16.09.19
by Editorial Staff
16.09.19
by Editorial Staff
Collaboration unites renowned sports technology pioneers as Deltatre's award-winning publishing platform "Forge" backs MLB's global network of digital destinations.
Los Angeles, Calif. - 16 September 2019 - Deltatre, the global sports media services specialist, has partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) to have its award-winning publishing platform back the league’s global network of nearly 300 digital destinations. Powered by “Forge,” MLB developers of every site across the digital ecosystem can draw upon these state-of-the-art tools and resources, informed by decades of front-line experience delivering an incomparable range of live sports media to every screen and platform worldwide. Further, these renowned sports media technology pioneers together will develop and introduce new platform features as part of the league’s on-going engagement strategy through a renewed blending of fan experience and innovation.
Forge was selected by Major League Baseball in 2018 after a global search to replace the incumbent technology and effectively complete a full transition for Opening Day 2019 – a mere six months for onboarding one of the Internet’s most trafficked sports destinations. After the transition was successfully completed, fans have experienced improved reliability, load efficiency and media integrations.
Traffic increases to the MLB digital network across key touchpoints throughout the 2019 season demonstrate how the technology transition, when combined with MLB’s new content creation strategies and the addition of new tools for the distribution of this content, spurred these experiential successes, particularly in times where scale is required for daily live games and major events on the MLB calendar. On Opening Day, MLB’s platforms drew 9.5 million sessions, including mobile web, which saw a 9% increase from 2018. More recently, these sites drew 5% more sessions for the T-Mobile Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game Presented by Mastercard than the previous year and the largest day ever in readers to MLB content as fans followed the Trade Deadline stories in real-time on July 31.
Additional phases of the integration process across the remaining network of digital platforms will continue over the coming months. Ultimately, individual developers and producers at the league, team and partner levels will be able to tap into Forge’s current leading-edge content production, promotion, and monetization functionality.
This effort is underpinned by Forge - a platform that reached a combined 750 million unique visitors in 2018 alone, supported 50 million downloads of Deltatre-built apps and facilitates the publication of over 50,000 pieces of content per month. Forge is currently used by many of the largest sports leagues, federations and broadcasters around the world.
“On every device they carry, fans expect to have access to the information they’re seeking in an efficient and reliable manner. In Forge we have a new, powerful resource that allows us to be nimble and agile in a fast-paced environment, to get stories as quickly as possible from the stadium and to the fan. It’s a tool that is crafted from deep, front-line intelligence from the world of sports and helps us exceed fans’ expectations,” said Gregg Klayman, Senior Vice President, Content, MLB. “We’re now looking ahead to how we will build on this to give our teams and partners the most sophisticated, and intuitive set of development tools to serve fans wherever and however they consume baseball.”
Andrea Marini, Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, added: “MLB is an American hallmark. It has been at the forefront of fan-first digital properties for years. We look forward to jointly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in that regard, designing an engaging and tailored experience that can exceed the expectations of baseball fans in the future.”
The announcement follows a record-breaking year for Deltatre, which saw the sports media technology provider open a new development center in Salt Lake City and acquire Massive Interactive, the targeted OTT user experience management vendor.