PT SportSuite are delighted to announce we will be joining forces with Hout Bay United FC (HBUFC), a community-based football club in Cape Town, as their official digital partner.
We will be working closely with the club to roll out a digital community platform that has the potential to attract sponsorship, increase multimedia content and advertising revenue, and allow HBUFC to establish a digital community of club management, coaches, players, and fans.
HBUFC, whose senior team play in the ABC Motsepe League, the third division of South African football, are a football club with a difference, with a mission statement to nurture and empower Hout Bay’s youth through football. The club provides educational support, life skills training and mentorship to their players, as a way of breaking the cycle of poverty that exists within the community. Like Athletic Bilbao in Spain, all of HBUFC’s players come from the local Hout Bay community.
The club provides educational support, life skills training and mentorship to their players, as a way of breaking the cycle of poverty
The digital rollout has already begun with the creation of a HBUFC “SportMojos” team. The club now has a professional platform that will allow them to increase mobile media production; empower coaches, players and their passionate fans to capture and share content with the club; while centralising and protecting the value of their digital media assets – just like a modern media house.
Hout Bay United co-founder Jeremy Elson, who has helped grow the club from the ground up, says: “Community is at the core of our organisation and having the ability to share that energy online through storytelling is really exciting.
“We’ve now got the tools to start managing our digital media in line with professional sporting organisations. Hopefully, this digital journey can take the amazing story of this club and tell it through the eyes of all the different characters who make up the Hout Bay United Football Community.
“It’s a worthy story and a worthwhile cause that hopefully more and more people can now be exposed to.”
For PT SportSuite CEO Rich Cheary, himself a lifelong football fan, the opportunity to get involved with the sport at grassroots level, was one he couldn’t pass by.
“Hout Bay has a very unique story within the football world and one which can help to inspire other clubs across football wanting to make a difference in their communities.
“We are excited to work with Jeremy and the team by bringing them the platform solutions that will allow them to build a digital community around the club. Our digital systems will ensure they can spend less time in the office and more time on the field doing what they do best with these young people and adults.”