After an exciting NBA Finals that garnered a viewership of more than 30 million for game 7, there’s little doubt that the premier professional basketball league has caught the world’s attention.
Following a tremendous comeback against the Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Cavaliers were crowned NBA champions.
The NBA is an organization that understands image, marketing and how to connect with fans, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are one team that has turned to technology to improve the fan experience and connect in a new way.
Prior to game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers debuted their new official fan club called Wine & Gold Nation—named for the colors of the Cavs’ uniforms.
The initiative required expert software developers in order to launch in time for the start of the NBA Finals.
The fan club caters to all fans, with four different age groups and offerings.
With a tight deadline of one week to finish, the Cavs needed to find a developer with an expertise on the Node.js stack to see what the Cavs’ Digital Production Team has done and if it could be completed in the short timeframe.
They needed the new fan club to integrate with their single sign-on provider, as well as the connection to the Authorize.Net payment gateway.
The tech team in place typically works with Drupal, but they decided to work with Node.js for this project.
That’s when Toptal was called in during the pressure situation.
Toptal connected the Cavs with a Javascript expert, who completed the Web application form within two days. The payment gateway project was completed the following day, and the Cavaliers’ Wine & Gold Nation was ready for fan interaction.
Toptal is an online marketplace for freelance designers and developers and connects companies with the top 3 percent of talent from across the world.
The project was completed, the Cavaliers pulled out a victory and their fans were able to join Wine & Gold Nation from anywhere in the world.