Score Media Case Study

www.scoremedia.com

solutions:

Key Impacts

Enables quick launch of new sites across the globe
Offload up to 98% of origin hits
Avoided expanding infrastructure by 10-15 times
Avoided adding headcount to manage larger infrastructure
Enables extraction of maximum value from Akamai Dynamic Site Delivery
Makes it possible to aggressively pursue global growth

Score Media Leverages Akamai Origin Offload Optimization Package to Handle Peak Demands without Expanding Infrastructure

Founded in 1997, Score Media is a leader in interactive sports entertainment. The company delivers sports entertainment across a number of assets, including The Score Television Network ("The Score"), Hardcore Sports Radio (SIRIUS 98), and other interactive venues including theScore.com. In October 2007, Score Media launched ScoreMobile iPhone Edition, a free application that sends sports scores, stats, and commentary directly to mobile phones. Along with the BlackBerry version that launched in June 2009, the application has been downloaded over three million times. ScoreMobile provides sports fans with up-to-the-minute information for a number of sports leagues, including MLB, PGA, NFL, NCAAF, NCAAB, CFL, NASCAR, NHL, NBA, MLS and EPL.

At peak times during events, ScoreMobile experiences orders of magnitude more demand for its content. In the spring of 2009, ScoreMobile’s servers were struggling to keep up with demand during the NBA and NHL playoffs. The company upgraded its hosting infrastructure, but was unable to scale to support peak traffic. Fallon was familiar with Akamai, and turned to the company to see if it could help.

Akamai recommended Dynamic Site Delivery to ensure fast delivery of dynamically generated content, such as up-to-the-minute scores and stats. Then Akamai suggested that Score Media consider the Akamai Origin Offload Optimization package delivered by Akamai Professional Services. “Dynamic Site Delivery was helping us deliver pages much faster than before, but we wanted to furtheroffload our infrastructure. The Origin Offload Optimization package is designed to help Akamai customers fine-tune their Akamai configurations to achieve optimal origin-server offload, so it was the perfect fit," says Fallon.

An Akamai solutions architect within the Professional Services group assessed ScoreMobile’s situation to recommend the optimal configuration. “We were highly impressed with the Professional Services’ team. They took ownership of the project and went beyond our expectations in making sure that we put our best foot forward for the launch,” explains Fallon.

Akamai Professional Services was able to optimize ScoreMobile's Dynamic Site Delivery solution configuration in time for the start of the 2009 NFL season. ScoreMobile sees hundreds of thousands of concurrent users on Sunday afternoons between 3-5 pm ET, all expecting to access real-time information.

In keeping with its commitment to being a leader in interactive sports entertainment, Score Media is continually strategizing about adding new features and support for additional devices, along with expanding its reach around the globe. "Akamai gives us the confidence that we can deliver our service anywhere in the world so we can aggressively pursue international growth," concludes Fallon.

"We’ve offloaded at least 90% of hits to our origin, and sometimes as much as 98%. In fact, we offload the most when we’re experiencing peak traffic."
—Dale Fallon, Director of Mobile, Score Media