How Bundesliga is enabling a unique match-watching experience for every fan

It’s a cozy Saturday night and it’s another Bundesliga match day. Fans nervously watch together as the Borussia Dortmund game reaches its closing stages.

Suddenly, Jude Bellingham scores a winning goal at the last minute. First come the cheers, then the rush to post a reaction on social media. A good-natured mocking message is sent to a fantasy league rival, before a quick check of the latest league table and player statistics changes.

Watching a European football match nowadays isn’t just watching a game – it’s an all-encompassing, multiple-screen experience. This is particularly true for fans in Asia, which is a mobile-first market, observes Kevin Sim, head of Asia Pacific for Bundesliga International, a subsidiary of Deutsche Fussball Liga Group (DFL) that focuses on reaching international fans of the German football league.

“It’s a growing generation of consumers who access the internet primarily via mobile connectivity, have a plethora of entertainment options, and are not content to watch a traditional ‘linear’ broadcast,” Sim says. He cites the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ as contributing factors. “Viewers are seeking a much richer and dynamic fan experience.”

Kevin Sim, head of Asia Pacific for Bundesliga International / Photo credit: DFL

However, he adds that this increasingly active way of engaging with the content “has also greatly fragmented a typical football fan’s experience.” Switching between different apps and platforms is clunky and disrupts any semblance of momentum.

Maximum personalization and accessibility

With these considerations in mind, DFL conducted deeper research and developed the Bundesliga Interactive Feed, which essentially allows fans to customize the viewing experience to their liking. This includes match statistics, on-demand updates for player profiles in real time, league-related stats such as goal-scoring tables, and the ability to replay highlights and interact with clickable graphics – all on the same app.

There’s even a “conference mode” for those who want the latest information at their fingertips – it allows fans to watch five concurrent matches at the same time. They can customize alerts for goals, free kicks, yellow cards, red cards, and so on based on personal preferences, which will show up as screen-on-screen popups.

“The Bundesliga Interactive Feed was a culmination of more than three years of R&D between DFL and our partner, Teravolt,” says Sim. “As for the live stats updates, this was possible as Bundesliga is the only football league that’s vertically integrated and our subsidiary, Sportec Solutions, collates and updates the match statistics in real time.”

The Interactive Feed in action / Video credit: DFL

The entire experience – with live, dynamic statistics and an intuitive and localized user interface – is delivered seamlessly over the cloud to broadcast partners via Amazon Web Services. And since the Interactive Feed was developed as a software development kit rather than a standalone application, it can theoretically be incorporated as part of any app or digital environment. “Feature-wise, there is no reason why we cannot include further updates in the future,” Sim points out.

Guten tag, konnichiwa

The first international media partner to use the Interactive Feed is Japanese broadcaster Sky PerfecTV (SPTV). Japan made for an ideal overseas launch market because of its robust infrastructure and technological capabilities as well as its longstanding footballing relationship with Germany.

“Since Yasuhiko Okudera debuted with FC Köln in 1977, more Japanese players have played in Bundesliga than in any other international league, including the nine players currently plying their trade in Bundesliga’s top flight alone,” Sim explains. “These include Bundesliga legend Makoto Hasebe as well as Daichi Kamada of Eintracht Frankfurt; Takuma Asano of VfL Bochum; and Wataru Endo and Hiroki Ito of VfB Stuttgart.”

This omnipresence of Japanese footballers in German leagues also presents further content localization opportunities. Through the use of AI-driven tools, DFL is able to deliver automated highlight clips of specific players minutes after a match finishes, providing SPTV with a full cut of all the actions taken by the Japanese footballers on the pitch, complete with on-air graphics.

Photo credit: DFL

According to Sim, one of the strongest influences on consumption in Japan is the performances of Japanese players. “Therefore, we have also started to offer a dedicated ‘Star Cam’ to our broadcast partners,” he says. “An AI-driven camera follows every move of a requested player, making it easy to create content that addresses the demands of specific audiences.”

Meeting fans where they are

The Interactive Feed is just one of DFL’s technology-driven initiatives that aims to reach out and engage its fans. For example, besides its 11-petabyte footage archive that encourages diversity and depth via Bundesliga-focused stories and its establishment of sports technology trade fair SportsInnovation, the organization has also invested in esports. Last season, the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) was broadcasted and streamed in nine APAC countries – and to the rest of the world. The VBL Grand Final drew 350,000 views from Vietnam alone, Sim shares.

DFL has also piloted the first ever vertical, 9:16 broadcast format geared towards social media viewing. This is particularly relevant to its efforts to expand in China, where it counts tech titans Tencent and Bytedance among its digital streaming partners.

Sim says that DFL has been “very active” in Asia. During the 2020-2021 season alone, the company worked closely with its in-market and regional partners to deliver over 40 online and offline activities, events, and partnerships in nine countries: Japan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, China, and Singapore.

“We believe that personalization and localization are major drivers of innovation. Bundesliga’s mantra is ‘Football As It’s Meant to Be,’ with our fans at the core,” he concludes.

DFL is an innovation leader in professional sports, especially football. Embracing technological development is one of the hallmarks of German professional football, and this boldness has led to groundbreaking changes in recent years. These include the development and/or implementation of state-of-the-art camera systems, continuous advancements in the handling of match data, a formative role in eFootball, and the establishment of SportsInnovation as a showcase for innovative technologies and a venue for specialists to discuss the sector’s latest developments.

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This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.