How the CFL increased fan conversions 9x with RudderStack's customer data infrastructure

Main takeaways

• The CFL used RudderStack as customer data infrastructure to centralize fragmented fan data and build 360-degree fan profiles in Snowflake.
• With over 120 fan data points per profile, the league powers highly personalized campaigns across email, push, in-app, and other channels via Braze.
• Personalized, team-specific content drove 9x higher conversion rates, doubled total conversions, and improved retention of marketable fans.
• Better data allowed the CFL to unlock new sponsorship and sports betting revenue while still respecting provincial regulations and age-based targeting.
• Real-time and location-aware use cases, like Grey Cup Festival experiences, are now possible on top of the same customer data infrastructure.
• RudderStack gives the CFL a scalable, cloud-first foundation to collect, transform, and deliver fan data to every tool without sacrificing control or data quality.

The modern sports fan experience extends far beyond watching games. Today's fans interact with their favorite teams through social media, streaming platforms, online betting, and merchandise purchases. Each interaction creates valuable data that can drive personalized experiences and business growth – but only if properly collected, transformed, and delivered.

The Canadian Football League (CFL) recognized this opportunity and partnered with RudderStack to create a comprehensive customer data infrastructure that powers personalized fan experiences across all touchpoints. In conjunction with Snowflake’s data warehouse, the CFL developed 360-degree views of fans with RudderStack, including 120+ unique data points for each fan. This helped them provide more personalized experiences to retain more fans with relevant, real-time messages on their most used channels, leading to a 9x increase in engagement rates. Read on to learn how they accomplished this.

The challenge: Fragmented CFL fan data and limited personalization

The CFL faced several challenges common to sports organizations:

• Fan data scattered across multiple disconnected platforms
• Limited ability to create personalized fan experiences
• Difficulty measuring marketing performance
• Inefficient, intuition-based marketing approach
• Complex implementation needs across nine teams

"We needed a solution that could scale trackable fan behavior for all clubs, instead of developing nine unique solutions," explained Aaron Hadzaman, Senior Manager of Marketing Automation and Acquisition at the CFL.

The solution: CFL’s customer data infrastructure with RudderStack and Snowflake

The CFL implemented RudderStack as their customer data infrastructure, creating a centralized foundation for all fan data. Using RudderStack's Event Stream capabilities, the CFL now captures over 120 data points from fan interactions, including:

• Website session behavior: Page views of specific team content, time spent on player profiles, video completion rates, scrolling patterns on game recaps
• Content preferences: Engagement with highlight videos vs. interviews, frequency of checking statistics, interaction with historical content
• Team affiliations: Primary team followed, secondary interests, rival team content viewed, engagement with specific players
• Geolocation data: Fan proximity to stadiums, regional content interests, in-market vs. out-of-market viewing patterns
• Purchase history: Jersey purchases, ticket buying frequency, merchandise category preferences, average order value
• Streaming engagement: CFL+ viewing duration, device preferences, live vs. on-demand consumption, feature utilization

RudderStack's easy-to-use interface allows the CFL to pull comprehensive customer profiles – all stored in Snowflake – and seamlessly activate this data in Braze without requiring technical resources to write code or build complex models.

Results: 9x higher fan conversion rates through personalization

The implementation of RudderStack has transformed the CFL's marketing approach, delivering impressive results:

• 9x better conversion rates when fans receive team-specific content
• Doubled total conversions through expanded omnichannel strategies
• 3x better retention of marketable fans
• Opt-out rates as low as 0.08% due to improved content relevance
• Increased customer lifetime revenue, driving significant business value for the league

"With RudderStack, we're exponentially accelerating our efficacy when it comes to generating revenue, engaging fans, and boosting productivity," said Hadzaman.

Beyond marketing: New sponsorship and sports betting revenue opportunities

The CFL's enhanced data capabilities have opened new partnership and sponsorship opportunities. For example, sports betting companies (active in Canada since single-game betting was legalized in 2021) require precise audience targeting based on location and age. RudderStack's robust data infrastructure enables the CFL to:

• Target fans of gambling age in specific provinces
• Identify users who have played on CFL Game Zone recently
• Track engagement with betting-related content
• Ensure compliance with provincial regulations

"We are able to increase the value of sponsorable digital assets through sophisticated segmentation, while also preserving more value and health for our database by being much more one-to-one to minimize marketable fan churn," Hadzaman noted.

The future: Real-time CFL fan experiences at scale

With RudderStack as their customer data foundation, the CFL is now exploring real-time engagement opportunities, such as sending alerts when a fan's team has the ball in the final minutes of a close game.

The league recently leveraged RudderStack's capabilities to develop a digital companion product for the Grey Cup Festival, using geolocation features to understand attendee experiences and guide them throughout the event.

"In many ways, the festival served as a pilot for creating blended digital and in-person experiences at scale, and we look forward to building upon that success at more events across the league," said Hadzaman.

Why the CFL chose RudderStack for customer data infrastructure

For organizations like the CFL, RudderStack delivers unique advantages:

1. Simplified implementation: Easy deployment across multiple teams with standardized tracking
2. Complete fan profiles: Unified view of each fan with 120+ data points
3. Seamless activation: Push the right data to marketing tools without technical complexity
4. Enhanced segmentation: Create highly targeted audiences based on multiple criteria
5. Real-time capabilities: Engage fans in the moment for maximum impact

By implementing RudderStack's customer data infrastructure, the CFL has evolved its approach to fan engagement, moving from intuition-based marketing to data-driven personalization that delivers measurable business results.

Want to learn more? Read the full CFL case study

FAQs

What problem was the CFL trying to solve with RudderStack?

The CFL was dealing with fragmented fan data spread across websites, apps, streaming services, ticketing, and merchandising systems. This made it difficult to personalize campaigns, measure marketing performance across all nine teams, and scale engagement without building and maintaining nine separate solutions.

How did RudderStack help the CFL improve fan personalization?

RudderStack became the CFL’s customer data infrastructure, collecting behavioral, transactional, and streaming data, then delivering it into Snowflake and Braze. With over 120 data points per fan, the league can build detailed segments and trigger one-to-one messages that reflect each fan’s favorite team, content preferences, purchase history, and location.

What results did the CFL achieve with RudderStack?

By centralizing fan data and powering personalized campaigns, the CFL saw 9x better conversion rates on team-specific content, doubled total conversions, and 3x better retention of marketable fans. The league also kept opt-out rates as low as 0.08 percent by sending more relevant, timely messages to the right audiences.

How does the CFL use Snowflake and Braze with RudderStack?

RudderStack streams fan events into Snowflake, where the CFL builds 360-degree fan profiles and advanced audience logic. Those enriched profiles are then activated in Braze, so marketing teams can quickly launch omnichannel campaigns without writing custom code or maintaining complex ETL jobs between systems.

How did better fan data create new revenue opportunities for the CFL?

With accurate profiles and reliable segmentation, the CFL can offer sponsors more precise targeting and reporting. For example, sports betting partners can reach fans of legal gambling age in specific provinces and engage users who interact with game-related content, all while staying compliant with provincial rules and protecting the health of the fan database.

Can other sports leagues or entertainment brands replicate this approach?

Yes. Any league, team, or entertainment brand that wants to move from intuition-based marketing to data-driven personalization can use customer data infrastructure the way the CFL has. By centralizing fan data, building rich profiles, and connecting a modern data cloud to engagement tools, organizations can improve fan experiences and grow revenue across digital and in-person channels.