Australian Poker League
Multi-touchpoint platform serving Australia's largest poker league
Digital transformation for Australia's premier poker league, bringing real-time tournament information to 850,000 players across web, mobile, and in-venue displays.
The Challenge
850,000 players. Hundreds of venues across Australia. $25 million in annual prize pools. Australia's largest poker league needed to scale.
The problem showed up at major events. Players would ask Tournament Directors the same questions all night: What are the blinds? What's the prize pool? When's the next break? TDs spent more time answering questions than running the tournament.
Players had no confidence in what they saw. Website said one thing. Mobile app showed something different. Venue had different information. Nobody knew what to trust.
The platform needed to work everywhere at once. Web. Mobile. In-venue displays. Same accurate information, same moment. And it had to handle the scale. APL Million runs 83 tournaments. All the data, all the players, all at the same time.
The Solution
We started with research. Eight weeks of discovery. Competitor analysis, user interviews, stakeholder workshops. We built prototypes and took them to live APL Major events. Not lab testing. Real tournaments with real players under real pressure.
The research revealed the core problem: major events created information bottlenecks. The solution had to distribute information, not centralize it.
We rebuilt the major events platform from the ground up. Live leaderboards. Tournament registration. Player profiles for 850,000 users. Real-time updates across every touchpoint.
The in-venue displays changed everything. Tournament Directors update the blinds once. Venue screens show it. Website shows it. Every mobile phone shows it. Same data, same moment. Players stopped asking questions. They just looked up.
Behind it all, we redesigned three major backend systems. Real-time data sync infrastructure. Player management at scale. Tournament scheduling across hundreds of venues. The technical complexity is invisible. Players just see accurate information everywhere.
How We Built It
Research that revealed the problem. Real-time sync across three platforms. Backend systems redesigned for scale. In-venue displays that changed the game.
Research That Made the Difference
Eight weeks of discovery before writing a single line of code. We ran competitor analysis to see how other poker leagues handled tournament information. Created user personas for casual players, competitive grinders, Tournament Directors, venue staff. Ran interviews, focus groups, surveys across the player base.
Then we built prototypes. Not polished mockups. Working prototypes. We took them to live APL Major events and tested them with real players during actual tournaments. High-pressure environment. Real feedback. No lab conditions.
The research revealed something specific: major events create information bottlenecks. Players asking TDs "What are the blinds?" every ten minutes. The solution became clear: distribute information everywhere, don't centralize it.
Information Everywhere, All at Once
Tournament Directors were answering the same questions all night. What are the blinds? What's the prize pool? When's the next break? What are the upcoming blinds? Time they should have spent managing the tournament.
We built in-venue display systems that show it all. Current blind levels. Upcoming blinds so players can plan their strategy. Prize pool totals updating in real-time. Payout structure showing how money gets distributed. Tournament clock showing time remaining in the level. Scheduled break times.
The technical part: Tournament Directors update the information once through the backend. That update pushes simultaneously to venue displays, the website, and the mobile app. Real-time sync. Every player sees identical information at the same moment, whether they're sitting at the table or checking from home.
The result: Players stopped asking questions. They just look up at the screen. Or check their phone. Or open the website. Same data everywhere.
Major Events Platform, Rebuilt
We didn't redesign the major events interface. We rebuilt it. Ground up. React frontend. Node.js backend. PostgreSQL database optimized for the read-heavy workload.
Live leaderboards showing real-time player rankings across all tournaments. Search and filter to find games based on your preferences. Tournament registration streamlined. Player profiles unified across 850,000 users. Track your event history. See which major events you've qualified for. Get notifications about upcoming opportunities.
Mobile-first responsive design. Full experience on your phone at the pub. Same experience on desktop at home. Same experience on tablet. The platform had to work everywhere because players check it from everywhere.
APL Million runs 83 tournaments. All the player data. All the live leaderboards. All the real-time updates. The platform handled it.
The Backend That Makes It Possible
Three major backend systems got redesigned to support this:
Real-Time Data Sync Infrastructure WebSocket connections streaming live data. When Tournament Directors update blind levels, it propagates instantly to venue displays, website, mobile app. Every touchpoint shows identical information at the same moment. Handles high concurrency when hundreds of players check leaderboards simultaneously during major events.
Player Management System 850,000+ player profiles. Every player has a unified identity across web, mobile, in-venue. Event history. Qualification status. Rankings. Personal profile management. Free registration with email verification. Optimized for high-read scenarios because far more players view information than update it.
Tournament Scheduling and Management Hundreds of venues running nightly events. Major series like APL Million with 83 tournaments. Complex structures with multi-day events, rebuys, add-ons, qualifier systems. Tournament Directors need tools to set up events, manage players, track progression. The system handles both free entry games and cash buy-in tournaments.
The technical complexity is significant. Real-time sync across distributed systems. Conflict resolution when TDs update during high-traffic moments. Database queries optimized for scale. Infrastructure that supports 850,000 players without breaking.
But none of that matters to players. They just see accurate information. Everywhere. All the time.
The Long Game
This wasn't a one-off project. We've worked with Entain for over two years across five projects. APL. SportsPick Live (formerly EV Live) for sports broadcasting. Ennovate for their startup ecosystem. Ladbrokes iconography. Multiple teams. Product owners, technology leads, operations officers. We worked embedded with their internal development teams, not as siloed external contractors.
The partnership works because we solve real problems. Tournament Directors had a workload issue. Players had a trust issue. The platform had a scale issue. We addressed all three.
850,000 players. Hundreds of venues. $25 million in annual prize pools. Real-time information across web, mobile, and in-venue displays. Backend systems redesigned to handle the complexity. Research that revealed the actual problem before building the solution.
Australia's largest poker league running on infrastructure built to scale.
Kind Words
“Having worked with Halftone Digital for 2+ years, I can confidently endorse their output across over 5 projects. Rob and Sasha are the equivalent of multiple roles in a traditional business, in just 2 people. They can work up and down the web value chain – research, design, creative, delivery, etc. – and I have seen multiple times where they have been able to adapt/expand their skills successfully to the problem statement and work required. I've also been impressed with their ability to effectively work with many different stakeholders and teams in varying set ups – smaller to bigger teams, some more technical and others not at all. They are great partners and produce high quality work – would highly recommend.”
“Working with the Halftone Digital team was an absolute pleasure from beginning to end. The level of quality Sasha and Rob routinely deliver on all varieties of projects far succeeded expectations and was managed in the most absolute and professional manner. Enlisting an all action, positive attitude to any/all obstacles placed in their way to expertly deliver refined and market ready solutions, designs and platforms. I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment working alongside the elite duo and am very sad to say goodbye.”
