Each JoomSport major release brings very special feeling to our team - emotion of celebration and proud of achievements. In fact it is the feeling that something important is changing again in our company and in our products and even more - that we actually leave a mark in history.

We're also glad to note that current release is not a trivial code update with some bug fixes but it includes some new WOW features inside. It was very hard to deliver this time - the team had so many discussions, disputes and emotions. Each member of our team hopes that EVERY customer who updates his local instances to the latest 4.1 release will also have this WOW feeling.

Let's go through the list of the changes together:

Improved Player statistic

We have delivered two optional blocks for Player profile page. Played minutes, Lineups, Substitutes, Goals and other Events can be displayed in Career block with flexible columns. This block allows comparing Player performance in different Seasons. Match Statistics block displays Player events by matches.

Matrix add-on

Effective way to display Round Robin fixtures and played matches. There is ability either display Matrix button on Season table or show a separate layout by adding the new Menu item. It is Delivered free of additional charge with the main product package as Matrix doesn't really bring new functionality but combines the way how the current data is presented.

Match timeline

Now match statistics is more useful than ever. Colorful timeline is a perfect visual display of Player events in their sequence. Match duration is used as base scale and event images are stringed on it.

New Calendar Layout

In JoomSport all matches are organized by Matchday and now there is ability to display Calendar by Matchday as well. Matches of separate Matchday on each page. Handy navigation allows getting to the required Matchday without any difficulties. By default Matchday with the most recent match is displayed first. Moreover new module with the same functionality is available in public version.

Mobile App API

Included mobile API will allow each client to purchase and use our future Mobile application product so this is the first step to get mobile application for your club or league.

Languages updates

Updated translation to Spanish (special thanks to Pasionporelrayo project), Slovak, Chinese, Portuguese, Czech, Slovenian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, French and Russian. Many thanks to all the translators who supported us on product localization!

Number of minor improvements and bug fixes

Predictions integration with Knockouts matches, Venue Google API fix, check version algorithm improvement, Match layout order by Player Extra field (Squad tab) doesn't work, unable to delete match custom status, improve knockout layout when branding removed, Today matches edit results are not added to the Season table, Scroll module alignment, fixed CSS for tooltip on calendar, big number inside the score fix, add all teams to the season fix.

Please download the new 4.1.2 version from your Members Area and install it on your website.

Check documentation and demo and if any questions appear feel free to contact our friendly support team any possible way: Chat, HelpDesk, Forum.

We would be glad to hear your feedback.

Many of famous Championships and competitions are in full play so our new version of JoomSport – WordPress Sports Plugin will be very handy at these days.

We are pleased to deliver several comprehensive core product features in 1.2.x releases:

Ability to create hierarchical seasons. For several stages competitions you can use new functionality allowing creation of Season containers that includes several child Seasons inside – so stats will be collected for all child seasons and can be displayed on one page on FE.

Ability to use match results inside the groups from previous season (pro version). And even more there are few variants how achievements from previous season will be used in current ranking. It will be quite suitable for managing championships with several stages. So when the first stage is completed for example the best 4 participants continue compete with each other but only based on their head to head results from previous stage. Check all possible options in the documentation. 

Complex matches in Knockout (pro version). Effective feature for creating series of matches between the same participants in Knockout (Single elimination) type of competition. Let’s consider quite famous example NBA, major professional basketball league in North America, where currently the Conference Finals are played in a best-of-7 series.  Team has to get 4 wins with the same opponent before it will get to the next round.

Besides such significant improvements new version include bug fixes:

• Bug with disconnected Away team when changing match status on match page
• Optimized CSS for matches shortcode and matches widget
• Number of bug hot fixes in 1.2.2 and 1.2.3 releases

Check demo and if any questions appear feel free to contact our friendly support team any possible way: Chat, HelpDesk, Forum.

Many years ago we started our JoomSport product because we were choosing some Joomla sport component for our local football team. At that time JomLeague was the most comprehensive and well known league management solution for Joomla. That was the product supported by open community. In spite of the fact that it had a lot of features our developer and co-founder Andrew didn't like much the structure of JomLeague so decided to start their own product idea. That is how JoomSport was started more than eight years ago...

Couple of years ago JomLeague stopped their official support due to the lack of community efforts. The last official release was compatible with Joomla CMS 2.5 only so the community had never received the official JomLeague version with Joomla 3 compatibility.

Recently we had a chance to analyze JoomLeague structure on deeper level as number of clients requested to convert their data from JomLeague to JoomSport. We should state that JoomLeague is really great product and it is a pity it has stopped the development. Honestly saying in some specific cases JoomSport still doesn't have the features that JomLeague had many years ago! At the same time technology doesn't stand still so today we have to notice that JomLeague became quite outdated system, in terms of design and CSS styling at least. So many clients have started looking for the way to convert their data from unsupported system to something new, officially supported and better looking.

Our team is glad to announce that we've managed to develop the script that converts JomLeague data to JoomSport database. We have already converted number of clients who are quite happy with the result and we would be glad to share free the script with anyone interested. Still we need to say that migration process is quite complicated even if you have the script itself and in most cases it takes 3-4 iterations to complete the migration perfectly. So our custom development team is actually ready to provide JomLeague data migration service for anyone interested.

It's one of the best time of the year and Christmas arrived slightly early at BearDev. On behalf of BearDev team we would like to wish everyone a happy holidays time!

We truly believe everyone deserves a holiday present, therefore you will be pleased to know that we are giving away any selected JoomSport add-on for anyone buying JoomSport annual license or annual license support period extension. Offer is valid till the beginning of 2017.

We are very proud to announce that JoomSport WordPress sport plugin version is already public!

The current release is open for clients who purchased the discounted license in our web shop and available for downloading in Members Area. The introductory price will be kept for a while until the moment we release the Front end management and Knockout features.

We have ported huge number of features into WordPress and some of them appeared even more flexible due to native WordPress structure and features compliance. Here is the main list available at this stage:

• Professionally designed responsive views based on Bootstrap framework
• Tournaments for single players or teams
• Seasons with adjusting Standing view, groups, score settings, color highlighting

Summer is great for all kinds of sports and it is especially suitable for outdoor activities, just like running, jumping, cycling, and … swimming, of course. Today we are talking to Michael Badulescu, CTO of Swisswaterpolo.com about the latest enhancements implemented for the national water polo web site by the BearDev team.

MICHAEL BADULESCU
Swiss Waterpolo, Chief Technical Director

BearDev: We know Switzerland as the country of a thousand lakes. As far as Swimming is greatly popular among Swiss people, would you say the same regarding water polo?
MB: Unfortunately, it is not so popular as Swimming, but we are growing slowly. Water polo in Switzerland is quite small community with about 1’500 licensed players. The competitions are played in swimming pools, so the numbers of lakes doesn’t help us a lot.

We are pleased to announce that new version of Match Generator add-on is already available. Based on customers’ requests we have done the following implementations:

• Group Dividing. Now matches can be generated as between participants of one group as for all participants of the season (regardless of the group)
• Participant order. Check user friendly drag and drop feature for sorting participants before generate matches
• Minor improvements: Interface updates, language fixes, design issues etc.

Please buy the add-on in our web shop or download your copy from members area.

We always keep our doors open for new visitors, prospects and our old friends, but this week we have a special reason to welcome you in.

This moment, JoomSport project goes through multiple renovations, including products, services, and the store as well. We’ve already announced this renewal in our previous posts and finally it has come true. At last, we are ready to show you our new store and tell about the major obtained changes and improvements.

New JoomSport.com Design

This is the first thing catching your eyes and possibly most obvious change. Now, walking through the JoomSport pages you will likely find your browsing experience pleasant and seamless. We moved away from heavy images and graphics eliminating even the smallest distortion in your journey.

Creating the new appearance of our store we tried to take into account all your wishes and best usability practices to embody our dream of an innovative and comfortable point of sales. The improved structure of the store and clear menu allow you to find all necessary pages including products, demos and documentation much faster.

Even though, JoomSport.com have already been mobile-friendly this time we tried to consider each and every particular case and device to refine your on-the-go online experience.

WordPress Sport Plugin and Mobile Apps pre-order open

Moreover, within the current global update we continue widening our portfolio and glad to offer you two new products and save up to 40% of their full prices.

Our flagship product, JoomSport, will soon become available as a WordPress sport plugin and today you can purchase it just for $111. Offered discount - 30%.
The second coming soon and available for pre-ordering products are sport mobile applications that will deliver your JoomSport data straight on your league fun's mobile devices. Here, the price cut is even deeper, and you can get them for $499 only. The offer includes Android and iOS applications.

But, that’s not all. Celebrating the birth our new store we also offer you to save 10% on your first purchase on JoomSport.com with the Grand Opening coupon - UPD2016. Hope, you’ll enjoy your visit.

Now, when spring starts in the north and Australia meets autumn, comes a truly busy period for national sport leagues worldwide since many of them start their seasons in 2016. And, whatever is the tournament you’d like to start building online, you will likely find this task pretty embarrassing and awkward.

For example, the Australian Football League season, starting in March usually, consisted of 206 games in 2015, including 23 rounds and 18 final matches. Or, the 2015 Major League Soccer season took 340 matches to figure out the winner. So, it really doesn’t seem to be an easy walk to create manually that overwhelming number of matches, different match days, and seasons on you web site.

But, if you utilize the JoomSport extension you can take advantage of the JoomSport Match Generator add-on recently released and cataloged in our store.

The add-on allows streamlining the process above and enables you to generate matches in several clicks. This functionality saves tons of your time and keeps you from manual mistakes.

JoomSport Match Generator Features

• Generates matchdays and matches automatically;
• Supports Group, Knockout, and Double elimination matchday types;
• Fully integrated into JoomSport;
• Provides simple and intuitive configuration.

Future Development Roadmap

After collecting our first customers' reviews we decided to further enhance the product. First of all the improved sorting function will be added so it becomes easier to sort teams during the Matches generation process. Also, it is planned to develop the ability to generate matches of a selected Season Group only. The changes above will be delivered within the next JoomSport major release scheduled for the second quarter of 2016.

Add-on Installation

During the installation process you need to fulfill two actions. For a start, you should follow the BE -> Components -> JoomSport -> Add-ons path, choose the Match Generator add-on file and press the Install button.

Next, you need to publish the add-on to activate its functionality that completes the installation process.

BD: Hi, Roberto! Nice to see you. And, right of the bat, let’s start with your vision of the e-Sports industry and your company’s niche inside of it.

RL: Hi BearDev team, first of all let me thank you and your team for this opportunity. As you know, there have always been videogames tournaments among friends and, at a low scale, in specialized shops or in local associations. These events were clearly amateur-oriented, with the addition of some national or even international events, but the 90s are clearly a step forward for professional and competitive gaming.Over the last years, the e-Sports recognition increased a lot and this is mainly due to the industry created around it. Leagues and events organized by the Electronic Sports League (ESL) for example, or even by the developers of the most competitively successful games themselves, such as Riot (League of Legends), Blizzard Entertainment (Starcraft, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm), Valve (DotA and Counter Strike), or Activision (Call of Duty) take advantage of the media the same way as big regular sport events do.The key figure to understand the impact of e-Sports is 32 million viewers for the Finale of the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship in 2013, which was higher than the NBA play-offs of the same year.Regarding the Electronic Sports MastersTM (ESMTM), as you said, our objective is to promote e-Sports as well as the principles and values of the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF), but focusing on a single game, ARMA III.

BD: Is it true that e-Sports involve only a thin layer of the society mainly consisting of young people between 21 and 34 years old? And, what is your current audience structure?

RL: Having a look at the current evolution, I would even say younger, as kids now seem to be born with a tablet in their hands. Regarding Arma 3, it is a bit different because a big part of its community, players and ideas men are following the saga since its beginning in 2001 with the release of Operation Flashpoint… and it was 14 years ago. More recently, we decided to get figures about the average age among our audience, here are the results:

• 38.9% between 20 and 25;
• 22.2% older than 36;
• 16.7% between 26 and 30;
• 16.7%between 31 and 35;
• 5.6% younger than 20.

* Around 40% are players older than 31.

This shows that the ARMA III community is made of experienced players mainly due to the game developer company itself, Bohemia Interactive, which gave the code in open source as well as the tools allowing add-ons and mods to be created. About BI, I would like to add that their business model and the way they take care of the community are simply unique. Just have a look at the life duration of their games and free content they develop, such as e.g. the latest update “Nexus” released in November or the next one called “Eden” to be released at the beginning of 2016 with a powerful 3D edition tool, and as I said, everything is free!These are the things that make a player/customer faithful to the saga and create his special connection with the company.

BD: e-Sports seem to become a highly competitive market. How do you take the blow? What are the most important success components for you?