How Major League Fishing Drives Engagement in Real Time

In 2011, Major League Fishing (MLF) made professional fishing available to enthusiasts and casual viewers alike through linear programs on the Outdoor Channel. Since that time, they’ve grown into the largest tournament-fishing organization in the world, hosting over 250 events and engaging more than 30,000 participants each year.

From the outset, MLF had one mission: to present the sport of competitive professional bass fishing in a way that the viewing public had never seen. They aimed to position competitive fishing on a par with major sports organizations such as the NFL, MLB, PGA, NASCAR, and so on.

So MLF launched a series of events that brought together anglers from different leagues to compete in their cup tournaments. But there was still one thing missing—they didn’t have a league of their own. That’s when they reached out to Bass Pro Shops and other sponsors to discuss officially starting one.

Expanding to Digital Live Streams

To expand their league into digital, MLF brought in Jared Collett as Head of Digital Ad Operations. “We wanted to take what had been condensed to two hours and livestream it in a way that stayed true to the sport and the property,” Collett says.

As MLF began their search for the right streaming partner, their list of needs kept getting longer and longer. They needed full technical support, HD streaming, monetization capabilities, detailed analytics, and most importantly, a track record in delivering stable live streams for 8–10 hours.

The end result was a 17-point checklist of requirements, which, after an extensive review, only two platforms met. “Of the two, only one of them had it all in one platform,” Collett recalls. “The other one was going to require us to use three different platforms just to be able to achieve what we wanted. So it was a very, very clear choice.”

Enhancing Live Streams with Ads and Analytics

Among the monetization requirements MLF had was a partner capable of supporting live stream ad insertion with clickable overlays. It was important that their audience be able to interact with ads in the same way they would on a digital platform. The solution, dubbed the Big Red Button, allowed them to send specific markers through the live stream, signaling the system to fetch and insert digital ads.

Collett remarked that he wasn’t used to working with a partner willing to go the extra mile to solve his problems. “A lot of companies now will be like, ‘Hey, there's an API. You can go build it yourself.’ But I have a pretty small team, and we don’t have the resources for that.”

Analytics also played an important role in the success of MLF’s live streams. With concurrent data, MLF can communicate the exact reach of sponsored segments broadcast during live events.

“We can give our sponsors real data as to how many people actually saw that clip that was run through the live stream. These real numbers have really helped us to bolster our properties,” notes Collett.

Beyond enhancing sponsor relations, concurrent data also helps MLF determine peak viewer times and make real-time adjustments to boost viewership.

Empowering Live Stream Success with Technical Support

Thanks to Brightcove’s reliable live streams, monetization capabilities, and business-driving analytics, Major League Fishing has grown from a humble, 2-hour linear program to a leader in sports streaming.

“The benefits that we have as a company, having Brightcove by our side, have been absolutely amazing,” said Collett. “There’s so much that we’ve been able to do with Brightcove.”

One of the key benefits MLF expressed is the support they receive from an engineering team that actively participates in developing various solutions. “Though Brightcove has a ton of great APIs, they recognize that my team can’t do that. So they help us with building out the API or building out a button that helps us do it, or something along those lines.”

With Brightcove by their side, Collett is optimistic about the future of MLF, particularly as they focus on audience growth.

“Brightcove has been a really great partner so far with helping us find ways to reach more audiences and find new fans all across the globe. So we’re really excited about what we can do with them going forward and how we can bring our product to new fans.”