Fan data platform for sports clubs: Unify data, deploy SSO, activate CRM

KRC Genk is a Belgian football club renowned for its youth academy and its role in developing top-level talent. Throughout its history, the club has achieved sustained success at the national level, winning four Belgian league titles and five Belgian Cup titles. Deeply rooted in its region, the club combines sporting ambition with a strong community identity and a growing digital ecosystem — making fan engagement a strategic priority beyond matchday results.

The initial challenge: fragmented data limiting the activation potential

Like many clubs, KRC Genk’s fan data was historically spread across multiple tools and platforms. Ticketing, e-commerce, access control and other digital systems each captured valuable information but in silos, making it difficult to: 

• Recognize the same fan across channels,
• Activate data consistently at scale,
• Measure marketing impact.
  

With the ambition of strengthening long-term fan relationships and unlocking the full value of every interaction, the club embarked on a data-driven transformation aimed at building one unified fan identity across all touchpoints.

In this context, KRC Genk chose to work with Arenametrix, building together a structured, future-proof data and activation ecosystem.
The project is structured around three pillars with Arenametrix acting as the central customer data and activation platform:

1. 1. Data centralization
      
      
   2. Fan data activation
      
      
   3. Single Sign-On (SSO)
      
      

Centralizing data and creating one fan identity

The first step was to connect and structure all available fan data into a single environment to create a unique fan knowledge repository.
This was ensured by connecting the club’s diverse data sources (ticketing, e-commerce, access control, etc.) and the integration of historical CRM data, deduplicated and merged. Particular attention was paid to data governance, GDPR compliance and consistent identifiers across systems.

Thanks to this foundation combining contact, transactional, marketing, satisfaction and access control data, KRC Genk can now recognize the same fan across ticketing, retail and digital channels — and fully own its first-party data.

KRC Genk fan data ecosystem

Activating data through segmented and automated fan journeys

With a unified database in place, the club moved from data consolidation to data activation. Centralized data enables advanced segmentation and personalized communication at scale. The club marketing teams can now trigger automated scenarios based on real fan behavior, preferences and lifecycle stage — while accurately measuring performance.

• More than 100 segments created combining demographic, behavioral and transactional data, enabling more precise targeting across all fan touchpoints.
  
  
• Automated birthday campaigns: fans receive personalized messages with their favourite player (+80,000 contacts enrolled, 7% click rate)
  
  
• Automated reengagement communications for inactive contacts by identifying declining engagement and triggering tailored messages designed to rebuild interest.
  
  
• Automated first-time matchday visitors campaigns sent ahead of kickoff, providing practical information such as travel, parking, stadium access, and relevant offers to ensure a smooth first-time experience (+15,000 contacts enrolled, 42% click rate)

Single Sign-On to streamline experience and data quality

As a natural extension of its digital ecosystem, KRC Genk implemented Single Sign-On (SSO) to strengthen both fan experience and data reliability. By unifying access across club services, SSO reduces friction for fans and ensures consistent identity management within the CRM.

Setting up SSO enables:

• Unified access to club services with one account
• Less friction in purchase journeys (fewer drop-offs)
  
• Cleaner data capture and fewer duplicates
  
• A unified link between every transaction / interaction and the fan profile