Over the top: The World Games set to launch new global streaming platform ahead of Chengdu 2025
Host broadcaster for The World Games, International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), is developing a new over the top streaming platform for The World Games, called The World Games Live
The 12th edition of The World Games will take place from 7 to 17 August 2025 in the mega-city of Chengdu in China, when the Games will bring its very own streaming platform into play.
The World Games is an international multi-sport event comprising of sporting disciplines that are not yet contested in the Olympic Games, including tug of war and canoe polo. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 days. The World Games are governed by the International World Games Association, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.
Host broadcaster for The World Games, International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), is developing a new over the top streaming platform for The World Games, called The World Games Live, which will launch prior to the 2025 event.
“Obviously it’s a bit of a risk, creating a streaming platform like this, but it’s a exciting risk”
Comments ISB managing director, Ursula Romero: “We’ve taken The World Games to the next level. So the last two World Games that we did, we only had eight live feeds of different sports, so we would only cover semi finals and finals, and then lots of highlights and ENG. But we managed to push the local organising committee [in China] to increase our budget, which is really reaching a great milestone.”
The local organising committee in Chengdu wants to use the Games to showcase what the city has to offer, “so I’m very proud to say that we managed to convince them that increasing the hours produced and overall standard would be an obvious benefit,” states Romero. “It’s very cool because now we’re able to produce everything live and we have 35 sports, around 5,000 athletes, and more or less a hundred-plus countries participating. Technically it’s the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympics.”
The streaming platform is part of this wider investment, Romero says. She goes on: “Obviously it’s a bit of a risk, creating a streaming platform like this, but it’s a exciting risk. I think going down the route of having their own app and platform is best, because then you can combine both worlds and have the traditional sort of national broadcasters that will show sports that are popular in their particular country, but then also have it open to the rest of the world so they can watch everything live.
“So it’s a little bit like the Olympic Channel if you want to compare it, but the opposite, because the Olympic Channel normally does not show anything live during the Olympic Games, and we’ll be able to show everything live unless there’s a specific exclusive deal in a country where we have to geoblock,” Romero adds. “But most of the deals that we’re doing are not going to be totally exclusive, or if they’re exclusive, they’re for a specific sport.”
Ztudium Group is working with ISB in a joint venture to create The World Games Live OTT platform
Netflix of sports
This Netflix for The World Games is a concept from ISB. As to how the idea for The World Games Live came about, Romero says, “it was mine and David’s [Taunton, head of production at ISB], but we were just doodling on a piece of paper and I said, “why don’t we do this all-encompassing B2B, B2C platform with all kinds of extra feature and social media attached to it, getting all the athletes involved, making it really an all around sort of 360 ecosystem platform?”.”
Through a mutual friend she met developer, Dinis Guarda, founder and CEO of Ztudium Group, who liked the idea. “So Ztudium decided to jump on board and to create the platform, and Dinis has got lots of really amazing technology and ideas to set the platform apart from any other platform,” Romero notes.
Ztudium Group is a maker of 4.0 technologies for the future including blockchain, AI and digital transformation solutions. Guarda and his team have created the World Games streaming platform. He has also created Sportsabc, an open digital media online sports and wellbeing encyclopaedia created through the collaborative efforts of a global community of sports organisations, athletes and users. Eventually the World Game platform could be integrated into Sportsabc as well as well-known platform aggregators.
The core development of the platform has taken six months, “which was a massive record and we managed to do it,” says Guarda, who points out that this sort of development would normally take the company one to two years, but due to some inhouse technology, the process was much faster.
Comments Guarda on the new platform: “It’s mostly at the end of the day a bit like a Netflix for sports that encompasses a lot of innovation, like profiles for athletes, profiles for the federations, and even some immersive experiences and things that you’re going to be highlighting, as well as the live stream.”
Additionally, Mark Parkman, former general manager at the Olympics Channel, part of Olympic Channel Services, is advising on the new platform.
The platform will enable the viewer to pick from around 20 live streams. “It’s actually going to be quite innovative worldwide in terms of platforms like this,” says Guarda. “You have a section for live where everything’s live, then there’s the sports, the athletes, the federations, the schedule of everything, and results. So if I want to check my favourite sport, I want to check my favourite athlete, my favourite federation, and then I can just go and watch anything that we want to see.”
He adds: “I would say from a technology perspective, it’s probably one of the first platforms that integrates Web2 and Web3 streaming, and we will even create a couple of experiences that can be amazing for the athletes.”
The joint venture between ISB and Ztudium had its first test during The World Games Series in Hong Kong which took place from 11 to 13 October, covering three sports: Cheerleading (ICU) with Pom, Roller (World Skate) with Freestyle Inline, Wushu (IWUF) with Taolu. During this test the platform carried three live streams.
Notes Romero: “We have to do a lot of testing still because obviously we need to be able to make sure that we can run 20-plus live feeds at the same time into the platform from a tech perspective,” continues Romero. “And then that content also turns around into VoD, and we need to make sure that it’s stable because the worst thing that could happen is that we get to the Games and then the whole thing collapses.
“We did a test in Hong Kong in October and it went really well. We did have some technical hiccups, but that was the whole point of doing a test, so that we can pinpoint those,” continues Romero. “Then the next event that is going to be happening is a World Games Series event at the end of March, so we’ll use that again as a test.”
The World Games Live streaming platform should launch one month prior to the 2025 Games in Chengdu next year
Ramping up federations
The platform will be launched by ISB one month prior to the Games, says Romero. “In principle we want to launch the full version of The World Games Live in July, one month before the Games. But maybe we’ll change that a little bit, depending on the federations. We did a big call to action a week ago in Lausanne with the federations, and we had a media workshop with all the iterations just to get them onboard, because obviously we need them to promote the platform and to also get the athletes to promote it.”
Continues Romero: “The idea is to really get the federations ramped up and get them into it. Some of the federations are great because we have some federations that are used to big events, like archery, sport climbing, lacrosse, and flag football, which are all part of big federations that are used to doing marketing, but some smaller federations don’t even really know what live broadcast is. So we’re doing constant workshops with them to make sure that they understand the importance of live TV and how this can elevate them as well. But they’re all very excited.”
She adds: “We’re producing over a hundred videos, just small promo videos of each sport and each federation, and the idea is to also do athlete features, choosing ambassadors of each federation, and then do podcasts with different athletes and coaches to get them fired up.”
Romero sums up: “So it’s kind of crazy, but I think it’s really good, and I think it’ll be a success. It’ll take a lot of work over the next seven or eight months to get there, but then once it’s done, it’s there and it will just work continuously.”
In between World Games’, the platform will push its VoD content and also The World Game Series, which will be much like the Olympic qualifiers. Adds Romero: “The idea is that they’re going to have two or three smaller events each year, which will have three or four sports over a long weekend, and then it’ll be in different countries so that the federations have an opportunity and the athletes have an opportunity to qualify for the next World Games, but also to give them a presence and make it a world tour.”