Australia – Local football club Sydney FC has tapped content management system (CMS) company Storyblok to create digital experiences to boost fan engagement amongst its club and reignite their enthusiasm.

For this partnership, the football club worked closely with Herbert Digital, a Storyblok Certified Partner, to build a digital stadium experience with Storyblok in 4 months.

Along with being the main source of content for everything about Sydney FC, the website features an ‘Experience Selector’ that enables fans to pick the best seats for their circumstances and the atmosphere they want to enjoy.

Sydney FC only planned to use the website for the initial return to the stadium, but after seeing this success and experiencing how easy and cost-effective it is to manage content with Storyblok, they decided to continue using it as their primary membership hub.

Jeremy Butler​, head of consumer business, marketing and content at Sydney FC, said, “We were under intense time pressure to create relevant content for the website. The intuitive design of Storyblok was effective in allowing our content team to approach the project with minimal training.”

He added, “We, as marketers, can independently change the content without having to involve developers. This, combined with the ability to view changes in real-time, allowed us to achieve our objective ahead of the deadline.”

Meanwhile, Dominik Angerer, co-Founder and CEO of Storyblok, said, “Great digital experiences generate excitement far beyond the devices that they live on. Sydney FC has been able to use compelling content to drive action by their fans, leading to record revenue and attendance. This is a winning strategy, both on and off the pitch.”

Sydney, Australia – Video game company Epic Games has announced that three of Australia’s known football leagues have teamed with the company in bringing the sport to life in the battle royale game ‘Fortnite’, alongside other 20 football teams around the world.

Melbourne City FC, Sydney FC, and Western Sydney Wanderers are the three Australian-based football teams participating in this endeavor, united under the A-League.

The partnership will see an upcoming feature on Fortnite, where players can choose from 10 different variants of new ‘Kickoff Set’ outfits to represent their favorite club in-game. The newest addition to the game include outfits based on the participating 23 global football teams, and game emotes, including a ‘Fancy Footwork’ dribbling emote and the iconic ‘Pel’és Air Punch’ based off the Brazilian footballer Pelé.

“The partnership between the A-League and Epic Games is an incredible opportunity to promote our clubs and League to millions of Fortnite players in Australia and around the world. It will put the A-League alongside some of the biggest international clubs such as Man City in the English Premier League, Santos in the Brasileirão and the MLS’ Seattle Sounders,” said Danny Townsend, commercial lead for the Australian Professional Leagues and CEO of Sydney FC.

He added, “There is a significant demographic overlap between the youth audience who love football and those who play Fortnite – this partnership takes us to where our fans are and create new opportunities to engage with the global game.”

Players can now join also in the upcoming Pelé Cup in Fortnite, where players can earn rewards, visit the Creative Hub for an immersive football experience throughout the week, and join select clubs around the world in hosted Fortnite tournaments.

“Football is consistently one of the top sports that our players tell us they want to see and experience in Fortnite. We’re excited to partner with Melbourne City FC, Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers to bring ‘the beautiful game ’to Fortnite fans around the world as they face off in competitive tournaments, experience new creative modes of gameplay, and celebrate global football,” the head of global partnerships at Epic Games Nate Nanzer said. 

The feature will be available on Sunday, January 24 as the A-League will also host its own Fortnite tournament on January 27 with a mix of A-League players, fans, and Fortnite creators battling for exclusive Fortnite and A-League prize packs.