Case Study

How LeagueApps Built an Industry-Leading Partner Program with Pandium

LeagueApps needed to build and launch native integrations to keep up with growing customer demand. By partnering with Pandium, they quickly met their goals and developed a top tech partnership program in the SportsTech space.
Industry
SportsTech
Use Cases

Launch Integrations
Build an In-App Marketplace

The Challenge

LeagueApps was missing out on potential revenue opportunities from integrated technology partnerships. Customers and prospects were requesting integrations, but League Apps’ engineering resources were primarily focused on core platform priorities.

They knew they needed to find a platform partner who would allow them to efficiently deliver many integrations to their customer base and an app marketplace to help customers find and install value-added integrations.

The Solution

By partnering with Pandium, LeagueApps was able to rapidly build a thriving technology partner ecosystem. They launched a dozen integrations and leveraged the white-labeled marketplace to help customers discover them more easily. The partner portal allowed new partners to submit integrations they built into LeagueApps. This enabled LeagueApps to expand their partner program even faster without additional development work.

LeagueApps has become a market leader in technology partnerships for the Sports Tech industry. Their program has become so successful that existing and potential integration partners now attend the annual NextUp summit that LeagueApps hosts for the youth sports industry to come together and collaborate.

The Results

The Full Story

Customers were demanding integrations

LeagueApps is a leading sports management platform that provides all the tools, training, and resources needed to operate successful youth sports clubs, tournaments, and leagues.

It takes a lot of work to run a youth sports club. Organizers are responsible for marketing, conducting background checks, managing logistics, and much more. LeagueApps’ customers use various 3rd-party tools to assist with these tasks.

When customers started requesting integrations into the other tools they use day-to-day, LeagueApps knew they needed to offer a solution.

A unique opportunity

When COVID-19 hit, the youth sports market shut down, significantly impacting LeagueApps' core customer base. They decided to use the downtime as an opportunity to build a technology partner ecosystem that would benefit them long after the pandemic was over.

However, integrations were rare in the SportsTech industry. LeagueApps would have to pave the way and needed a tool and partner to help realize their vision.

LeagueApps chose to build native integrations that gave them complete control to offer a superior customer experience.

Building from scratch was not an option

The problem was that LeagueApps did not have the time or resources to quickly build numerous native integrations from scratch.

“Resources were focused on our core product offerings. There weren't a ton of people who could work on building integrations or staff available to initiate new projects,” said Senior Director of Product Management Gautam Chowdhry.

So, the LeagueApps team decided to search for an integration infrastructure partner to help streamline their builds. “There was a need to have something that was an easier lift to move faster on completing integrations,” said Gautam.

Enter Pandium.

Using Pandium to build quickly

Pandium allowed  LeagueApps developers and their technology partners to create custom native integrations without the limitations of no-code tools or the overhead of building from scratch themselves.

“Pandium enabled LeagueApps to attain product goals without using internal resources. Pandium gave us a way to move forward quickly,” explained Gautam.

The Pandium team built all the connectors LeagueApps required, including ones for their smallest technology partners. Pandium’s integration experts also helped them work through API complications and the use of non-traditional authentication methods needed for security purposes.

LeagueApps also used the In-App Marketplace to showcase their new integration offerings inside their app and increase adoption.

Pandium helped LeagueApps launch 12 integrations in a short amount of time. “We got really good at building them really fast,” said Gautam. Today, those integrations are used by 800+ users.

Becoming industry leaders for integrations

Being able to build quickly helped LeagueApps become trailblazers in the SportTech industry when it comes to integrations.

They were able to grow their partner ecosystem quickly because the Pandium Partner Portal enabled other companies to build their own integrations into LeagueApps.

“Pandium made it easy not to have our internal engineers working on everything. It was easy for external devs to work on projects themselves through the partner portal. Our tech partner’s developers could use Pandium and Pandium docs,” Gautam explained.

Pandium as a partner

Partnering with Pandium made building integrations painless for LeagueApps.

“I think integration building is an inherently stressful thing because you're dealing with so many people who have different interests, areas of expertise, and skill sets. However, our relationship with the team at Pandium enabled things to go fast and smoothly,” said Gautam.

LeagueApps was able to lean on the Pandium team’s deep knowledge and experience in building integrations to help the process go seamlessly. “The engineers really appreciate the personal help from the Pandium team in order to fill in any blanks.”

Gautam also pointed out that his team “was new to integrations when we started working with Pandium, but the partnership and relationship with the team enabled us to feel confident in what we were doing. And the knowledge base is excellent. It’s very robust. Whatever question we had, we knew how to find the answer.”

Looking Forward

Pandium remains a crucial piece of LeagueApps' partner ecosystem strategy. They encourage other companies to utilize the Pandium platform to help them reach their partnership and integration goals, saying, “Pandium is an essential tool for a lot of organizations. If you want to build an integration center and do it quickly, Pandium enables you to do that. You can work quickly and work well. We've all been very happy with the platform and the direction we’re going.”

With Pandium, things just became a lot easier. It felt like we were in good hands the whole time.
Gautam Chowdhry
Senior Director of Product Management, LeagueApps
Latest

From the Blog

Check out our latest content on technology partnerships, integration and APIs. Access research, resources, and advice from industry experts.

How to Write Dynamic Integrations to Handle Extreme Volumes

Good integrations work correctly in extreme conditions. Making an integration dynamic allows it to handle extreme volumes.

5 Clear Signs It’s Time to Reevaluate Your SaaS Integration Strategy

In this blog, Pandium's CEO and Co-Founder explores five key signs that it’s time to rethink your integration approach—covering challenges like missed revenue opportunities, rising technical debt, and security gaps.