Investing in the Future

David Fryda

How the ABF is revolutionising bridge club
management and player experience

Our Mission

The Australian Bridge Federation’s (ABF) mission for 2022-2025 is to guide and promote bridge across Australia, ensuring our community not only survives but thrives, even in the face of global challenges like COVID-19. To achieve this, we have focused on three key areas: growing the game of bridge in Australia, supporting our community and its diverse needs, and future-proofing our infrastructure to stay ahead of technological advancements while mitigating risks associated with obsolete technologies and single-person dependencies.

Central to this mission is the MyABF development project, which aims to revolutionise bridge club management and enhance the overall player experience through comprehensive, integrated technology solutions. As we move forward, it is essential to address the financial requirements needed to support this ambitious initiative while also covering the group’s increasing operating costs and adjusting for inflation. This is why, at the ABF’s annual general meeting (AGM) in May, the council voted in favour of some small but necessary rolling increases in our fees over the next three years to ensure the sustainability and continued growth of our beloved game.

ABF Financial History

Over many years, the ABF built a very healthy balance sheet and had sufficient cash reserves to cover the small operating deficits that became the norm for several years. The COVID years resulted in a couple of small surpluses for the ABF, but we have since returned to operating at a deficit again.

There is a broad range of reasons for these deficits, including the rising cost of operations in an inflationary environment. Staff and infrastructure costs have continued to increase, as have the costs of insurance, running the Masterpoint Centre, maintaining our websites and sending representative teams to world championships.

MyABF Investment Proposal

In addition, the ABF has been investing heavily in technology for the past five years. In 2018, the ABF Board resolved to invest over half a million dollars in MyABF, a technology platform designed to:

Support all Australian clubs and players by simplifying the administration of clubs and bridge events

Make systems more user-friendly, easy to use, and accessible for players, improving their experience

Reduce the many hours of effort needed by employees and volunteers to manage clubs, members, masterpoints, and scoring

Address critical issues in the bridge community’s technology infrastructure, such as single-person dependencies, obsolete technologies, and a lack of strategic direction

Ensure systems function without interruption, meeting the high expectations of bridge players for reliable technology

Streamline membership management, payment processing, and event entries, significantly reducing administrative burdens and providing more accurate reporting

Provide an easy-to-use, all-in-one leading bridge technology solution for clubs and associations across Australia, enhancing the experience of bridge players at all levels

Deliver a single integrated platform running on reliable IT infrastructure (in the cloud), available to all affiliated bridge clubs and players throughout Australia

At the time MyABF was proposed it was thought it could be delivered within three years and that the ABF had sufficient cash reserves to fund the development without charging clubs or players.

However, like many technology projects, the time and cost were underestimated due to unexpected challenges such as COVID-19, significant increases in inflation, additional club needs, and changes in personnel.

Since its inception in 2019, though managed by a single project manager and just one or two developers supported by a group of volunteers on a steering committee, the project has successfully transformed bridge event management across Australia and become the envy of many clubs worldwide. Nearly all bridge events nationwide now use MyABF as the portal, providing players with the information they require and the ability to enter and pay their fees seamlessly. More recently, several bridge clubs have transitioned to using MyABF for their club management, allowing their members to pay their table fees through their MyABF account.

MyABF Current State

By the end of 2024, the total investment in MyABF will be approximately $900,000. The impact on the ABF’s cash reserves has been far greater than originally anticipated.

Operating MyABF, in addition to its development, is also contributing to the ABF’s rising costs. For example, when we pass event money that we have collected on behalf of clubs back to them we attempt to recover the transaction costs that Stripe have charged us. Although we aim to “break even,” we have in fact incurred more costs than we have recovered. These operating expenses and additional behind-the-scenes administrative costs are covered from the ABF’s general funds.

MyABF Future

Whilst MyABF is already offering significant savings and benefits to clubs and is admired worldwide, we still have more work to do to complete the development of MyABF. There are three core elements still to be done:

Complete club membership module to enable clubs to retire existing systems

Integrate masterpoint centre (MPC) with MyABF as MPC software is running on outdated software that is no longer supported

Integrate a scoring program with MyABF to reduce errors and overheads

To complete this development and cover the costs of the ongoing operation and support of the software, as well as address the deficits the ABF is incurring from their general operations, we estimate we will need to raise an additional one million dollars over the next three years.

Funding Our Future

The ABF has two main sources of income: capitation fees, a charge paid by all clubs based on their number of members, and masterpoint fees, which vary based on the colour (green, red, and gold) and grade of competition. Clubs and event organisers need to cover the cost of masterpoints in the fees they charge players each time they play.

As one might anticipate, both capitation and masterpoint fees have gradually increased over the years in alignment with rising operating costs. Recognising the financial strains brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we halved the capitation fees for a year to alleviate some of the financial pressures experienced by our members during this challenging time. This was in addition to funnelling over one million dollars in table fees from online games back to the clubs between May 2020 and September 2021.

Some alternative methods of raising the required funds were considered, but they all would result in even more costs to administer, so it was agreed that raising the capitation and masterpoint fees would be the best approach. Rather than solely burdening competition players with these additional costs, the ABF Council agreed at its AGM that, since the benefits of the ABF’s operations and MyABF will be enjoyed by all, and are essential for the sustainability and growth of our bridge community, it is appropriate that the increases be shared by everyone.

Impact On Players

As a result, we will be increasing the annual capitation fee and masterpoints fees by less than $4 a year for the next three years. This reflects our commitment to keeping bridge as an affordable pastime whilst providing huge benefits to players across the country.

Capitation Fee Increases for
2025, 2026, and 2027

Masterpoint Fee Increases for 2025

In April next year the cost of masterpoints will increase as follows:

To put these increases in context, the following table illustrates the impact on some example sessions:

In 2026 and 2027, masterpoint fees will increase by three percent per year in line with inflation.

These increases have been calculated to raise the one million dollars required to cover the ABF’s costs in 2025, 2026, and 2027. The $900,000 investment already made by the ABF in MyABF is not being recovered. We expect our cash reserves to remain at or near the level they will be at the end of 2024 throughout the next three years.

We expect the vast majority of Australian bridge players will accept that these increases have been well considered and scrutinised by the ABF’s management, Board, finance committee, and councillors, and therefore are being made with players’ best interests in mind. However, there are, without doubt, some players who feel the increases are not justified or that the benefits will not flow back to them. None of us like it when costs increase, but we all value the continued prosperity of our bridge community and the reduced workload for our hardworking volunteers, making it easier for everyone to enjoy both playing and managing the game. Even with these increases the ABF’s charges remain low in comparison with other nationally supported bodies.

The small team involved in the running of MyABF will be supporting clubs across the country as they implement MyABF so the benefits can be enjoyed as soon as possible.

ABF Technology Fund

At the AGM in May, the Council also resolved to establish an ABF Technology Fund and to redirect some historical ABF payments to the states and territories into this fund. The fund’s objective will be to reduce the impact of the costs to deliver and support the MyABF platform into the future. We will be seeking donations into this fund from players and sponsors, and at the 2025 AGM, the Council will consider, based on the success of the fund-raising, ways to pass the benefits back to players. This may come in the form of targeted relief to players with financial constraints or may even result in delays or reductions in the implementation of the planned increases in 2026 and 2027.

In Conclusion

Hopefully, this article helps you to understand why these increases are being implemented. If you have unanswered questions, we plan on distributing more information over the coming weeks to address them. Additionally, ABF management and Board members will be available at upcoming events for Q&A sessions, and if there is sufficient demand, we will run webinars to answer your questions.

In the meantime, I welcome comments and suggestions from members and I will try to respond within time constraints.