
  • A way to capture fan data and generate sponsor revenue with fan engagement after the event.

Fobi's Solution


WATCH: bdG Chairman & CEO Brooks Downing talks about his first 2 event bubbles with Fobi.

 

 

“Without Fobi, plus the right testing protocols put in place, we don’t have tournaments. That simple.”

In order to conduct business under pandemic conditions, bdG needed a way to quickly and reliably contain all event attendees, event staff, and their frequented locations within a secure, access-controlled bubble for an event’s duration.

To address these needs, Fobi created an end-to-end Venue Management solution that integrated with on-site COVID-19 testing data to enable automated on-location access control, check-ins, exposure tracing, and alerts.

Fobi’s solution creates an access pass based on mobile wallet technology, so users can quickly add the pass to the preexisting mobile wallet on their phone without having to download an app. 

Because Fobi’s Venue Management solution uses the same IoT technology stack powering its real time customer Insights & mobile Engagement solutions, the same platform used to segment users and trigger contextual alerts can be used as a powerful, personalized mobile marketing channel on users’ devices, presenting a compelling use case for sports industry operators seeking new ways to engage fans and generate sponsor value from fans.

Results

Employing Fobi’s Venue Management solution, bdG hosted three NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments, each in their own event bubble.  At the Las Vegas event in November 2020, the bubble protocols were used to identify and isolate two suspected cases among bdG’s staff.  These suspected cases were later revealed as false positives.  All 3 events were concluded without a single case of infection or transmission on site.

 


WATCH: Fobi's Business Development Executive Mike Canevaro recaps Fobi’s event bubble deployments with bdG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fobi and bdG’s event bubbles to date

2020 NCAA Gulf Coast Showcase

Date: November 25-29, 2020
 

Secured Locations

  • Accommodations: Hyatt Regency Coconut Point, Ft. Myers, FL.
  • Venue: Hertz Arena, Ft. Myers, FL.
  • Ground transportation & other checkpoints.

Total Enrolled Users: 284

Total Check-ins: 1,921

Total Cases of Infection: 0

2020 MGM Resorts Main Event

Date: November 20-22, 2020
 

Secured Locations

  • Accommodations: MGM Resorts Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV.
  • Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV.
  • Ground transportation & other checkpoints.

Total Enrolled Users: 269

Total Check-ins: 1,899

Total Cases of Infection: 0

2021 Big West Tournament

Date: March 09-13, 2020
 

Secured Locations

  • Accommodations: MGM Resorts Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV.
  • Venue: Michelob Ultra Arena, Las Vegas, NV.
  • Ground transportation & other checkpoints.

Total Enrolled Users: 547

Total Check-ins: 3,725

Total Cases of Infection: 0

What's Next

During 3 event bubbles, Fobi’s Venue Management solution demonstrated its suitability for rapid deployment in situations where reliability is critical.

Building on these successes, bdG selected Fobi to provide the event management solution at the MGM Resorts Championship golf tournament at Paiute from April 15-18, 2021 featuring a full field of 156 players ..

UPDATE

Fobi has concluded its Venue Management implementation at the 2021 MGM Resorts Championship Golf Tournament at Paiute.  Read the full report here.

 
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