FIBA enhances global fan engagement with Contentful

When it comes to fan engagement, every digital experience needs to be a slam dunk. For the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which regulates basketball rules and manages equipment requirements, referee placements, and tournaments across all genders and ages, this felt like a long shot. With a digital ecosystem spanning various websites (including one for fans and one for events), maintaining quality content, reliable delivery, and brand consistency was daunting.

To make this even more challenging, FIBA had to localize and tailor its content for a diverse audience, which includes 212 national basketball federations plus fans, players, game officials, and media outlets. In 2022, FIBA noticed that its custom-built monolithic content management system (CMS), which also served as FIBA's digital asset manager (DAM), was lagging.

“It was outdated, which presented significant security issues. When we wanted to edit a specific piece of content, we were in a constant state of worry that in doing so, we would break something else," Yann Thézénas, a project manager at FIBA, said. 

The rigidity of the system also made it difficult to add new tools. “For the future, we wanted the flexibility to change out specific components — to get rid of or add new capabilities — without disrupting the entire ecosystem," Thézénas noted.

Eager to provide fans with accurate game schedules and basketball lovers with real-time statistics,  FIBA began its search for a more modern, flexible, and extensible tool. After evaluating multiple vendors, FIBA landed on Contentful, which completely changed the game.

Making the sub for more sustainable software

For FIBA, swapping out its CMS was a team sport, so it brought in  SQLI, a Contentful Solution Partner and digital agency, to help them evaluate options and ultimately support a full-scale implementation. This partnership allowed FIBA developers to continue their daily work while getting closer to a better-performing technology infrastructure. Contentful’s proven track record of increasing flexibility, scalability, and efficiency convinced FIBA and SQLI to move forward with the platform.

"We wanted a powerful tool to publish content, organize our translations, and automate certain aspects of managing our website. Contentful helps us turn things out like a factory — we can easily create a website for each event, even if there are 80+ of them in a given year," Thézénas shared.

Together, SQLI and FIBA built a rollout plan to launch a refreshed web experience in time for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. They began by migrating all content to their preferred digital asset manager, Cloudinary, and outlining a new content model before moving content into it. The updated digital experience went live in June 2024, well ahead of the Games.

Quick wins for extensibility and search

As the platform took shape, FIBA saw immediate improvements. "Contentful integrated fully with our event data API — a connection which is essential for providing website visitors with timely and accurate data. We no longer have to wait 24 hours for updates," Thézénas noted. The end result is a better user experience for fans and stakeholders alike. 

Contentful’s powerful search functionality is also improving the internal user experience, helping teams locate content on the back end faster than ever before. "The search functionality in Contentful is very powerful. You can quickly find any item by typing its name or title," Thézénas said. This functionality helps FIBA better ensure event information is always up to date. 

Customization was another standout feature of the platform. Using the Contentful App Framework, FIBA developed a custom tool to improve user account management, filtering and sorting during search, and data download speeds. 

Scoring streamlined workflows and a high-performing multichannel experience

The shift to Contentful is helping FIBA streamline workflows and enhance digital engagement. "With Contentful, we have fewer issues and faster processes. For example, unpublishing or updating content is now easy and quick, which has reduced the time spent on crisis management," Thézénas noted. This efficiency has been especially valuable during high-pressure situations, such as managing content tied to upcoming events, where dates, tip-off times, and location are key.

This improvement in speed to market is matched by an improvement in site performance, which is having a positive impact on web user traffic. Before Contentful, 80% of FIBA's traffic came from mobile. Today, desktop and mobile engagement are evenly split — a sign that both platforms deliver a strong experience. “We now have a balanced usage of our desktop and mobile versions, which shows that both are working perfectly,” said Thézénas.

Future-proof solution, full team effort

FIBA treated its relationship with Contentful as a strategic partnership, not just a platform upgrade. Regular check-ins with their Contentful customer success manager helped them leverage new features to improve both the editor workflow and fan experience.

FIBA is beginning to leverage Contentful Marketplace apps like the AI Content Generator by OpenAI to speed up and scale translations. FIBA currently supports English, French, and Spanish, but is looking to expand in the near future. Greek, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Chinese are just some of the languages they’d like to localize their entire digital experience for. In doing so, they’ll be able to connect more deeply with their increasingly global audience.

By leveraging Contentful’s platform, community, and support, FIBA can be confident in its ability to provide timely basketball news, accurate game schedules,  real-time player stats, and so much more. 

About SQLI: SQLI is a Gold-tier Contentful Solution Partner specializing in composable digital experiences, helping global brands modernize their tech stacks and deliver scalable, omnichannel content solutions. With deep expertise in digital strategy, ecommerce, and experience platforms, SQLI empowers organizations to drive transformation through agile, content-led architectures.