Sport:80 statement on National Indoors entries

Since entries opened for the National Indoors on 31 August and the technical issues that followed, we have been investigating this and working with Sport:80 to understand what happened, and most importantly ensure the issue doesn’t happen again. As part of this, we wanted to share an update and statement on this with all members, which includes an apology from Sport:80. 

Johnny Turner, Chief Operations Officer at Sport:80 said:  

“I am writing on behalf of Sport:80 to share our profound apologies. 

There was an incident that impacted the registration process for the 2023 National Indoor Championships related to our Amazon Web Services server, which we couldn’t have predicted beforehand. We are aware that some users have questioned our infrastructure. We use this service as it is one of the global leaders used by many of your favourite brands and platforms. Our Chief Technical Officer is performing a full investigation with Amazon to understand why the service didn’t operate as we expected. 

I am aware that some users are suggesting the same thing occurred last year. Although there was an issue with our payment gateway, it was not the same thing, nor was it a system outage. We are extremely frustrated by the fact we’ve experienced an issue with the same event a year later. 

Again, please accept our profound apologies. We know as well as anybody that success lives and dies by the user's experience. We understand that users experiencing any form of challenge when attempting to register for an event is bound to cause high levels of stress and frustration for which we are deeply sorry.”  

Reflecting on this, Archery GB Chief Executive Officer Ruth Hall added: 

“First and foremost, we deeply regret the inconvenience caused by the technical glitches during the registration process for the National Indoor Championships. Our commitment to providing our members with the best user experience remains unwavering. We have been in close collaboration with Sport:80 to address and rectify this issue promptly. 

We appreciate Sport:80's acknowledgement of the problem, their sincere apology, and most importantly, their understanding of the frustrations faced by everyone during the process. Your patience and understanding mean a great deal to us, and we thank you for your continued trust and support.”