BridgeCloud: A Hosting Option for Bridge Clubs
Most bridge clubs are in need of a website and their options are usually to head over to a website like WordPress, Wix or Blogger to create one – or hire a professional to design their web home for them.
BridgeCloud is a service which allows bridge club owners and managers to create an easy cloud-based site for their individual bridge club and network with members from there. We spoke to Stefan Skorchev, the founder of BridgeLife and wizard behind BridgeCloud to find out more.
Meet BridgeCloud: What is it?
“BridgeCloud is not just a website,” says Stefan. “It’s a gamechanger for bridge clubs.”
“It has an integrated email system to communicate with your members, people can register for events and lessons and pay for them via PayPal (which is also integrated into the website) and every member of the club can create their personal profile to follow their statistics from an event or compare success with different partners.”
Browser-based and easy to access from any PC.
“Every club receives its own website and administrates it on their own. This is the link with their players.”
Here, they can see results, news, events and anything else related to the bridge clubs. In this way, he says it’s aimed at organizers, teachers and players.
- Click Here for BridgeCloud
- Experience a User Demo
Starting BridgeCloud
“I was working as a teacher in bridge clubs in London, UK for four-and-a-half years, and I found that clubs have two main issues in regard to their financing and customer satisfaction.”
“First, the clubs, often limited by their size or lack of full-time employees, aren’t diversifying their portfolio, therefore offer just a very limited variety of products to their customers.”
The second issue, he says, is website hosting. “This adds extra weight to the expenses of a club, and as a result, many bridge clubs are struggling financially or very far from their potential.”
Stefan shared his views with friend, software developer and bridge player Zhivko Draganov. “Together, we shaped the idea of BridgeCloud.”
Signing Up
“The club or organization needs to sign up for a new website to start.” says Stefan. “This happens by completing the form available on BridgeCloud.com.”
From there, the club can invite members to create their own user accounts to receive statistics and newsletters in their inbox.
No fees to join
“Our operational costs are covered by giving a little advertising space to our sponsors.” Stefan says they also have a bridge shop for things like vacations and clubs. “Whenever someone buys from the shop, whether books or bridge trips, the clubs can earn a commission.”
Finding Clubs
Looking for a specific bridge club? “If you know which club you’re looking for, just type it into Google and their website will come up – and if they aren’t using our platform, advise them to!” says Stefan.
The club URLs for a club using BridgeCloud will be ClubName.bridgecloud.com.
More Information
What about BridgeLife? It’s the company behind BridgeCloud, and it turns out they do a lot more than just hosting bridge clubs.
“BridgeLife develops bridge software, runs bridge holidays across Europe and organizes a bridge festival.” says Stefan.
- More information about the Sofia Bridge Festival is available by clicking here. And note, the website was crafted using BridgeCloud.
Other Club Website Options
There are other web-based options. Great Bridge Links has gathered links and information for most of the Bridge Club Website options online today – you can find them on our Bridge Clubs Page
Photo: Duplicate Lite Bridge Club, BC Canada.