Rugby league is celebrating a significant breakthrough after its Our League platform and membership scheme registered 200,000 members.
The Rugby Football League’s fan-focused system for not only supporters, but players, coaches, volunteers and viewers was launched in Autumn 2017. The Our League membership was launched with digital experience platform InCrowd and allows rugby league to be streamed.
The news comes as the English Super League embarked on its Grand Final week.
RFL chief commercial officer Mark Foster said: “This is a great way to start a huge week of rugby league. The news came through that we had passed 200,000 members during Our League’s coverage of the thrilling Betfred League 1 Play-Off between Keighley Cougars and Doncaster.
“It’s been an amazing journey since we launched Our League with InCrowd in the autumn of 2017. Our 200,000-plus members come from 154 countries, and all 124 postal areas in the UK.”
Clips of Our League coverage of Doncaster’s last-gasp winning try and resulting touchline conversion have generated almost 100,000 views across the RFL’s digital channels.
Foster added: “Having our own OTT platform was a crucial resource for the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing clubs to stream behind closed doors fixtures to their fans – and it continues to provide us with the ability to stream all sort of rugby league matches and formats to fans, as well as engaging fans with predictions, Player of the Match votes and competitions.
“That was shown again at the weekend with the National Try Tag Festival and the Women’s Championship Final, as well as the League 1 Play-Off – which had our best viewing figures this season for a League 1 fixture. And next weekend we hope to beat that with the Play-Off Final between Workington Town and Doncaster on Sunday lunchtime.
“Beyond that, we’ve got exciting plans for 2022 – especially with the app to be taken over by RLWC2021 in the autumn.”
Darren Parsons, senior account and insights manager at InCrowd, said: “This significant milestone is perfectly timed with Our League’s fourth anniversary this month, and before some great end-of-season drama this week.
“Our League continues to evolve with exciting new developments in the near future and even more to follow ahead of the 2022 season as well as the rescheduled RLWC2021 next autumn. It was fantastic to see the platform brilliantly placed to support the RFL and Super League, allowing them to stay connected to fans throughout the pandemic in 2020 and into 2021 and we look forward to our further collaboration in delivering truly innovative and data-powered experiences to rugby league fans and participants.”
Image: Jiachen Lin on Unsplash
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