
Defeating snafus: ISB on bringing The World Games 2025 global streaming platform to fruition in record time By Heather McLean
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 - 09:40
Print This Story
ISB has created The World Games Live OTT platform to bring every sport live to fans for the first time
At The World Games 2025 held in China this August, the International World Games Association (IWGA) officially launched The World Games Live, a dedicated global streaming platform created to bring event to fans worldwide.
The World Games Live was developed in partnership with host broadcaster for The World Games, International Sports Broadcasting (ISB). The platform offered extensive live coverage of competitions, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and medal ceremonies for all 34 sports on the programme. After each event concluded, all streamed content was made available as video on demand (VoD), ensuring fans could relive the highlights whenever they choose.
Read more Cool club: ISB brings 900 live hours of The World Games 2025 to global viewers
Additionally, the platform featured daily highlights and a dedicated Daily Show throughout the Games, thanks to ISB. The application was available on desktop and mobile versions, completely free-of-charge.
The World Games Live streaming platform has now launched
Defeating a snafu
While the overall production for The World Games went smoothly for ISB, just a few months out from the Games, the OTT streaming platform that ISB was developing for the federation hit a snafu. ISB had to find a completely new developer for the platform and start from scratch again, but this time, with a hard deadline to go live in just three months.
ISB finished the platform on 27 July, launched it on the 28 July, and the Games started on 7 August.
Romero says that in the end, the platform, launched and it went amazing . She goes on: It was really successful despite the fact we had to basically rebuild the whole platform. Three months before the games, I had to make the decision to come up with a new provider, a platform provider, backend and front end. We had to start from scratch. We had to find a new video player, a new platform provider, a new CMS; new everything.
And so we were all very worried, including the IWGA, because three months was very, very little time to build a platform from scratch, continues Romero. But except for one day [during the Games] where the distribution gods went against us and a main server in Sweden went down and some fibre connectivity between Miami and Germany went down, it all just kind of aligned. The rest of the time, the platform worked amazingly. We didn't have any glitches.
Viral spread
The platform had a total of 1.4 million unique users on Apple iOS. On the iOS world ranking, the app was number 22 on downloads. The top viewership countries were Germany, the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Adds Romero: I'm not an expert, but from the fact that we only started promoting the platform literally two weeks before the game started, [getting to number 22 on the iOS download rankings] was huge. We had almost 140,000 downloads of the app. Flag football was the top sport, followed by flying disc and lacrosse.
The platform did really, really well, so everybody was very happy considering that we had zero promotional budget for the platform as well; it was purely organic and we wanted to do it organically just to see how it would work.
Continues Romero: We were super happy with it and I think the IWGA should be happy with it; all the federations loved it. It was all live. We added in athlete profiles; we got up to almost 4,000 athlete profiles with their Instagram accounts on there so the athletes could then automatically share our vertical content that we created around the app to promote the app only during Games time. Some of the videos went viral. They were just short, vertical content. So it was really, really great. I was amazed how it just went!
Host broadcaster for The World Games, International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), has developed a new over the top streaming platform for The World Games 2025, called The World Games Live
What's next
Moving forwards, ISB hopes that the OTT platform will be used to enable viewers to relive moments from previous Games, be a place for archive material to be aired, and to sustain the enthusiasm for these non-Olympic events inbetween Games.
Romero says: Now we're obviously thinking, what do we do with the app? Do we take it down? Do we make it live on, and we're having a meeting with the IWGA to discuss strategy moving forward and how we're going to continue to make it live until the next World Games.
She adds: Now we want to make it evolve and we want to make it the only place to watch The World Games. I think that's the only way to go forward. I think if we manage to convince the IWGA that this needs to be the only place for The World Games and for all the streams, broadcasts, athletes, federations related to The World Games, I think it can be really something cool that can live on, and we can start adding onto it and making it into something.
The World Games took place from 7 to 17 August 2025. The World Games is a worldclass multi-sport event, organised every four years since 1981, for sports and disciplines that are not (yet) in the Olympic Games.
More from Sports Video Group
03/09/2026
NEP Group has announced leadership changes at Creative Technology Group. Founder and CEO Graham Andrews will step away from day-to-day leadership at the end of ...
03/09/2026
The NFL and TikTok have announced a multi-year partnership renewal expanding the league's presence on the platform. NFL posts on TikTok increased more than ...
03/09/2026
Grass Valley has appointed Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras. Van Geel began his career in 1999 at Philips DVS and moved into product management in 2005...
03/09/2026
Telestream has announced Vantage Super Resolution, an AI-powered upscaling capability for the Vantage media workflow platform, developed in collaboration with N...
03/09/2026
Solid State Logic (SSL) will debut the TCA Tour at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand 8.B45), a portable production system built from System T components in a desktop frame...
03/09/2026
DPA Microphones has announced the 6388 CORE Headset Microphone, making its debut at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand D60). The supercardioid headset features a physicall...
03/09/2026
Qvest will present a multi-vendor Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) showcase at IBC2026 (Booth 10.C24), demonstrating how the EBU's DMF architecture can be imple...
03/09/2026
Imagine Communications will showcase the Magellan PanelFlex control surface and other control portfolio updates at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, Septembe...
03/09/2026
Bridge Technologies will announce at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71) that its VB440 production probe is now available as a software-based solution, deployable on commerci...
03/09/2026
Audio-Technica has unveiled the BP350ST MS (mid-side) microphone in two versions: the camera-mount BP350ST-UL and the boundary or gooseneck-mountable BP350ST-UB...
03/09/2026
Telos Alliance will introduce updates to the J nger Audio flexAI audio processin...
03/09/2026
DUNKMAN, the professional dunk league founded by Shaquille O'Neal in partner...
03/09/2026
Orlando's WRDQ TV 27, WFTV Channel 9 previously named over-the-air broadcast...
03/09/2026
EverPass Media has announced a multi-year commercial distribution agreement with Netflix, expanding on an existing partnership that has delivered NFL Christmas ...
03/09/2026
Yahoo Sports and Apple TV have announced a partnership to deliver alternate broadcasts of select Friday Night Baseball and MLS games on the Yahoo Sports website...
03/09/2026
With another academic year underway, college athletic departments across the cou...
03/09/2026
Facility becomes permanent home of NFL Live on Sept. 9; centerpiece studio for c...
02/09/2026
Professional and collegiate clubs, leading vendors discuss current trends in stadium production
On. Aug. 12, the 2026 SVG Venues & Teams Summit explored the ev...
02/09/2026
SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park have completed an infrastructure upgrade expanding game presentation and broadcast production capabilities acr...
02/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a suite of AI-powered workflow applications for broadcasters, content owners, and operators, built on its Video...
02/09/2026
The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and the Association of Professional Wireless Production Technologies (APWPT) have announced a partnership to ...
02/09/2026
Carolina Hurricanes, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Minneso...
02/09/2026
New LED provides enhanced quality control, quicker show prep, detailed productio...
01/09/2026
Bridge Technologies will announce at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71) that its VB440 produc...
01/09/2026
DAZN has announced an agreement to acquire EverPass Media, a commercial sports distribution platform serving bars, restaurants, hotels, and other venues in the ...
01/09/2026
The USTA and Kalshi have announced a multi-year partnership making Kalshi the Official Prediction Market Partner of the US Open, beginning with the 2026 US Open...
01/09/2026
MASV will exhibit at IBC2026 (Booth 5.B40, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14). CTO Majed Alhajry will appear on a panel session, A Tale of Two Feeds: Automation o...
01/09/2026
FingerWorks Telestrators has announced a partnership with Broadcast Rental to ex...
01/09/2026
FOR-A has announced the expansion of viztrick AiDi into two dedicated products: Go Vertical! AiDi and AiDi Sports Hub. Developed by Nippon TV and delivered glob...
01/09/2026
Sony Pictures Television has launched Live TV on PS5, a free ad-supported streaming experience available to PS5 players in the United States. The service is acc...
01/09/2026
Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin has installed a Riedel production infrastructure spanning video, intercom, control, and I/O across the venue, implemented in col...
01/09/2026
Arkona technologies GmbH has announced an OEM partnership with BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH to offer arkona-branded control panels for its SDI-IP routing ...
01/09/2026
Cricket Australia has launched Cricket TV, a direct-to-consumer streaming service built on Eluvio's Content Fabric platform. The service is currently in ear...
01/09/2026
Eluvio has announced it was selected to power Pasifika , a new direct-to-consume...
01/09/2026
Layercake, the company behind the intelligent media workflow platform Streamcake, has appointed Jon Marquard as Director and Chairperson. The appointment marks ...
01/09/2026
Gravity Media has announced a multi-year renewal of its agreement with Stawell Gift Event Management to produce the complete broadcast of the Powercor Stawell G...
01/09/2026
Beam Dynamics will exhibit at IBC2026 for the first time (Stand 14.FT29, Hall 14), introducing License Intelligence, a new module for managing software licenses...
01/09/2026
Interra Systems has announced that ZOO Digital has selected BATON for file-based quality control across its media workflows. ZOO Digital delivers localized ente...
01/09/2026
Bridge Technologies has announced the deployment of its VB330 monitoring probe at Sunrise, supporting the Swiss telecommunications provider's IP-based telev...
01/09/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the continued expansion of its managed coach communications partnership with Scottish Rugby Union, now entering its third se...
01/09/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
01/09/2026
SMPTE today detailed the centerpiece of its IBC2026 program: the SMPTE Roadshow: Future of Media Infrastructure, a full-day workshop on Monday, 14 September, th...
31/08/2026
Pixotope Technologies has announced a unified platform offering all Pixotope capabilities across three editions, available with the Pixotope 26.3 release in Q3 ...
28/08/2026
KCBS takes the Chargers side, KCAL takes the Rams - with feeds out to 18 partner...
27/08/2026
ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...
27/08/2026
Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...
27/08/2026
NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...
27/08/2026
Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...
27/08/2026
BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...
27/08/2026
TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...