Overview
The XFL was a brand new, fan-first league that reimagined the game of football; offering fans an opportunity to experience more action, access and fun.
Business Objective
In a very short timeframe, the XFL needed to build a real-time stat system that could provide their fans with easy access to live in-game content. The website needed to be mobile-friendly, and update in real-time so their fans could have a way to digitally follow the game they love. In addition, the system had to seamlessly tie into the existing XFL.com website and access data from their external partners. They also needed an entire infrastructure built to host the site, and support their many thousands of concurrent users.
“In December of 2019, with the kick-off of the XFL’s inaugural season just a handful of weeks away, SharpHat were tasked with executing on an aggressive roadmap to provide fans with unprecedented access to the huge array [of] stats being generated each game.
I was incredibly impressed by their attention to detail, and tightly-honed efficiency, but I was even more surprised with the synergy between our teams; constantly iterating and advocating on behalf of our fans to make a better product experience. Every day, incremental changes were made, and SharpHat consistently provided valuable input and perspectives based on their experience with other leading sports leagues, and their passion for stats.
Working with SharpHat was one of the highlights of my experience at the XFL, and I would be delighted to work with Nick, Meghan and the team again in the future.”
• Former VP of Digital Products, XFL
SharpHat Involvement
With opening day approaching faster than a 25-second play clock, SharpHat dove right in designing and developing the new website. In just four short weeks, real-time live stats were integrated into xfl.com – just in time for kickoff. In addition, SharpHat built an entire cloud infrastrastructure that automatically scaled based on the number of visitors hitting the site. In the following weeks, SharpHat added standings, player profiles, league leaders, and sortable stats. The SharpHat team monitored the games and the site, providing the XFL with up to the minute game day support. SharpHat worked closely with the XFL and their partners to streamline their process and build a robust, mobile-friendly site that fans could engage in.
In the end, the league couldn’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but the XFL was highly impressed with how fast SharpHat was able to put the system together, and with no technical issues. Prior to the shut down, the XFL and SharpHat were planning new features for the 2021 season.
Technologies
- C#
- ASP.Net
- SQL Server
- JavaScript
- AWS
- EC2, RDS, Networking, Security, Load Balancing and Auto-Scaling, Monitoring
- NATS 2.0 Cloud Messaging System
- SignalR
- Knockout
- HTML
- jQuery
- AWS
- EC2, RDS, Networking, Security, Load Balancing and Auto-Scaling, Monitoring
– LinkedIn post from David Michael, former CTO of the XFL
