A digital refresh for Tennis Paradise

The BNP Paribas Open, held annually in Indian Wells, California, draws top tennis talent and a global audience of millions. But its digital presence hadn't seen a major update since 2018, and the tournament's marketing team recognized the need for a transformation. The existing website and mobile app ran on separate CMS platforms, creating consistency issues across digital touch points and limiting the kind of premium, customized experiences modern guests expect.

Real-time updates with the new, unified website and mobile app experience.

The project began in summer 2023 during the tournament's annual review of marketing platforms. It involved stakeholders from marketing and executive leadership, plus tournament sponsors, ATP/WTA Tour officials, and ticketing partner AXS. The goal was ambitious: launch a new website and iOS and Android apps by mid-February—just weeks before the tournament started in early March.

Why the old stack had to go

The existing platforms presented several critical obstacles. The website ran on WordPress while the mobile app used a white-labeled solution, and neither could deliver the functionality the tournament needed:

  • Real-time updates: The system had to deliver up-to-the-minute scores, schedules, and player information essential for engaging tennis fans.
  • Inflexibility: Off-the-shelf systems lacked custom functionality beyond the typical blog paradigm.
  • SEO challenges: Limited customization hurt both internal site search and external search visibility.
  • Slow content publishing: Content creation relied on a network of custom WordPress taxonomies, disconnected from independently managed mobile app content, slowing the publishing process.
  • Personalization gaps: Disparate platforms prevented unified user profiles, fragmenting user journeys and limiting data-driven fan engagement.

Choosing the right partner

The search for a digital design and technology partner led the tournament to Work & Co, known for work with Apple, Gatorade, and notably the PGA TOUR—experience that mattered for handling quick-moving live scores and hundreds of players. Conversations began in June 2023, with development kicking off a few months later. Vercel was chosen to power the frontend transformation from day one.

Open

Between the February launch and the tournament's end, 83,000 new user accounts were created. The new architecture was able to handle millions of users.

Several factors drove the platform decision. Scalability was critical: Vercel's serverless functions and flexible edge network could handle the surge from off-season lull to millions of users during tournament weeks, maintaining uptime and real-time performance even at peak load. The four-month timeline demanded rapid development and deployment without infrastructure distractions. Flexible deployment processes meant the team could promote or roll back changes within minutes of discovering issues. Having CDN, static pages, dynamic functions, data, and CI/CD on one platform—including integrated storage like Redis and Supabase—saved considerable development time and simplified vendor management from a procurement and invoicing perspective.

"Vercel was integral to the replatforming strategy from day one. We knew that, to deliver the caliber of experience guests expected in the timeframe we had, we needed a platform that could seamlessly handle the complexities of scalability, deployment agility, and real-time performance, all while allowing us to focus entirely on building the best possible digital experiences."

Nick Lee Technology Partner - Work & Co

Results on the scoreboard

Between the February launch and the tournament's end, 83,000 new user accounts were created, with significant improvements in page load times and user engagement across devices. The architecture handled millions of users and unexpected traffic surges—including the memorable on-court bee incident. Server-side rendering boosted SEO through better indexing and higher search rankings. Fans could filter content by favorite players for personalized experiences, and unified content delivery across web and mobile streamlined editorial workflows.

"The ability for fans to filter content by their favorite players and create a personalized experience was a huge win for us. It really bridged the gap between our brand and our fans."

Philippe Dore CMO - BNP Paribas Open

Lessons for other digital leaders

Reflecting on the project, Philippe Dore offered advice for other CMOs and CDOs considering a similar transformation:

  • Embrace personalization: Fans demand curated content. Invest in infrastructure to deliver truly individual experiences that keep them coming back.
  • If you build it, they will come: The team prioritized making account creation easy, and nearly half of users across digital properties opted in.
  • Test, test, test: With intricate live scoring mechanisms and varied content streams, testing began early during the build to account for as many bugs as possible before launch.
  • Be ready to evolve: Launch is just the start. Have an action plan to gather post-launch feedback to inform future improvements.

Powered by Next.js on Vercel, the BNP Paribas Open's digital transformation delivered a high-performance platform that serves both on-site and global audiences—demonstrating how strategic technology investments can create immersive, tailored fan experiences with lasting engagement.