After two months of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFL has released the next four rounds (Rounds 2 to 5) of the Premiership season, with a focus on starting with a bang in a treat for players, fans and broadcasters across the game.

The AFL season bounces back into action on Thursday 11th June, with Collingwood hosting reigning premiers Richmond under lights at the MCG.

The match will be followed on Friday between modern day rivals Hawthorn and Geelong before the Adelaide Crows and Port Power clash in the Showdown.

Luckily, AFL Club ECAL subscribers have been instantly updated with all the latest fixtures straight to their calendar, and will continue to be updated as the fixture evolves. How good is that?!

It’s going to be big! Don’t miss it when footy returns, sync the full AFL Fixture to your calendar here or from your teams fixture page.

After two months of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the next two rounds (Rnds 3 and 4) of the NRL season have been announced, with a focus on starting with a bang in a treat for players, fans and broadcasters across the game.

The NRL season kicks back into gear on Thursday 28th May, with the Broncos to host the Eels at a venue in Queensland (to be announced).

The clash will be followed on Friday by an all-Queensland derby between the Cowboys and Titans before Latrell Mitchell and his Rabbitohs line up against the Sydney Roosters in a match almost two months in the making.

Luckily, NRL ECAL subscribers have been instantly updated with all the latest fixtures straight to their calendar, and will continue to be updated as the fixture evolves. How good is that?!

It’s going to be big! Don’t miss it when sporting rivalry returns, sync the NRL Fixture to your calendar here from the official NRL website.

After a hugely successful first edition of the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 tournament, a new group of Premier League footballers and special guests will be putting their skills to the test in the second ePremier League Invitational tournament.

This week’s tournament (Tuesday May 5th – Saturday May 9th) will follow the same format, with the winners of four first-round ties joining the other 12 clubs in the last 16. Each match-up is streamed live on the Premier League website and social platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

With the help of ECAL, Football and E-sports fans won’t miss a moment of the action, with the Premier League digital calendar providing up-to-date details of the match-ups throughout the knockout phases and finals, with handy alerts, details and direct access to watch live, all from the convenience of your personal calendar.

E-Sports fan? Sync the ePL Invitational schedule here.

Aston Villa is inviting fans to tune in to the inaugural ePremier League Invitational tournament.

Premier League players from all 20 clubs will put their FIFA skills to the test as they face off against each other, representing their club in a knockout eSports tournament.

With the help of ECAL, Villa fans won’t miss a moment of the action. In Round 1, watch midfielder John McGinn go head-to-head against Brighton & Hove Albion’s French striker Neal Maupay.

Enjoy up-to-date details of the match-ups throughout the knockout phases, with handy alerts, details and direct access to watch live, all from the convenience of your personal calendar.

Villa fan? Sync the ePL Invitational schedule here.

Formula E, the greatest electric street racing series on Earth has gone virtual! In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge has been launched – in a fundraising partnership with UNICEF.

This nine week eSports competition will see the world’s greatest Formula E drivers mix it with some of the world’s fastest gamers and influencers. The top gamer wins a real-life track session on a Formula E circuit on a real race weekend.

Donations from the competition will be directed towards UNICEF for urgent PPE gear for health workers, and to help set-up home learning schemes for children out of school.

it’s an exciting and super-engaging format, with each raceday set for Saturday over nine straight weeks. In the lead-up to raceday, the fastest 18 drivers over the course will qualify. They will be joined by top gamers, renowned motorsports players and influencers to battle it out. A ‘Race Royale’ format will see the last placed driver eliminated each lap, until there are just 10 drivers who remain, leaving a single lap sprint to the finish.

The Race at Home Challenge will be available to view live globally on Formula E’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, Facebook Gaming site, Twitch and via @FIAFormulaE on Twitter.

Love your racing, gaming or just keen to follow the action, you can sync the AAB Formula E Race at Home Challenge Series to your digital calendar, thanks to ECAL here.

Notre Dame is inviting fans to relive the famous 1992 Snow Ball victory against Penn State in the first instalment of the College’s ‘Watch Parties’.

With all Winter and Spring sporting championships on hold across America for the foreseeable future, Notre Dame will broadcast its classic matches every Saturday night to its sport-starved fans.

With the help of ECAL, fans can sync ‘Watch Party’ events, with match-up details, social engagement activities (incl. online chat, trivia & fan polls), timely reminders and one-click access to watch on the Fighting Irish YouTube channel, all from the convenience of the calendar.

Join Notre Dame fans this Saturday and every Saturday night here.

The NBL, Australia and New Zealand’s professional men’s basketball league is keeping fans connected with a suite of new (and old) digital content.

Video editors at League Headquarters have been busy cutting tape, putting together a host of online content to engage fans each week. From Monday to Friday, fans can get their daily fix of basketball classics.

With the help of ECAL, fans can relive the excitement of the 2020 NBL Competition and seasons past with ‘NBL Top 10’ and ‘NBL Rewind’, catch the latest off-season news with ‘NBL Overtime’ and listen to Adam Gibson’s ‘One on One’ podcast, all from the comfort of their couch.

ECAL subscribers receive notifications when the broadcast begins, with ‘Watch Now’ links providing one-click access to watch or listen on their preferred platform.

ECAL’s state-of-the-art digital calendar service delivers the NBL with a tremendous platform to ‘connect’, ‘engage’ and ‘activate’ its audience around the sport they love, during this unfortunate time of lockdown and social distancing.

Choose your NBL team here and keep up-to-date thanks to ECAL.

The Australian Ballet has launched a special ‘At Home with Ballet TV’ digital season to engage ballet lovers, during these unprecedented times of COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing.

With performances cancelled across the country, this internationally acclaimed ballet company will stream its most beloved and inspiring ballet productions to fans at home.

With the help of ECAL, fans can experience the magic of seasons past with cinema-quality recordings of full-length performances, such as ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and more, beamed right to the comfort of their couch.

The Australian Ballet launched their new ‘digital season’ across various channels, including web, email, social and via owned and partner networks. With a strong drive to ‘Sync to Calendar’ and “be the first to know” fans were instantly connected, and receive advance warning of the latest performance releases – straight to their digital calendar.

ECAL subscribers receive notifications when new ballets are released on the platform with ‘Stream Now’ links providing one-click access to watch. With each performance available for a limited period of 2 weeks, timely ‘Last Chance to Watch’ events and reminders in calendar ensure fans never miss the opportiunity to view the performance!

On launch, the ‘digital season’ campaign saw a 25% increase in their ECAL subscriber audience alone. In addition, The Australian Ballet were able to leverage it’s large existing connected calendar audience to drive engagement and tune-in.

The Australian Ballet’s Digital Specialist, Maeve Ashby, was thrilled with the ‘digital season’ launch and with the engagement across all platforms, saying “It’s been a fantastic success – smashing our engagement stats out of the water – across email, web, social and calendar!”

The Australian Ballet are building on the initial success of their ‘digital season’ with other interesting video content pieces, and special collaborations designed to recreate a luxe cinematic experience at home – they have collaborated with Piccoliina Gelateria to create a bespoke ‘Sleeping Beauty’ inspired ice-cream flavour available for delivery via Uber Eats, complete with all the trimmings!

You can subscribe to The Australian Ballet’s 2020 Digital Calendar here and don’t forget the gelato!

ECAL event-based clients are on the front foot in keeping fans engaged with event disruptions, and creating new ways to engage.

ECAL’s dynamic ‘Sync to Calendar’ technology is a hugely beneficial tool for keeping fans engaged during this period of great uncertainty.

Major sports, ticketing and entertainment clients who have been forced to postpone or cancel their events have quickly updated entries in calendar, with the relevant status changes.

As the situation develops, and decisions are made about further delays or the recommencement of events, ECAL will be a quick and effective tool for publishers to reschedule their events in the daily lives of fans.

Opportunity knocks 
Given the uncertainty, and the rapidly changing situation, publishers are now encouraging fans to connect to their ECAL feature, to be the first to know when updates to their event scheduling is made.

Major conference clients are also recommending ECAL to their clients, to use ECAL ‘Sync to Calendar’ to help take their conferences and exhibitions online. By subscribing to the show agenda, keynote addresses and even your preferred conference ‘tracks’, virtual attendees know exactly when to tune-in, with a direct link to the web stream.

Above: Tottenham Hotspur FC splash page on site entry provides a solution for fans to stay up-to-date with the changing schedule of events.

At ECAL, we’re working closely with major sports around the world, to help manage important communications around event postponements, cancellations and announcements due to Coronavirus Disease.

Given ECAL’s rich and dynamic capabilities, and ease of management, event owners and publishers are able to deliver important announcements, and event status updates to their audience, at the right time with access to the right information.

What’s the best way to manage these event disruptions? We make the following suggestions and recommendations, to help our publishers manage these important communications in the right way.

Postponing events 
If you are postponing events, we recommend updating (not deleting!) the event as follows:

• Edit the event name to insert “(Postponed)” prominently at the beginning of the event name;
• Insert an emoji ⚠️ in the event name, bringing attention to the changed status of the event;
• Update the event details with your official statement regarding the postponement;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add / retain other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Online Store’ and so on.

Cancelling events
If you are cancelling events, we recommend updating (not deleting!) the event as follows:

• Edit the event name to insert “(Cancelled)” prominently at the beginning of the event name;
• Insert an emoji ❗️in the event name, bringing attention to the changed status of the event;
• Update the event details with your official statement regarding the cancellation;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add / retain other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Online Store’ and so on.

Official Announcement as a new event
If you have made the decision to postpone or cancel events, we recommend the following:

• Create a new event in the user calendar, specifically for the “Official Announcement” itself. This is an important event, and your audience needs to know;
• Insert an emoji ⚠️or ❗️in the event name, that mirrors the one you will use for the postponed or cancelled events;
• Add a short term alert, such as 15 mins prior, to bring this event front of screen on the user’s mobile or desktop;
• In the event details, include a brief summary of your official statement;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and so on.