SAP Garden: From vision to venue – crafting a digital fan experience in the heart of Munich

Futurice teamed up with ice hockey club Red Bull Munich, FC Bayern Basketball, and SAP to create a digital experience ecosystem for the SAP Garden – a multi-functional sports arena built in the Olympic Park in Munich.

Aerial view of Munich with Olympic Park, featuring a modern circular building with green roof and the Olympic Tower.

Technologies used

React Native
Cloudinary
CleverPush
Contentful
AWS
Google Analytics

The challenge

In 2021, the two sports clubs and SAP faced a significant undertaking: the construction of the SAP Garden, a pioneering multi-functional arena at the Munich Olympic Park, set to open in September 2024. Home to Red Bull Munich and FC Bayern Basketball, the arena would also host sports events like E-Sports or Boxing and accommodate three ice skating rinks for amateur and recreational ice sports.

The clubs envisioned a venue that can swiftly transform from a basketball court to an ice hockey rink, coupled with an immersive digital experience for a multitude of events. This ambitious vision aimed to revolutionize the stadium experience and engagement of fans and partners by bridging the gap between the physical and digital realms.

With SAP Garden we wanted more than a new home rink – we envisioned a playground that fuses sport and entertainment through technology. Powered by a scalable tech stack and intuitive services, the platform has seen exceptional adoption among fans, visitors, and partners, delivering a truly seamless event experience and carrying the match-day energy far beyond the venue.

Timo Schubert

Head of IT, Red Bull Munich & SAP Garden

Impact and outcomes

Increased digital fan engagement
60.000+ app downloads and an average session time of more than 4 minutes demonstrate a growing and highly engaged user base.
Strong in-arena mobile order revenue
Up to 20% of the overall food & beverage revenue in the arena are generated through the mobile order app features.
Simplified arena access via digital ticket wallet
More than 50% of the visitors use the in-app wallet of the FC Bayern Basketball app to enter with digital tickets.

What we did

With our extensive experience in crafting user-centric solutions, we aimed to build a holistic digital landscape that would redefine how fans interact with their favorite teams and the arena. Addressing the foundational gaps between existing apps, we established a shared and easily maintainable technological base, and created a tokenized design system that enables a unified user interface across all platforms and future club apps.

A corner stone of all efforts was to collaboratively meet the individual needs of fans of both sports clubs and all brands involved. Continuous exploration and implementation paved the way for the successful engagement features.

Ice hockey arena with packed crowd watching a match, alongside a mobile app showing live game stats and engagement features.

The result significantly enhances the sports fan experience. From the moment the fans begin their journey, a personalized onboarding experience meets their preferences and interests. Fans are brought closer to the action with an immersive second-screen experience and live statistics. Staying updated is easier than ever with readily accessible news and AI-curated highlight videos, ensuring fans never miss a moment of their favorite player. Digital touchpoints and services across clubs are available via a seamless and secure single sign-on.

Four mobile app screens showing a sports team interface with player profiles, match scores, ticket purchasing options and venue map.

Focusing on the experience within the venue itself, the SAP Garden app joined the ecosystem. It offers wayfinding, mobile food ordering, and ticketing to mirror the physical touchpoints of the arena in the digital world.

This was an amazing project involving multiple stakeholders that significantly enhanced the individual arena experience through seamless, smart services and boosted revenue for the club. We were able to create a very engaging fan app that enhanced the experience for arena visitors and provided a compelling second-screen experience for fans following the game from home.

Lukas Horn

Head of Digital, FC Bayern Basketball

Why it matters

Active fan engagement is at the heart of the SAP Garden digital ecosystem, fostering the connection between the clubs and their supporters. It’s home to a dynamic fan community that thrives on interaction and a shared passion for sports.

The success of the SAP Garden digital ecosystem, its outstanding adaptability and potential for expansion also encouraged other sports clubs, such as EC Red Bull Salzburg, to join the platform.

Three smartphones displaying sports app interfaces with personalisation features, including jersey customisation and fan profiles.

From sharing game-day selfies to customizing digital jerseys with their name, number, or face, fans can interact with their team in playful and personal ways. These features, highlighted across the ecosystem, bring supporters closer to the action, turning spectators into participants and deepening emotional connection, loyalty, and engagement.

About the client

SAP Garden is an innovative new sports arena located in the Olympic Park in Munich. It serves as the home for two elite sports clubs in ice hockey and basketball and is a multi-functional venue for several sports, including e-sports, public ice skating, and diverse cultural events. The arena is a forerunner not only in architecture and engineering, but also in sports fan experience in the digital age.