Play Bowls launches ahead of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
July 27, 2022
Yellow Panther are thrilled to announce the launch of our collaboration with Bowls England to design and build their innovative, digital platform which is the ‘Airbnb’ of the sport Play Bowls.
Bowls England are the National Governing Body of lawn bowls in England, the form of the sport which is played at the Commonwealth Games. Over 100,000 people play bowls regularly within 2000 clubs nationwide, and Bowls England’s dream is for everybody to have access to the joy and benefits of playing bowls. In order to promote and develop the sport, Bowls England selected Yellow Panther to develop a new Pay & Play platform.
The Play Bowls platform helps clubs to find new players, and new players to find clubs, driving participation of the sport and reaching out to new bowlers across the country. It is compatible across mobile and desktop, with an integrated payment system to help drive revenue for the network of 2000 clubs.
With an integrated accessibility feature to help everyone explore the website, Play Bowls is enriching the lives of participants, connecting communities, and facilitating fun. Split into two key areas, one for clubs and one for users, each is built for a seamless, transparent user experience.
The user area, inspired by the world’s best booking system, allows users to search by location, date & time, and number of bowlers. They can then view local clubs, their facilities, the cost per hour, and book and pay for games. In the profile area, players can view and manage their bookings, access their wallet, and add payment details.
The club area includes space to create an eye-catching and informative profile, a customisable availability calendar to maximise spare green capacity, customer profiles, price setting and bookings management. Club listings also include personalised facilities and accessibility information, so players can find the right club for them.
The data warehouse accessible by club administrators tracks performance, sales pipelines, average order values and customer demographic. As well as the intelligent CMS systems built for clubs and users, we built a third and final CMS system for Bowls England’s oversight of Play Bowls. Here, they can manage the content, look and feel of the website, supervise club and user profiles, and view key analytics of the platform.
For a final, Yellow Panther flourish, we produced an animated logo to showcase Play Bowls in all its glory.
The launch of Play Bowls intentionally coincides with the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England in July/August 2022. This is a critical moment to demonstrate the sport’s relevance and to drive increased participation. We are thrilled to have been a part of this important work to bring bowls to a wider audience.
Rob Short (Head of Marketing at Bowls England) “Play Bowls is an important step for the sport in this country, as we need to ensure we are as accessible to new players as possible. Luckily Stu, Gunjan and the Yellow Panther team instantly understood our challenge and at every step of the way they listened and came up with innovative solutions. The platform they have delivered is truly epic and will help grow participation in this country in one of our oldest sports.”