Rippleffect signing sees Arsenal top of the web league

The official website for Arsenal FC, Arsenal.com, has scooped 'Best Sport Website' at the prestigious Website of the Year Awards.

The site, developed with digital agency Rippleffect, was judged to have the best content, design and navigation by more than 850,000 UK web users.

Michael Leavey, general manager at Arsenal FC, said: "We're delighted to be named best sports site. Our digital strategy is constantly evolving to maximise new technologies to improve communication with fans and ensure an excellent user experience.

"The award is great recognition of the work we've done with Rippleffect to develop a site that can handle high volumes of traffic, while providing up to the minute information and ensuring users are able to navigate around the site quickly and easily."

Ben Hatton, managing director at Rippleffect, said: "The site ranks as one of the globe's most visited sporting websites averaging over 40 million page views per month.

"We started working with the club in 2008 to continue the success of Arsenal.com and help take it to the next level in all aspects of design, usability and content management.

"The site is designed to meet the varying demands of each fan or visitor, from ticket and player information to club news and corporate hospitality packages. It was designed for the user, catering for high volumes of traffic and ensuring all requirements are met with a simple click of a button."

Teun Roks, project manager at Website of the Year, said: "Judging by the votes cast, the navigation of Arsenal.com is seen as its strongest point. The website is very easy to navigate around, which means casual visitors to the site, as well as diehard fans, can easily find what they are looking for.

"If you look at other sports websites, there can be a lack of easy navigation. Football and other sports clubs have a lot of information to offer and therefore often have trouble setting up a clear site structure which is easy to navigate around. Arsenal.com has obviously succeeded in this."

Arsenal Football Club appointed Rippleffect in 2008 on a four-year deal to become its official web partner. The digital agency was tasked with redeveloping the site and providing a new and advanced bespoke Content Management System.