2019 RaceTrends Report Shows 1.0% Participant Growth
Our 2019 RaceTrends Report, an annual analysis of the state of the endurance industry is out now! Released at our inaugural 2019 Winter Symposium, the report was built by mining RunSignup registration and finisher data over a five-year period to generate transparent statistics, identify trends in the industry, and provide recommendations to help events compete in a competitive market. More than 7 million participants and 50,000 race events – an estimated 20-30% of the US endurance market – are accounted for in the data set for 2019.
The headline of this year’s report is that races that were on our platform in both 2018 and 2019 grew 1.0%, a slight improvement from last year’s decline of 0.1%. Other highlights include:
- 5.6% of races over 500 held in 2018 died, or did not recur in 2019 (on any platform)
- Referrals account for 7% of registrations when referral rewards refunds are turned on – meaning for every refund given, 13 runners register
- Mobile dominates, with 70.3% of page views coming from a mobile phone or tablet, and mobile transactions creeping towards 50%
- Fundraisers who connected their RunSignup Fundraising efforts to a Facebook Fundraiser via the free API Integration raised $490 more than unconnected fundraisers
- With the GPS runner-tracking app now available through Certified Timers, races of all sizes are able to incorporate it into their event, leading to a 108% increase in the number of races offering the app.
Want to learn more about the industry trends we’re seeing? View the whole report or register for our webinar on 2/5/20.
January’s Top News
2019 Year in Review
2019 Year in Review
2019 came to a close, with impressive core numbers that include company growth of 20% in an industry that grew just 1.0% (based on our RaceTrends report). Our transaction volume grew at a faster rate than registrations (27% vs 23%), largely due to an increased use of the platform by nonprofits raising money through donations and fundraising. Highlights of 2019 included:
- GiveSignup for Nonprofits
- Facebook Fundraising API Integration
- Sales Tax System
- RaceDay Scoring Version 2.0
- ChronoTrack, Athlinks, and RunSignup partnership
- CRM improvements
- Infrastructure and Payments updates
RunSignup Symposiums
Our inaugural 2020 Winter Symposium brought together 250+ race directors, timers, nonprofits, and industry professionals for 2 days of education and networking in sunny Orlando, FL. If you made it down, thank you for your time and attention – but if you didn’t, we have plenty of content for you to catch up on, with more rolling out all the time.
Save the Dates!
Mark your calendars for our next two Symposium opportunities: July 27-29 in Philadelphia, PA and January 25-26 in Orlando, FL. Registration for the Summer 2020 Symposium will open in mid-February, with Winter 2021 registration coming later this year.
Endurance Industry News
Tough Mudder Potential Bankruptcy
With Bloomberg reporting that Tough Mudder creditors are trying to put the company in bankruptcy, what are the lessons for the broader endurance industry? Scaling up is challenging, and managing cash flow via financing from a registration or ticketing company is risky business.
Congratulations to ImATHLETE and EnMotive
The wave of consolidation in the registration marketplace continued with the acquisition of ImATHLETE by Enmotive, following on the heels of Gatehouse Media’s acquisition of Enmotive last year.
Race Registration Contacts
We recently heard a nightmare of a story about a race that is moving registration platforms – and was locked out of their previous system by the vendor. Ensure you never lose access to your own data by negotiating a non-exclusive contract or a right-to-leave.
Webinar Corner
2020 is kicking off with a flurry of education – not just our Winter Symposium, but also a number of Webinars (completed and upcoming) to keep you up-to-date on the latest technology.
Recap: Mobilize Your RunSignup Data with Artificon
Artificon, a new product from the Tuck Consulting Group, uses RunSignup’s open API to integrate your RunSignup data with the other tools your nonprofit or race organization uses. Currently Artificon supports Salesforce integrations, with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT available in March 2020. In this webinar, Alex Tuck of Tuck Consulting Group provides an update and a demo of the product.
Recap: Grow Donations and Fundraising with RunSignup
More than 8,000 nonprofits use RunSignup to raise more and save time. In this webinar, GiveSignup Lead Allison Bickel shared the 2019 fundraising releases and UX update, reviewed the different ways that fundraising events setup registration, donations, and fundraising on RunSignup, and covered the best settings and tools to grow donations and incentivize fundraisers.
Recap: Grow Donations and Fundraising with RunSignup
We’re not slowing down on the webinars, with four coming at you in February. Here’s what you have to look forward to (you can register for any at the link below):
- Lessons from the 2019 RaceTrends Report (2/5/20)
- RunSignup’s All-in-One Charity Bib Fundraising Platform (2/12/20)
- Multi-Race Bundles (2/19/20)
- GiveSignup Ticket Events (2/26/20)
RunSignup News
RunSignup CRM Success Story
A large race that opened on RunSignup in January put on a master-class on using custom source tracking and their embedded CRM to create a highly targeted, optimized marketing strategy. Check out what they did and learn from them!
Email Capture Pop-Up for Races
Grow your email lists and convert anonymous website visitors to real participant and donor leads with RunSignup’s new Email Capture pop-up. Create a seek email capture form in seconds (no developer required) – for free.
RunSignup’s Long Term Advantage
Our employee owned structure makes us fundamentally different. By having a long term horizon we ensure we invest in things like infrastructure, sales tax compliance, PCI security and other “boring” things that ensure we will be here for many years to come. As some of our competitors go through cycles of their “exits”, we to stay on the path of building great technology for our customers.
Security Updates
We were issued a new Attestation of Compliance for PCI, our yearly report by an independent auditor that does a multi-dimensional audit of our system and processes to ensure we meet the highest level of compliance with the credit card industry standards. Additionally, we released our updates to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that went into effect this month.
Digital Race Bag Technology for Race Management Companies
Setting up a Ticket event, but need someone else to create or link the payment information? You now have the option to use test mode or invite someone else to setup the payment information later. Get started today, add payment information later.
