Image Credit SI
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has introduced a new IIHF World Championships Fantasy experience to strengthen fan engagement across its digital platforms during the tournament. Developed in collaboration with SI, the experience is powered by FanOS Play – SI’s modular fan engagement operating system, where the fantasy product sits within the Experience layer, focused on delivering interactive digital formats that deepen fan participation across owned platforms.
The initiative is designed to create a more interactive layer around the IIHF World Championships, enabling fans to participate alongside live competition while increasing time spent across the federation’s website and app.
For fans, the experience is designed to make Championship engagement more active, continuous and connected. Its event-based fantasy format follows the structure of the World Championships, allowing fans to participate in a way that reflects the rhythm of the tournament. By being integrated across IIHF’s website and app, it keeps the experience accessible within existing fan touchpoints. Real-time scoring, powered by official tournament data, allows fans to track performance as matches unfold, while the fan data generated through participation can support more personalised engagement and targeted activations over time. The experience is live and open to fans globally:https://www.iihf.com/en/fantasy/2026/wm/home
“What we are seeing across global sports is a shift from passive consumption to participation-driven engagement. With IIHF, the objective was to create a format that not only complements live coverage but also generates consistent interaction across the tournament. These engagement layers play an important role in helping organisations move towards more data-driven activation and long-term fan value.”
— Raghav Mehta, SVP Revenue & Partnerships, SI
The fantasy experience introduces a daily, event-driven participation model where fans build lineups, track real-time performance, and compete across global and private leaderboards throughout the tournament. Integrated features such as live scoring, leaderboard progression, social sharing, and referral mechanics create continuous engagement touchpoints before, during and after each matchday.
By embedding the fantasy layer within its digital ecosystem, IIHF is extending fan interaction beyond live broadcasts, creating repeat engagement opportunities across the Championship calendar while supporting data-driven activation and sponsorship integration.
About SI
SI (formerly Sportz Interactive) is the leading sports technology partner for leagues, teams, federations, broadcasters, and media companies worldwide. With 24 years of engineering pedigree, SI specialises in creating scalable, enterprise-grade digital products that turn fan engagement into measurable commercial value. SI works with world-renowned sporting organisations, leagues, and franchises – including the NBA, ICC, UFC, FIBA, BCCI, leading IPL teams, World Archery, and global technology and media brands such as Google, Amazon Prime Video, and more.
Through FanOS: The Fan Engagement Operating System for Sports Organisations, SI provides a portfolio of productised solutions built specifically for the sports industry, through a suite of flexible, independent modules across Data, Experiences, and Activations that are designed to run as a complete ecosystem, or seamlessly plug into existing workflows.
SI doesn’t just build fan experiences; we ensure sports organisations operate like scalable, data-integrated enterprises pioneering the future of sports fandom.
For more information, please visit sportzinteractive.net/fanos and follow SI on LinkedIn.
#PoweredBySI