Swiss Basketball is the umbrella organisation for basketball in Switzerland, from clubs to the national teams, including youth development and the major competitions held in the country. Its community brings together licence holders, spectators, newsletter subscribers and fans who follow Swiss players competing abroad.
Unlike a club, the federation does not see its fans in the same arena every week. Its audience is spread across Switzerland and speaks several languages: German, French and Italian. Opportunities for contact are less frequent, but often very intense: an international game, a major tournament, a youth competition.
For Swiss Basketball, the challenge is therefore twofold: to turn each of these highlights into the start of a lasting relationship, and to speak to every fan in a relevant way, wherever they are and whatever their language.
The challenge: rich fan data, scattered everywhere
Every touchpoint generated its own data. Ticket purchases came from two ticketing systems, Ticketmaster and Smeetz. Newsletter sign-ups, event registrations and licence data sat in other tools.
Taken separately, this information could not answer even simple questions. Is this national team spectator also a licence holder? Which language would they like to be contacted in? Have they already entered a competition to win a jersey?
Swiss Basketball therefore wanted a CRM that could:
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Bring all fan data together in a single platform
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Provide a single view of each contact
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Personalise its communications by language, region and interests
- Better understand how its audiences behave, event after event
Centralising fan data: one profile per supporter
The first step was to connect the Ticketmaster and Smeetz ticketing systems to the Arenametrix CRM. Ticket purchases now feed into the database automatically, with no manual exports or reprocessing.
The other sources were then consolidated in the same place: newsletters, forms, competitions, events and licence data. Each contact now has a unified profile that tells the story of their relationship with the federation: purchase history, consents, language and interactions.
The aim was not just to store data, but to make it usable day to day to build segments and launch campaigns.
Collecting contacts continuously, even between games
A fan database is not built on ticketing alone. To reach fans who have not yet bought a ticket, Swiss Basketball has multiplied its collection points.
A sign-up form is built into the federation's website. Each new contact goes straight into Arenametrix, with their language and consents, and immediately enters the welcome journey.
The federation also relies on sporting highlights. In the run-up to international games, it runs competitions to win a national team jersey. As excitement builds before a big game, the urge to take part follows, and every entry adds a qualified contact to the database.
Highlight: the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup as an accelerator
In 2025, Lausanne hosted the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup. For the federation, the event was a rare opportunity to capture the attention of a much wider audience than its usual fans.
Swiss Basketball made the most of this enthusiasm to recruit new contacts. A form and a pop-up on the website invited visitors to sign up to follow the competition and the latest news from Swiss basketball. Communications around the tournament then promoted the ticket offer to this wider audience.
The result: the number of buyers in the database grew by 40%. And the story does not end at the final buzzer: these new contacts stay in the database, and the federation can now guide them towards upcoming national team games and other events held across the country.
The operation shows that a one-off major event can become the starting point of a lasting relationship, provided you have the infrastructure to capture and activate the contacts it generates.
Segmentation to speak to every fan in their own language
Once the data was brought together, the federation was able to build segments based on concrete criteria. Three examples illustrate the approach:
- Licence holders by language: each licence holder receives the federation's communications in German, French or Italian, according to their preference.
- Buyers for a specific game: the federation can get back in touch with the spectators of a particular game, for example to thank them or offer them the next one.
- Competition entrants: these contacts, recruited around a highlight, can be followed up and guided towards a first purchase.
These segments are combined with region and interests to personalise newsletters and campaigns. A fan from Ticino interested in the women's national team does not receive the same message as a licence holder from Zurich or a French-speaking spectator from the U19 World Cup.
Marketing automation: three key moments in the fan relationship
Alongside its one-off campaigns, Swiss Basketball has set up three automated scenarios. They trigger on their own, in the contact's language, and keep the relationship going without any extra workload for the team.
Welcoming every new subscriber
As soon as they sign up to the newsletter, the contact receives a welcome message with a 10% discount on the entire Swiss Basketball collection. Just the thing to wear the national colours from day one. It is the best-performing scenario: since January 2025, the French version has achieved a 66% open rate and a 38% click rate.
This first message arrives when interest is at its peak. It turns a simple sign-up into a first concrete interaction with the federation.
Celebrating fans' birthdays
On their birthday, fans receive a personalised message, also with a 10% discount on the collection. A simple gesture that hits the mark: since January 2025, this scenario has reached a 33% open rate and a 7% click rate in each language.
Saying thank you after a year of loyalty
One year after signing up, every subscriber receives a thank-you message. This message sells nothing. It celebrates belonging to a community, with a simple message: it is thanks to an engaged community that Swiss basketball keeps growing.
Managing every event with Analytics
Centralising ticketing data has also changed the way the federation monitors its events. With the Arenametrix Analytics module, the team has a genuine scoresheet for each event:
- Number of tickets sold
- Total revenue
- Sales channels used
- Sales curve over time
- Breakdown by ticket category
These indicators are available in one place, whether tickets were sold on Ticketmaster or Smeetz. The sales curve makes it possible, for example, to spot a slowdown and trigger a reminder at the right time. Analysing channels and categories helps prepare the sale of upcoming events more effectively.
Swiss Basketball's key actions
→ Centralise all sources: Ticketing, newsletters, forms, competitions and licence data come together in a single fan profile.
→ Collect continuously: The website form and competitions around international games grow the database between events.
→ Make the most of major events: The 2025 U19 World Cup increased the number of buyers in the database by 40%.
→ Speak each fan's language: Segments by language, region, interest and participation make every message relevant.
→ Automate key moments: Welcome, birthday and one-year subscription anniversary messages keep the relationship alive with no extra effort.
→ Manage with data: Analytics provides a consolidated view of sales for each event.
A database of 100,000 fans, a strategic asset for the federation
In just a few years, Swiss Basketball has gone from scattered data to a unified fan database of 100,000 contacts. Every interaction, whether a ticket purchase, a sign-up or a competition entry, now enriches the fan's profile and prepares the next communication.
For a sports federation, this database is a lasting asset. It will be used to sell upcoming national team games, support future major events hosted in Switzerland and keep growing the Swiss basketball community.
Arenametrix provides the CRM infrastructure: centralisation, segmentation, automation and analytics. Swiss Basketball stays in control of the strategy: the federation decides which audiences to target, which highlights to activate and how to speak to each of its fans.