How Dizplai helped Sky Sports give boxing fans a seat at the judges’ table
Key insights
- Dizplai built the Viewers’ Verdict, a live interactive scorecard housed within the Sky Sports app that lets boxing fans score fights round-by-round and compare their verdict to the aggregate fan total in real time
- 45,000 fans opened the web app on the first fight night, with hundreds of thousands participating across events since launch
- Fan scoring data was integrated into Sky Sports’ broadcast graphics in real time, creating a new on-air narrative whenever the crowd’s verdict diverged from the judges’
- All interactions happened within the Sky Sports app, giving Sky a first-party data asset built into every pay-per-view event without requiring fans to leave the Sky ecosystem
- Snap polls and fight outcome predictions extended participation beyond the scorecard, keeping fans active in the app throughout the full broadcast
See how Dizplai built the Viewers’ Verdict, a live interactive round-by-round scorecard within the Sky Sports app that let boxing fans score fights in real time, compare their verdicts to thousands of other viewers, and feed directly into the broadcast narrative, while giving Sky Sports a first-party data engine built into every pay-per-view event.
What Sky Sports needed: a second-screen experience that made boxing fans part of the broadcast
Boxing fans have always had opinions on the judges. Sky Sports wanted to give those opinions somewhere to go, building a second-screen experience that put viewers at the heart of the broadcast rather than reacting to it from the outside. The goal was a format compelling enough to pull fans into the Sky Sports app during a pay-per-view event, keep them active round-by-round throughout the fight, and feed their input back into the broadcast in real time, all while collecting first-party data on the fans who engaged.
How Dizplai built the Viewers’ Verdict inside the Sky Sports app
Dizplai worked with Sky Sports to create the Viewers’ Verdict, a live interactive scorecard that let fans score each round as it happened and compare their verdict to an aggregated fan total. The format gave viewers a stake in every round, not just the final decision, and created a direct line between the audience’s opinion and the broadcast narrative.
Live data integration fed the fan scorecard directly into Sky Sports’ broadcast graphics in real time, giving presenters and commentators a new talking point whenever the viewers’ verdict diverged from the official judges’ scores. The discrepancy between crowd opinion and official scoring became a broadcast moment in its own right. All interactions took place within the Sky Sports app, which meant every participant was a known, opted-in fan contributing to Sky’s first-party data rather than an anonymous viewer.
Snap polls and fight outcome predictions were built alongside the scorecard, giving fans additional ways to engage throughout the broadcast beyond the round-by-round scoring and extending active participation across the full duration of each event.
The results: 45,000 app opens on fight night and a new broadcast narrative built around fan opinion
- 45,000 fans opened the Viewers’ Verdict web app on the first fight night, with hundreds of thousands participating across events since launch
- The fan scorecard created a recurring on-air narrative by surfacing the gap between official judges’ verdicts and the collective viewer opinion, adding a new layer to Sky Sports’ boxing commentary
- Every interaction happened within the Sky Sports app, making the Viewers’ Verdict a first-party data engine embedded into every pay-per-view event, generating audience insight at a scale passive broadcast viewership alone could not deliver
FAQs
The Viewers’ Verdict is a live interactive boxing scorecard built by Dizplai inside the Sky Sports app. Fans can score each round of a fight as it happens and compare their verdict to an aggregated fan total, while their scoring data feeds directly into Sky Sports’ broadcast graphics in real time. The format launched with 45,000 app opens on the first fight night and has had hundreds of thousands of participants across events since.
Dizplai integrated live fan scoring data directly into Sky Sports’ broadcast graphics, meaning the aggregate fan verdict updates on screen throughout the fight. When the crowd’s round-by-round scores diverge significantly from what the judges appear to be seeing, it becomes a broadcast talking point. The on-air moment that results when the official verdict differs from the fans’ verdict has become a regular feature of Sky Sports’ boxing coverage.
By housing the Viewers’ Verdict inside the Sky Sports app rather than on a separate site, every fan who participates is a known, identifiable viewer within Sky’s ecosystem. Each interaction, whether a round score, a snap poll response, or a fight outcome prediction, generates a data point that builds a clearer picture of Sky’s most engaged boxing audience. That first-party data is more valuable and more actionable than viewership numbers alone.
A snap poll is a fast, single-question vote that runs during a live broadcast, giving fans a way to express an opinion on what’s happening in real time. For Sky Sports boxing, snap polls ran alongside the Viewers’ Verdict scorecard, asking fans to weigh in on moments from the fight as they happened. The instant results fed back into the broadcast, giving presenters live audience sentiment to work with throughout the show.
Yes. The Viewers’ Verdict demonstrates how a well-designed second-screen mechanic can simultaneously improve the viewing experience, create new broadcast narratives, and generate first-party data, three outcomes from one product. Dizplai has delivered similar interactive broadcast tools across a range of sports and broadcaster contexts, with the mechanics adapted to suit the sport and the platform the audience is already using.
- Tags: Media Networks, Sports
