Background

HoofBid brings unique features to the Standardbred horse industry for buying and selling. The Weekly Sunday Night Auction is a signature feature of HoofBid which can be accessed via mobile apps for Apple and Android devices. Auctions are managed in real-time, keeping bidders and sellers updated instantly during the online event.

Sellers create horse listings quickly and accurately using the integrated data search with Standardbred Canada. Automatic links to TrackIT performance lines and live up-to-date pedigree information is another powerful feature that takes the burden off sellers and buyers to obtain and share these valuable resources on their own. Sellers can add rich comments and photos to boost the marketing value of their listing at no additional cost.

Tight integration with Rogers Communications Network for race videos is built directly into the app. Sellers can preview and add their horses’ winning race video from featured racetracks in the US and Canada in seconds for potential buyers to view within the app. Sellers can also add links for in-app viewing of YouTube videos to enhance the value of their listing.

In addition to weekly auction sales, HoofBid offers options for regular sale methods directly through owners that are affordable and easy to manage.

Project Work

We were approached by the client with the goal of making Standardbred horse buying and selling a first-class experience on mobile. Our role on this project was comprehensive, encompassing product definition, system architecture, UI design, software development, testing, deployment, and operations support.

The HoofBid platform consisted of many parts we designed and built. This included native apps for Apple and Android devices that buyers and sellers use to create and view listings and participate in auctions. The platform also included a server backend to manage user accounts, provide a listings content delivery network, run live auctions, handle payments, and support admin operations.

The backend was built on the Google Cloud Platform, an industry proven, scalable service that allowed us to focus on the client’s custom features and get to market faster. At the onset of this project, hosting real-time auctions was the priority. We utilized Google's Firebase platform to provide the needed real-time data management and syncing features allowing up-to-the-second bidding updates during live auction events.

One important component of the platform we created was an iPad admin app allowing the client to easily review and approve listings, organize and publish auctions, verify seller information, and make real-time editorial changes.

Unique to this project was integration with several 3rd party systems including Standardbred Canada's TrackIT, Rogers Communications Network, Slack, Stripe, and a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Slack was an existing tool used by the client business and the integration we built allowed the client to stay informed on listing submissions, user account status, auction bidding and final sale dispositions. Stripe integration supported payment handling during the listing checkout process on the mobile apps, and auction bidder verification on the backend server.