Years in the Making. A Summer to Remember.

Every four years, the world turns its attention to football. Millions of fans, dozens of nations, and a shared passion that reaches far beyond the stadiums.

For CUE, a fan engagement technology company that helps sports teams and brands create interactive live experiences and measurable sponsorship value, the opportunity to be part of one of the world's largest sporting events represented far more than another high-profile project. It was the culmination of years of relationship-building, product development, and preparation.

For Chris Saccoccia, CUE's VP of Global Partnerships, the journey began years before the first fans entered the stadiums. An early introduction to CUE's fan engagement technology sparked a relationship that grew through demonstrations, creative discussions, and a successful deployment at the 2025 Club World Cup, setting the stage for an even more ambitious undertaking in 2026.

CUE was preparing to support interactive fan experiences across 16 venues and 104 matches in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Eight different products (Light Show, PostUp, FanSee, Polling, Trivia, Noise Meter, Prize Drop and Shuffle), all operating through one platform, would give production teams a range of ways to engage supporters, from interactive games and live polling to fan-generated content and stadium-wide competitions. But the challenge wasn't simply the scale of the project. It was how the company would deliver consistently across multiple venues while continuing to serve its existing clients around the world.

Coordinating the extraordinary number of moving pieces fell to Jensen Blassage, CUE's Director of Client Success. From training and account setup to creative development, testing, and ongoing support, the project required collaboration across nearly every department.

"Working on a project as large as the World Cup requires preparation, communication, and adaptability," Blassage explained. "No matter how much planning goes into a project of this size, there's always going to be unexpected challenges that come up."

Her role placed her at the center of the effort to ensure that production partners and local operators were equipped to deliver the experiences themselves. Rather than requiring CUE employees to be physically present at every venue for every match, the company built an operating model that allowed local teams to run activations confidently, with CUE providing training and remote support behind the scenes.

Conversations with teams and clients reinforced the significance of the opportunity for Jack Colton, CUE's International Business Lead. Their excitement demonstrated just how much the project meant, not only to CUE but to the broader international sports industry.

"This is not just any other event. This is the big one and we have to get it right," Colton recalled thinking.

The audience would ultimately see the finished production: fans scanning QR codes, appearing on stadium screens, competing with rival supporters, and becoming part of the entertainment. What they wouldn't see were the months of preparation, hundreds of details, and countless conversations required to make those moments feel effortless.

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‍The Best Kind of Silence

When the tournament began, months of preparation gave way to the excitement of seeing the technology in action. Over six weeks, CUE's experiences became part of the matchday atmosphere for millions of fans in attendance, with more than 725,000 direct fan engagements through the platform.

And back at CUE, the phones weren't ringing.

For a technology company supporting a live event of this magnitude, that silence was something to celebrate. Sean Hopkins, CUE's VP of Product and Innovation, recalls the pride of watching the platform perform reliably throughout the tournament, with no major software issues disrupting the experience.

That reliability wasn't an accident. CUE was built by people who understand the demands of live production, where there are no second chances when the moment arrives. Years of experience working alongside game presentation teams, producers, and venue operators have shaped a platform designed to perform under pressure. From its underlying infrastructure to its operating tools and remote support capabilities, resilience has been built into the technology, allowing teams to deliver confidently whether they're engaging a few hundred fans or an entire stadium.

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After months of planning and coordinating across venues, Blassage finally got to watch everything come together in real time. Seeing content arrive from on-site operators meant the work was no longer happening behind the scenes. Fans were experiencing it.

And when the tournament reached its final match, Blassage had the opportunity to experience it firsthand, joining Saccoccia at the championship. After spending months focused on the details required to make everything work, she was finally able to take in the atmosphere, energy, and magnitude of the event from inside the stadium. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a fitting celebration of what the team had accomplished together.

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"I have a tremendous amount of pride for contributing to this type of event and knowing that I played just a small part in such a meaningful experience that captivated the world," Blassage reflected.

Some of Colton's most memorable moments came from watching how naturally fans embraced the technology. While attending a game, he watched supporters around him take out their phones and scan a QR code without needing instructions. They immediately understood how to participate.

The experiences also demonstrated how well the technology complements the traditions of international football. During one match, supporters from Norway and England participated in a Noise Meter competition, turning the passion of rival fan bases into another moment of entertainment inside the stadium.

For CUE cofounder and Chief Revenue Officer Ira Akers, the project's success represented more than a major milestone. It was proof of how far the company had come. Years earlier, an undertaking of this size might have required everyone to drop what they were doing and focus entirely on one event. This time, CUE delivered its most ambitious deployment while continuing to support clients around the world.

"We prove that we can do the biggest and the best and the most events in such a short amount of time without slowing down everything else, without losing the momentum elsewhere," Akers reflected.

Perhaps that's what makes the story special. Behind those hundreds of thousands of fan interactions wasn't an enormous army of people. It was a relatively small team that had spent years building technology, earning trust, and preparing for an opportunity like this. When the moment finally arrived, they were ready.

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The Opportunity Beyond the Big Stage

The success of a project like this demonstrates more than the ability to support a major international event. It shows what's possible when interactive technology becomes a natural part of the live production environment, creating opportunities that extend far beyond global tournaments.

The World Cup also reinforced something particularly important to Colton and the international football market: interactive fan experiences aren't exclusively an American approach to sports entertainment. They can also play a meaningful role in football cultures where tradition, atmosphere, and passionate supporters are already central to the experience.

"The tradition and the passion that exists in European football and the things that make football quite unique as a sport, they should always be celebrated," Colton explained.

Football clubs don't need to replicate the American sports experience to benefit from the technology that has helped make those events more interactive. The opportunity is to take the best of what works elsewhere and adapt it to the culture, identity, and supporters of each club.

And that opportunity extends well beyond football. Across professional sports, concerts, festivals, and other live events, interactive technology is creating new ways for audiences to participate rather than simply watch. A stadium-wide competition can bring thousands of fans into the action. A personalized moment on the big screen can become something a fan takes home and shares. And sponsors can become part of the entertainment itself, creating meaningful connections with audiences while generating measurable engagement and new commercial value.

For teams and venues, it's an opportunity to enhance the atmosphere, create new sponsorship inventory, and make attending in person even more rewarding, without losing the traditions and experiences that make each event unique.

Making the Experience Worth Remembering

The technology may continue to evolve, but the opportunity remains remarkably simple. Create something fans remember. Give teams and venues new ways to connect with their audiences. And help the brands investing in those experiences become part of the story.

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About CUE

CUE helps sports teams, venues, and brands create interactive fan experiences that drive engagement and deliver measurable value.

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