Managing competitions powered by a third-party API

This article provides information on managing a league competition on your Pitchero Club website powered by a third-party API.

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Overview

We are very pleased to confirm an official integration with the ECB's Play-Cricket.com since the 2015 season.

This saves club volunteers hours each week from entering match information on two separate systems.

If your league competition isn't available via an API integration, you can manage your fixtures in our Competitions Database or your club admin dashboard.

The ECB's Play-Cricket.com

Pitchero has an official integration with the ECB's Play-Cricket.com. As part of the integration, Pitchero receives the following data:

• League fixtures (fixture date, home and away team names, start time)
• League results
• League tables
• Match scorecards

This information can only be entered or updated via the ECB's Play-Cricket.com website. Any changes to fixtures on Pitchero will be automatically overwritten by the information supplied to Pitchero by the ECB's Play-Cricket.com

Data entered or updated on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com is synced with the Pitchero platform within 24 hours automatically.

For guidance on connecting your team to a competition, click here.

Clubs should continue entering the following information on a fixture in Pitchero:

• Additional fixture information (venue, meet time and instructions)
• Team selections
• Match previews
• Match reports
• Video highlights
• Photos of the game

Other leagues and NGBs

We would love to work with other leagues and national governing bodies (NGBs) to provide league competition integrations on Pitchero as this would provide enormous benefits to clubs using Pitchero, especially club volunteers.

If your league or NGB doesn't already work with Pitchero, we would advise your club to contact the League or NGB and encourage a conversation with Pitchero to see what we can do to benefit its member clubs.

League competitions managed by the League or NGB

If the League or NGB already uses Pitchero or has an integration with Pitchero, the league competition fixtures and results will be updated by the League/external system and the updates will be reflected on the club's website and mobile apps.

Everybody wins. The League or the NGB knows the information showing on club websites is accurate, and club volunteers do not need to duplicate admin tasks on two separate systems.

League competitions not managed by the League or NGB

For leagues and NGBs that do not integrate with Pitchero, Pitchero has its own Competitions Database which houses thousands of league competitions across different countries, sports, and tiers. At the club's request, Pitchero will list the league competitions and divisions that the club requires for its teams.

Pitchero also has a tool to get a one-time export of fixtures per division from The FA's Full-Time or the English RFU system. This is usually done at the start of the season.

Once a league competition has been listed on Pitchero, clubs can connect their teams so the fixtures, results, and tables show on the club's website and mobile apps. When connecting to the competition, the admin will become a Division Admin of the competition on Pitchero and has equal responsibility as other Division Admins to ensure the fixtures and results for the competition are kept up-to-date. The fixtures and results are not maintained automatically by Pitchero.

For more information on the responsibilities of a Division Admin and becoming a Division Admin, please see this article.

Troubleshooting

• The team's competition is not available to connect to
  • Before the start of each cricket season, Pitchero will link up to the latest competition season on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com website. Once listed, clubs can connect their teams to their respective competitions. The connection to the competition is not handled automatically, teams need to connect to their competition division(s) each season.
  • If the team's competition is not yet available on Pitchero, the club should check the League's ECB's Play-Cricket.com website to ensure the competition is listed for the new season and the fixtures have been published publicly.
  • If you still require assistance, please contact our support team directly. When submitting a support ticket, please include:
    • The league name (exactly as it's listed on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com, not abbreviated)
    • The division name (exactly as it's listed on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com
    • A link to the team's page in the club admin dashboard
    • A link to the competition on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com
• The fixtures have changed on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com website but not on Pitchero
  • There is a daily sync between the ECB's Play-Cricket.com and Pitchero systems which covers new competition divisions, results on existing fixtures, and changes to existing fixtures. If there is a change division structure on Play-Cricket (e.g. teams are moved from one division to another), the competition may need to be manually resynced on Pitchero.

• • If you have waited at least 24 hours and the change still hasn't taken effect on Pitchero, still, please contact our support team directly. When submitting a support ticket, please include:
    • The league name (exactly as it's listed on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com, not abbreviated)
    • The division name (exactly as it's listed on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com

• • • A link to the team's page in the club admin dashboard
    • A link to the competition on the ECB's Play-Cricket.com
• Why doesn't the integration with the ECB's Play-Cricket.com include cup or friendly fixtures?
  • The integration between the ECB's Play-Cricket.com and Pitchero system specifically includes league fixtures (i.e. league competition fixtures from the League's ECB's Play-Cricket.com website).
  • We would love to save club volunteers further admin time, however, the current integration does not include cup competitions associated with a League, and/or club friendlies.

Related articles

Thanks for taking a look at this article, we hope that you found it useful.

You may also find these related articles useful too:

• Fixtures, results and tables
• League competitions
• Manage fixture information

Contact support