Testimonials

MRCA-logo-4-pdf
MRCA

Users Since: 2022

Location: Oklahoma 

Interview Date: April, 2024

Representatives: Toni Simon, Jana Bingham, Nona Laminack, Cody Renshaw 

Toni simon - rodeo secretary & rodeo parent

"...it connects all the different aspects that it takes for us to run a rodeo..."

"There's a lot of moving parts to this rodeo. We have so many people doing so many different jobs, so that fact that we kinda have one central hub to be able to get all of our data in, all of our times all of our entries really makes the day run a lot smoother for us. I love the RodeoReady App because it connects all the different aspects that it takes for us to run a rodeo. It connects them all together. We are all volunteers so for parents to be able to enter their kids, the announcer stand  being able to enter the times so that our competitors can immediately see how they performed  as well as all the notifications that the notifications that parents get to get their kids ready for the rodeos. It's just helpful."

jana bingham - rodeo parent

"...the RodeoReady App makes it seemless..."

"The RodeoReady App is awesome for us. All of the stats, everything is right there. Preparing and organizing for a rodeo, there's so many things behind the scenes and the RodeoReady App makes it seemless."

nona laminack - rodeo parent

"...it's very easy to sign up for rodeos..."

"The RodeoReady App has been very helpful for us. "It's very easy to sign up for rodeos. It's wonderful to have to watch live results come through. Parents are pulling it up, having the results. My family will come, they can also pull it up and can have it. If they are not here they can see the results. The boys use the App to see where they're placed and what their times were and the organization also sends messages to us." 

cody renshaw - livestock director & rodeo parent

"...it makes it a lot easier for the association..."

"With the RodeoReady App we register without rodeo association through there. We enter the boys, it make it so much easier. It makes it more simple.  You can find more rodeos through the app. You can track your scores, how well you're doing in the rodeo, see when you are up.  We love it. It makes it a lot easier for the association. Back in the old days there wasn't technology it was all written down hand paper and pencil and now with technology it has helped us progress. It helps us connect with the fans and the spectators as well." 

dodge
RAM Rodeo Tour

Client Since: 2015

Location: Ontario, Canada

Interview Date: May 5, 2022

Representative: Janice Blakney

TIME IS MONEY

"...[we are saving] 20 hours per Rodeo..."

Our platform strives to save time through automation and provide ease for managers and competitors. With 15-20 Rodeos per season, Janice estimates that she will save up to 400 hours per season by using the Rodeo Ready platform. Janice also expects that Rodeo Ready's new online payment platform to save more time.

WIDESPREAD USE

"...between 85%-90% of all entries are now coming in online..."

With internet access being readily available, the vast majority of competitors appreciate the option to register online.

COMPETITOR SATISFACTION

"...honest to goodness, since 2015 I havent heard a single complaint..."

Competitors love Rodeo Ready and how information is easily shared and available to them.

PAYOUTS

"..Payouts are very complicated...to be able to set it and leave it is amazing..."

Allowing the platform to handle the math saves time and ensures prompt payouts. Rodeo Ready's also prints cheques which decreases the risk of error and saves time.

dodge

CLIENT INTERVIEW WITH CENTRAL RODEO LEAGUE/ROSS MILLAR GROUP

May 5, 2022

Organization: Central Rodeo League / Ross Millar Group Representative: Janice Blakeney
Location: Ontario, Canada
Website: rossmillargroup.com
Type: Rodeo Association
Date of Interview: May 5, 2022

About Your Rodeo Association
Can you describe your association and the general makeup of your competitors?
We have people that rodeo from all walks of life. From people that do it professionally to the weekend warriors that goes out and does the barrels. So we have competitors from all walks of life, all social-economic levels. People just come together because they love the sport. Central Rodeo League is based out of Orangeville ON.

How long have you been with the association and what is your role?
I started in 2014. Shortly before we started with the Rodeo Management System. I do not go to the rodeos. I'm behind the scenes administration. I process all of the entries and deal with the competitors with their problems with credit cards and trades.

How many people compete in your rodeos over a season?
I went and looked on our database over the years we have had over 1300 competitors that have competed using the system over the years. That number I think is a pretty sizeable group of people. We have somewhere between 200 and 300 people per year over the course of the 15 rodeos that are actively competing. Because the system is so good with competitor information, we have had, I’m going to probably say zero questions or complaints about the information that gets out to the public, like looking at the scores and that sort of think. People seem to be very pleased with this product.

Where do most of your competitors reside?
Eastern Ontario region. We get very few from outside of Ontario. Mostly Eastern and Central Ontario.

How many rodeos do you have in a season?
Between 15 and 20 per season.

How many events do you typically have per rodeo?
The average is around 10.

What are your most popular events?
Barrel racing has the most entries. We can have 50 barrel racers over the course of a weekend. The most popular for the spectators is probably the bulls.

Do you have any unique events?
Novice Bucking horses is meant to increase the skills and experience of the people that are trying to enter this event at the level up. A cowboy can ride Saturday and Sunday. It’s hard for some of these up and coming cowboys to get on the big horses that are really experienced with this. They need something that is a little quieter that they can learn on and then move up. We have pole bending at every rodeo and that has proved to be very popular and we are happy to make the prize money the same as for the barrel racing and the girls have been very, very appreciative about that. The last couple of years we have also done the rescue race which has proved to be very popular with the competitors and the spectators. A person starts at one end of the arena and races to the other end of the arena where their partner is waiting and their partner hops up on the horse or pony and then races back to where they started and it’s a timed event.

What is the average fan attendance at your rodeos?
Over the course of the weekend somewhere between 4000 and 6000 people per rodeo. Of course, a three-day rodeo will get you more than that. We run a 3 Go plus average draw format in finals. The rest of the time we use the Standard format. Our Finals Rodeo will draw a greater crowd.

About the Rodeo Management System
How long have you been using RMS?
Since 2015. We were the first Rodeo Management System user. We wanted to use and have a system where the cowboys and cowgirls were not paying a fee to compete in it. No membership fees. We have a lot of competitors that will come and do just one or two rodeos depending on where they are in the province and to have a membership fee that charges $250 for somebody to do just one competition it really spins a lot of people out of being able to do the one competition and Ross has always been very focussed on education and getting as many people involved as he can into the rodeo world.

What were the reasons you first considered RMS, why were you looking for a software solution?
We tried another computer program that was based in the states and it just was dreadful. It didn’t work, there were links that were broken and getting a hold of someone to ask questions was just impossible. We did kind of muddle through it. But when you came on the scene with your product we were just thrilled that there was a Canadian product out there and we were able to customize what we needed over the course of the rodeos.

What were the reasons you chose RMS?
#1 it was a Canadian product and we will always try and support a Canadian product. It just had the functionality that we needed at that time and it certainly changed over the years. We were able to do the entries and payouts on the system and the information that goes to the competitor is amazing. The emails that they get back when their entries have been done, people look for that, it gives the competitor a feeling of comfort that their entry was actually received and they are in and everything is OK.

What are some of the best features of RMS?
Being able to write cheques directly out of the system is a huge time saver. The competitors love the information on the public side of this, what they can get out and they can search for whatever their niece or mother, or anybody has done. The system has a great deal of functionality with if you have a problem being able to sort it out and figure it out and put it in the right place. Payouts are very complicated, it’s a function of the number of people who are in the event and the prize money and all that sort of stuff. To be able to set that and leave it is amazing, to have the global settings has been a huge time saver.

How has your use of RMS changed over the years?
The system has become far more robust and functional over the years and we are using every single inch of the functionality of it.

Have you seen any improvement or updates to RMS that are helpful?
Printing cheques. In the beginning we were hand-writing checks and there is always the facility for error if you are hand-writing things. The entry process, buddy groups are amazing. The draw being able to identify the people per each performance and the computer runs the picks. That’s been very good too.

What has been the response of your competitors?
They love it. They love the functionality of being able to go onto their own profile and look to see what they have done what they have entered, the money they have won. Honest to goodness, since 2015 I haven’t heard a single complaint about I wish it did this or I wish it did that or it doesn’t tell me this. Everybody has just been thrilled with the amount of information that they can get about their particular competition rides.

Could you sum it up in the number of hours you save in using our product?
I will say probably 20 hours per rodeo we are saving. Between 85 and 90% of the entries are now coming in online. So I am not having to sit and do all of the entry work that I was. We now have the online payments set up as well, that will save us more time as well.

Would you recommend the Rodeo Management System to other Rodeo Associations?
100%

FCA_Logo
Foothills Cowboys Association

Client Since: 2017

Location: Alberta, Canada

Interview Date: May 10, 2022

Representative: Suzanne Kelly

THE POWER OF CLOUD

"...it is web based so we can log in and use it from anywhere..."

With all your data stored securely in the cloud, you can use Rodeo Ready from anywhere.

SAVE TIME

"...[We are] easily [saving] 15 hours per Rodeo..."

Suzanne estimates that she saves 15 hours per Rodeo. With FCA running 10 Rodeos per season, that is up to 150 hours worth of time saved per season. The indirect benefits from Rodeo Ready also includes competitor satisfaction and the time savings that they experience by utilizing the multiple features we have to offer.

SAVE MONEY

"...People have realized...how easy it is...I don't have to hire someone on entry day to take phone calls..."

With the online entry system being user friendly and popular among competitors, Suzanne saves time and money by allowing the Rodeo Ready platform to handle entries.

COMPETITOR SATISFACTION

"People enter, pay their fees and they are done in less than 5 minutes"

Our platform aims to save everyone time so we can cut to the fun part. Rodeo Ready uses state of the art payment technologies to ensure security, speed and satisfaction for everyone. The majority of FCA's competitors prefer using the Rodeo Ready platform with 95% using online entries and 70% using online prepayment to pay their fees.

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CLIENT INTERVIEW WITH FOOTHILLS COWBOYS ASSOCIATION

May 10, 2022

Can you describe your association and the general makeup of your competitors?
The FCA has been going since 1955 which is when they started by a group of people that wanted to get an association going that wasn’t pro. Our age groups range from probably about 8 to probably mid-60’s. We do have some families. We have some that are grand parents that are travelling with their grand kids or parents travelling with their kids. We are still amateur, our rulebook does not allow pros to enter our events.

How many people compete in your rodeos over a season?
On average we have about 250 entries in each rodeo. On a normal year we have had upwards of 10 rodeos so if we say 250 that’s about 2500 entries over the course of a season. That would be in a normal year. It’s been tough that last couple of years.

Where do most of your competitors reside, where do you draw from?
Most of ours are Alberta. We do have a handful that come from southeastern BC and probably less than 10 out of Saskatchewan. We have some from the North but most are central Alberta.

How many rodeos do you have in a season?
Normally about 10 and we co-approve probably 20+ with Lakeland, Wildrose and Chinook. With the co-approvals, our members are probably going to 25 to 30 rodeos.

How many events do you typically have per rodeo?
We have our 7 major and those have to be at every rodeo. Then we can have anywhere from 4 to 8 optional and junior events. Most of them have the Junior Barrel Racing but not all have the Steer Riding and then Breakaway and PeeWee are all option. 7 majors and then 4 – 8 of junior, Junior Bull, Novice Horse, 2 Breakaways, Junior Barrel, PeeWee Barrel and Junior Steer Riding.

Do you have any unique events?
No.

What is the average fan attendance at your rodeos?
I would say average attendance over a weekend might be 700-800. Some are higher like Cochrane because it’s close to Calgary.

How do you advertise or market your association?
We have a Facebook page so we do a lot promoting stuff on our Facebook. Quite a few of our committees have Facebook pages. If I see something pop-up I will share their posts on our page and vice versa. I would say that’s the bulk of our marketing is on Facebook.

About the Rodeo Management System
How long have you been using RMS?
Since 2017. We started using RMS when I started with FCA.

What were the reasons you first considered RMS, why were you looking for a software solution?
The price was reasonable when it was $200 and that gave you unlimited support. We were paying $90 an hour for support before and each phone call would be $90 and that ads up fast. That system was tied to the computer so if you didn’t have computer you couldn’t do anything as it was a DOS system.

What were the reasons you chose RMS?
They just wanted to have a system that was better and easier to use. That old one was just not user friendly. Let’s just move forward.

What are some of the best features of RMS?
Oh, there’s so many. I like the fact that the secretaries can update the scores/times on site so we don’t have to wait until Monday and they would fax everything in. The fact that it is web based so we can log in and use it from anywhere and access the same data. You can use it anywhere. The simplicity of just being able to print the receipts and just email them off to the secretaries. We used to print off and now we save time, paper and cost on courier. There’s just so much. Even the prepayment of fees, that’s huge. Probably 70% of our members prepay now because that easy for them and that saves them having to stand in line at window at the rodeo office to pay their fees.

What features save you the most time?
The online entries and the payout calculations. It’s a lot of work to do everything manually from doing the judges cards to the draw to the payout calculations. The online entries honestly have been fabulous. When I started, we would be plugging the phone lines into the wall and it would be ringing. It would not stop ringing until you unplugged the phone at 3:00. We had two phone lines going, two people taking calls from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm with no break at all. I had phone in entries last night for our Caroline rodeo and I took 5 calls in a two-hour window. People have just realized how easy it is. I would say 95% of our people have switched to the online entry. They get an email confirmation. They don’t have to sit there from 9 until 3 and keep hitting redial because the phone is busy. For two hours last night I got caught on a whole bunch of work because I only took 5 phone calls. That one is huge, I don’t have to hire someone on entry day to take phone calls. This year we are trying to push everyone to online entries because it works better for us and better for the members.
The payout calculations the fact that it just all that work for you. That one is huge as well.

How has your use of RMS changed over the years?
Especially over the last 3 years the buy-in from members has just kept going up. I think the contestants love it because it saves them time as well. They don’t have to sit there for seven hours trying to get through. Who has time for that? The online system literally takes 2 minutes to submit your entry. It’s a huge time saving and once the contestants starting buying-in and realizing how easy it was and realizing “oh jeez, I can pay my entry fees too”. People enter, pay their fees, and they are done in less than 5 minutes. They are ready for that rodeo. It just saves them lots of time. It saves me time and it saves our competitors lots of time. Now I hardly get any phone calls. It’s a huge savings on both our ends.

What has been the response of your competitors?
I think overall it’s been very positive. The fact that they can see when the secretaries enter they can see the results from that day. Paying their fees, they like that. They can just show up at the rodeo and not stand in line. That’s just taken care of. Overall very positive.

Could you sum it up in the number of hours you save per rodeo in using our product?
The 12 hours for taking phone-in entries. During the week I’m doing other stuff. Plus the automation of the other things, easily [saving] 15 hours per rodeo. I don’t have to print everything to see it. With the old DOS system, you had to print everything and there were just piles of paper going to the garbage. Leaps and bounds it just saves us time.

Would you recommend RMS to other Rodeo Associations?
Absolutely.
I have recommended Rodeo Ready to several organizations that are looking for some type of program to run their rodeos and local jackpots.