SportVot Democratising Sports Broadcasting: AI, OTT, and the Rise of Grassroots CX

SportVot in CX Industry Context

The convergence of AI, OTT platforms, and cloud infrastructure is redefining customer experience across industries. In sports, this transformation is moving beyond elite leagues to grassroots ecosystems—unlocking new forms of engagement, accessibility, and monetisation.

The traditional barriers of cost, scale, and production complexity are to dismantle by AI-driven automation. As a result, hyperlocal sports are emerging as a high-volume, high-engagement content category. Ultimately, reshaping how fans, athletes, and organisers experience sports.

Interviewee Perspective

Sidhhant Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO of SportVot, is at the forefront of this shift. He is building a full-stack, AI-powered platform that transforms grassroots sports broadcasting into an accessible, scalable, and data-driven experience.

Under his leadership, SportVot has captured over 300,000 games. And, enabled millions of users to engage with local sports content—redefining CX for athletes, organisers, and fans alike.

Customer Experience in a Multi-stakeholder Ecosystem 

Q1. SportVot is fundamentally reshaping access to sports broadcasting. How do you define “customer experience” in a multi-stakeholder ecosystem that includes athletes, organisers, and viewers?

SA: Customer experience at SportVot is defined across three key stakeholders in the sports ecosystem : Organisers (Associations, Federations and Private Organisers) , Athletes, and Fans.

For associations, federations, and tournament organisers, the focus is on delivering reliable and high-quality production that is timely, cost-efficient, and scalable. Beyond just broadcasting matches, we aim to create long-term impact for their events by enabling better data collection, improving visibility, and helping organisers attract greater participation and potential brand collaborations in future editions.

For athletes, the experience is about recognition and growth. Many talented players at grassroots and domestic levels rarely get documented on video. Through SportVot, their performances are captured, their statistics are structured, and their moments are preserved in a way that helps them showcase their journey, analyse their performance, and open up new opportunities.

For fans, the experience is about access and discovery. We focus on bringing exciting sporting moments to screens throughout the year, across multiple sports and geographies , from grassroots competitions to international tournaments, from India to different parts of the world.

At its core, SportVot’s customer experience is about making sport more visible, more accessible, and more meaningful for everyone involved in the game.

Intersection of Technology and Community 

Q2. Your platform sits at the intersection of technology and community. How do you balance scale with the authenticity of grassroots sports experiences?

SA: For us, scale and authenticity are not opposing ideas, they actually support each other.

Grassroots sports have their own character and energy, and we never want technology to take that away. Our goal is not to over-produce or make every match look like a top-tier broadcast, but to make sure the game is captured properly so the moment is preserved and shared.

A big part of how we balance this is through compatibility in our technology. The system is built to work across different levels of sport. Someone can capture a match with a simple mobile camera, while organisations that want a more advanced setup can run full TV broadcast–grade productions using the same ecosystem. The difference is in the setup, not in the accessibility of the technology. Because of this, organisers can choose what works best for their scale and budget, and still get a professional broadcast experience, often at a much lower cost than traditional production.

Technology helps us scale coverage across locations through cloud production and remote workflows, but the spirit of the game still comes from the community itself. We work closely with local organisers, academies, and federations who understand their sport and their players best.

So the balance really comes from using technology to make broadcasting accessible at every level, while letting the community and the sport itself drive the experience.

Capture,  Production, and Distribution 

Q3. SportVot operates across capture, production, and distribution. How do you ensure a consistent and high-quality CX across such a diverse and decentralised ecosystem?

SA: Ensuring consistency in a decentralised ecosystem is definitely a challenge, especially when events are happening across different cities, venues, and sports. Our approach has been to keep the entire workflow , from capture to production to distribution, connected through the same technology ecosystem.

At the capture level, we focus on making the system flexible but structured. Matches can be captured through different setups – from simple mobile cameras to multi-camera productions, but the inputs are designed to integrate into the same workflow.

At the production level, a lot of our work happens through cloud-based and remote production tools. This helps standardise graphics, overlays, scoring, and replay workflows even when events are being produced from different locations.

At the distribution level, having our own platform and OTT infrastructure allows us to control how the content reaches viewers. This helps maintain streaming quality, consistency in how matches are presented, and ensures that games are accessible across different sports and events.

Since all three parts are connected within the same ecosystem, it becomes easier to maintain a consistent experience even when the events themselves are decentralised.

The idea is not to control everything centrally, but to build simple, repeatable systems that can work across different environments and scales.

Customer Feedback Shaping Product Roadmap and CX Strategy 

Q4. What role does customer feedback—from tournament organisers to viewers—play in shaping your product roadmap and CX strategy?

SA: Customer feedback plays a very important role in how we shape both our product roadmap and our overall CX strategy. Since we work closely with organisers, athletes, and viewers across many events, we constantly hear about the practical challenges they face, and many of our product decisions come directly from those conversations.

One good example is tournament registrations and payments. SportVot already handled streaming, distribution, and player profiling, which meant organisers could easily access and store match data during and after the tournament. However, many organisers told us that the biggest challenge actually started before the tournament even began. They struggled with managing registrations, tracking entries, and handling payments across different tools.

Based on this feedback, we developed a registrations and payments gateway within the SportVot ecosystem, so organisers could manage the entire tournament journey on a single platform : from registrations and payments before the event to streaming, data, and highlights during and after the event.

Another example came from how people were using our automated highlights and player clips generated through the cloud studio. While the clips were useful, we realised that the real value came when organisers, players, and fans could easily share these moments on social media. This led us to introduce features that automatically resize and format clips for social platforms, making them instantly shareable.

These kinds of inputs from the ecosystem help us identify where technology can simplify workflows or increase the value people get from the platform. So a large part of our roadmap evolves from observing how the community actually uses SportVot and responding to those needs.

AI as Infrastructure 

Q5. AI is often seen as a feature—but at SportVot, it appears to function as infrastructure. How has this shift influenced the way you design and deliver customer experiences?

SA: At SportVot, we see AI less as a standalone feature and more as a layer that helps the entire system operate at scale.

Today we are streaming events happening across different parts of the world, sometimes across three or four continents in a single weekend , from India and Australia to parts of Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and occasionally the United States. Managing production across so many locations would traditionally require large on-ground teams everywhere.

This is where AI and automation become important. At many venues we deploy automated or smart camera setups, which can capture the game with minimal on-ground intervention. From there, a lot of the production workflow can be driven remotely through our systems, often coordinated from our headquarters in Mumbai. This allows us to manage productions across multiple locations while still maintaining a consistent broadcast experience.

Another important aspect is that AI sits on top of an already established production and broadcasting foundation. Over the years, we have built workflows for capture, replay systems, camera positioning, graphics, and distribution. Because this infrastructure already exists, AI becomes a layer that can enhance these processes rather than replace them.

Process Data to Generate Deeper Insights or Visualisations

A good way to think about it is how technologies like ball tracking or DRS work in sports broadcasting. The cameras, replay systems, and broadcast workflows are already in place; AI or computer vision simply processes that existing data to generate deeper insights or visualisations.

In a similar way, at SportVot AI helps power things like automated highlights, player clips, tagging of match moments, and data structuring, making content faster to produce and easier to access for organisers, athletes, and fans.

So the shift for us has not been about adding AI as a feature, but about using it as an infrastructure layer that helps us scale coverage, automate workflows, and deliver better experiences across many different sports and locations.

Redefining the “Moment of Experience”

Q6. Can you walk us through how computer vision and automated production are redefining the “moment of experience” for both live viewers and participants?

SA: Computer vision and automated production are helping shorten the time between a moment happening on the field and that moment reaching people.

Through computer vision, the system can identify key actions in a match, such as goals, wickets, points, or important plays, and help generate highlights or clips much faster than traditional manual workflows.

When this is combined with automated production tools, those moments can quickly become available not just in the live broadcast but also as shareable clips for organisers, athletes, and fans.

For viewers, this means they can relive key moments almost instantly. For athletes and participants, it means their performances are captured and available in a way that can be shared, analysed, and remembered.

So in many ways, technology is helping turn live sporting moments into immediately accessible experiences, both during the match and after it ends.

Redefining Digital Engagement Benchmarks 

Q7. As OTT platforms expand beyond premium content, how do you see grassroots sports redefining digital engagement benchmarks?

SA: As OTT platforms expand beyond premium leagues, we are already seeing grassroots sports create a very different kind of engagement.

Unlike major broadcast events where fans mainly consume the content, grassroots sports are much closer to communities. In many cases, viewers personally know the players, teams, or organisers, which naturally creates a deeper connection with the matches being streamed.

Because of this, engagement has gone beyond simply watching a game. Fans are following the journeys of players, teams, and tournaments over time through match archives, highlights, and player profiles.

We are also seeing models like pay-per-view for individual matches or tournaments work well in this space, because audiences are directly invested in the participants and the outcome of the event.

Another interesting shift has been how the ecosystem connects viewing with participation. Many viewers discover tournaments happening around them and eventually become participants themselves, whether through academies, leagues, or open registrations.

So grassroots sports are already redefining OTT engagement by making it more personal, community-driven, and closely connected to real participation in sport.

Cultivating a Culture

Q8. Building AI-driven platforms requires both technical depth and contextual understanding of sports ecosystems. How do you cultivate a culture that aligns innovation with real-world user needs?

SA: For us, the starting point has always been the real problems people face in the sports ecosystem. Since our teams work closely with organisers, athletes, and on-ground crews across many events, we constantly see how tournaments actually operate.

That exposure naturally shapes how we build products. Many of our innovations come from observing workflows on the ground and then using technology, including AI, to simplify or improve those processes.

Internally, we try to maintain a culture where technology is not built in isolation. Product, engineering, and operations teams stay closely connected to the events we support. This helps ensure that innovation remains practical and aligned with what users genuinely need.

In many ways, the goal is simple, build technology that makes sports easier to organise, easier to watch, and easier to participate in.

CX is Often Intangible

Q9. CX in grassroots sports is often intangible. How do you measure success—across engagement, monetisation, and user satisfaction?

SA: In grassroots sports, success often shows up through how the ecosystem evolves over time, rather than through a single metric.

For example, with the Delhi Football Association, the journey itself became a strong indicator. They initially started with production only for the knockout games of one tournament. The following year they asked for streaming of the entire tournament, but through mobile setups due to budget constraints. The year after that they moved to video camera streaming, and eventually to automated multi-camera production with commentary, replays, and highlights across all matches.

We also see similar signals across our broader ecosystem. Over 84% of organisers who work with us come back the following year, and in nearly 58% of those cases the requirements actually expand, whether in terms of more matches being streamed, upgraded production setups, or additional features.

For us, patterns like these are a strong indicator of engagement and satisfaction. When organisers invest more into coverage, players actively use their match clips, and communities continue to return to watch and participate, it usually reflects that the platform is creating real value for the ecosystem.

Tangible ROI from AI-powered Platform 

Q10. What tangible ROI have organisers and partners experienced by adopting SportVot’s AI-powered platform?

SA: In grassroots sports, ROI often becomes visible through how organisers and communities grow with the platform over time.

For example, the VIBGYOR Group of Schools initially worked with SportVot for production during one season. After seeing the impact, the following year they expanded the collaboration to cover their entire seven-month sports season across 10 cities, adding pay-per-view access alongside production.

In tournaments like the Assam Football League, improved broadcast quality has helped bring more people online to watch, follow, and interact with the league, increasing overall visibility for the teams and the competition.

One of the most heartening examples is the Brahmaputra Volleyball League in Assam. Through SportVot’s technology, local students and community members learned how to operate mobile streaming setups themselves and eventually became local broadcasters for the league. At the same time, streaming opened the league to Indian sports supporters outside the region and outside the country, leading to new sponsorships, team backing, and investments in better equipment for the tournament.

So for many organisers, the return is visible through greater reach, stronger community participation, and a growing ecosystem around the sport.

Evolving into a Primary Content Category 

Q11. Do you see grassroots sports evolving into a primary content category for OTT platforms? What would that mean for CX design?

SA: Rather than becoming a primary category within large entertainment OTT platforms, we are seeing dedicated OTT platforms emerging specifically for grassroots and domestic sports ecosystems.

A good example is Table Tennis Australia, which is running its own OTT platform developed with SportVot to stream domestic competitions across the country, including tournaments organised by different state associations. In this case, OTT is not just broadcasting matches but serving as a digital home for the entire Table Tennis ecosystem in Australia. 

Across many sports, federations and organisers are increasingly looking at developing such digital homes where scouts, athletes fans can follow tournaments, players, rankings, and highlights across the entire season, rather than just watching isolated matches.

From a CX perspective, this means platforms are being designed to support continuous engagement with the sport and its community, not just live viewing.

We are already working with partners across different regions to enable these ecosystems, and we are actively building towards building multiple sport-specific OTT platforms around the world, each centred around the community of a particular sport.

Reshaping the Experience Economy in Sports 

Q12. Looking ahead, how will AI, data, and personalisation further reshape the experience economy in sports?

SA: AI, data, and personalisation are definitely shifting sports from being just a broadcast product to becoming a more interactive experience economy.

Instead of everyone consuming the same feed, technology is making it possible for fans to engage with the sport in ways that feel more personal, whether that means following specific players, discovering tournaments relevant to their region, or instantly accessing moments that matter to them.

For athletes and organisers, data is also making the ecosystem more transparent and connected. Performances, tournaments, and player journeys are becoming easier to track, analyse, and share.

So the experience of sport is slowly moving from simply watching a match to participating in an ongoing story around the sport, its players, and its community.

CX Means Accessibility, Immediacy, and Personalisation 

In this era accessibility, immediacy, and personalisation are increasingly defining the customer experience. Hence, SportVot is reimagining what it means to “experience” sports.

Traditionally, sports broadcasting has been synonymous with high production costs, elite leagues, and limited access. But SportVot’s AI-powered platform is dismantling these barriers—bringing district-level tournaments, school competitions, and local leagues into the digital spotlight.

At the heart of this transformation is a powerful idea: experience should not be a privilege—it should be scalable.

By leveraging computer vision and automated production, SportVot enables organisers to go live within minutes. Thus, turning local events into immersive digital experiences. For fans, this means discovering hyperlocal content that resonates deeply with their communities. For athletes, it means visibility, recognition, and opportunity.

From a CX perspective, this is not just innovation—it is a structural shift.

AI is no longer a backend enhancement; it is the foundation upon which experiences are built. OTT platforms are no longer just distribution channels; they are engagement ecosystems. And grassroots sports are no longer invisible; they are becoming a new frontier of digital interaction.

As Sidhhant Agarwal articulates, the future of sports lies not in better content. But also in more inclusive, accessible, and participatory experiences.

Key CX Leadership Insights

AI can redefine CX when treated as infrastructure, not just a feature

Democratising access often leads to exponential engagement growth

Hyperlocal personalisation is a powerful driver of emotional connection

Platform thinking is critical to delivering consistent multi-stakeholder experiences

Monetisation and experience design must evolve together

Editorial Reflection

This conversation underscores a profound shift in how customer experience is conceptualising in emerging ecosystems.

SportVot’s journey highlights that the future of CX will evolve solely by premium experiences. Not only that, but also by inclusive, scalable, and democratised ones. As AI and OTT converge, organisations that can unlock participation at scale will shape the next wave of engagement.

3 Key Takeaways for Readers

1. Grassroots ecosystems can become powerful CX engines when enabled by the right technology

2. AI-driven automation can unlock entirely new experience categories

3. The future of CX lies in blending scale with personalisation and accessibility

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