DTB Sports & Events sells hospitality packages for the biggest fixtures in sport. Their system was holding them back: quoting was slow, fixture data was messy and duplicated, reporting was painful, and the sales-to-operations handover ran on spreadsheets and email. We replaced Microsoft Dynamics 365 with a custom-built HubSpot architecture that fixed all of it, cutting average time in the quoting stage by 80%.

The Challenge

DTB books deals against specific fixtures (Wimbledon, Premier League, rugby internationals, concerts) and fulfils them around event day. Dynamics 365 had become a blocker, and the problems were commercial:

• Slow quoting. Deals sat in the quoting stage for days while reps assembled the right packages by hand.

• No profitability visibility. Profit per package, venue, fixture, or event meant manual spreadsheet work.

• No trend analysis. Nothing structured linked deals, fixtures, events, and venues, so seasons couldn’t be compared.

• Uncontrolled fixture data. Reps created fixtures on the fly, causing duplicates and unreliable reporting.

• A disjointed handover. When a deal closed, customer comms and ops delivery were manual, inconsistent, and easily missed.

"Unmatched didn't just move us off Dynamics, they rebuilt the way the business runs around how we work. It's  much slicker, and for the first time we can see what's profitable across hundreds of events throughout the year. The integrated marketing side was something we never had before too."
- Harry Francis, COO

The Solution: A Custom-Built Event Management Engine Inside HubSpot

Rather than force DTB into HubSpot’s default model, we extended the platform with custom objects, Node.js coded workflow actions, and two React CRM cards. HubSpot is now the single source of truth for sales, marketing, operations, and reporting.

Custom Data Model

DTB runs on a hierarchy: Events (each with an Event Type dropdown such as football, tennis, or rugby) associate to Fixtures, which take place at Venues. Packages tie to Fixtures, and Deals book against Packages. We built custom objects to model it:

• Events: the top level, carrying the Event Type field, enabling reporting by sport, competition, or venue.

• Fixtures: governed centrally, so reps select existing ones rather than creating duplicates.

• Venues: their own object, associated to the event, fixture, and deal, so location reporting and logistics carry through the whole chain.

• Event Packages: templates tied to a Fixture, made selectable on the deal through the quote builder.

• Supplier Costs: a bridging object to the supplier’s company record for supplier-level margin analysis.

• Deal Splits: primarily a reporting object, to enable exact profit calculations to a rep-level.

Data Hub Professional powered the coded actions and the calculated and rollup properties that aggregate cost, revenue, and profitability up to deal, fixture, event, and venue level, giving management the financial visibility they’d never had.

Custom Coded Workflow Actions

Node.js custom coded actions, using the CRM API (v3 objects and v4 associations), automate the lifecycle:

• Event Packages to Deals: on deal creation, sync properties and workflows fire within seconds to associate every available package for the fixture, wiring the deal up before the rep starts.

• Supplier Cost Generator: creates a Supplier Cost per line item generated, linked to the deal and supplier company.

• Deal Change Handler: detects changes to closed deals and rebuilds the Supplier Costs, ready for the AI model to flag what changed.

• Purchase Summary Builder: builds a formatted summary (package, SKU, quantity, price, supplier) pinned to the service record on close.

Bespoke quoting logic powers the sales team

HubSpot’s default line items tool can’t filter by an associated object, so reps would see the entire catalogue rather than the packages valid for a fixture, impractical with hundreds of fixture-specific packages.

"The difference in how we quote is night and day. The right packages are just there, no hunting, no second-guessing, and we build quotes in a fraction of the time. The reporting is live too, so I can see profitability by fixture and event whenever I need it."
- Rob Partington, Head of Sales

We built the Fixture Quote Builder as a React UI extension using HubSpot’s @hubspot/ui-extensions SDK, deployed via the hs project CLI. Serverless functions weren’t available on DTB’s subscription tier at the time, so we ran the API work on a Node.js service hosted on Railway; as HubSpot’s tiers evolve, we can move this in-platform and drop the Railway dependency.

The card shows only future events and fixtures, so reps can’t book past dates, and selecting a fixture filters the selectable packages to exactly what’s available. Reps set quantities, suppliers, and costs, with overall cost and profitability rolling up live. On a single button press, the selected Event Packages populate into native HubSpot line items, which then sync straight into DTB’s PandaDoc templates, so the customer’s quote is generated without rekeying a thing.

Above, the Event & Fixture selector lets the sales person pick the event and fixture the prospect wants to attend. Changing it re-filters package availability downstream (see below).

Above, the bespoke quote builder only shows packages available on the selected fixture, so the team can’t sell what isn’t available.

One close, three hubs

The moment a deal closes, a single workflow chain fans out across Sales, Marketing, and Service.

• Marketing fires the customer’s booking confirmation and the build-up comms automatically.

• Service spins up a record for the ops team, pinned with an AI summary and the structured purchase summary.

• Ops is notified, and the customer’s experience and the delivery prep both begin without a manual step.

We also gave the service record a “window” into the deal, so ops can see key information without leaving their view.

Lastly, amendments to the deal trigger the Deal Change Handler to rebuild costs and stamp a change log, so nothing slips after close.

How we've leveraged AI

Clean, structured data was the prerequisite for useful AI. In the handover we use HubSpot’s Custom LLM workflow action to call Claude (Opus 4.6), paired with a coded action that assembles every deal detail (calls, emails, notes, line items, supplier costs) into a structured brief that Claude turns into a concise summary.

When a deal changes, it produces a plain-English change log so ops sees exactly what moved, replacing around an hour of manual context-gathering per deal. The data model also sets the foundation for native Breeze agents, next on the roadmap.

"The handover used to be the part I dreaded, chasing the sales team and piecing bookings together from emails and spreadsheets. Now everything lands automatically, and if a deal changes after close I'm told exactly what changed. We can focus on delivering a brilliant experience for the client instead of firefighting admin."
- Jasmine Etheridge, Head of Service Delivery

The Impact

As well as a successful and smooth migration to HubSpot, the project has had the following benefits for DTB: 

• Quoting is 80% faster. Average time in the quoting stage fell by 80%, because the quote builder surfaces only valid packages and pushes them straight to line items and PandaDoc.

• Commercial visibility that never existed. Profitability by package, venue, fixture, and event, plus year-on-year trends, now live in dashboards. The reporting that took a day a week is instant.

• Governed fixture data. Reps select from existing fixtures, so the duplicates and unreliable reporting are gone.

• Seamless close-to-delivery. One closed deal triggers customer comms, ops handover, and delivery prep across three hubs automatically, saving three hours per deal where it used to be manual and inconsistent.

Built on HubSpot’s native APIs and developer platform, the architecture scales as DTB grows, ensuring customers get an amazing experience on every booking.