Finnish Floorball Federation: SalibandyTV for all Finnish floorball

The Finnish Floorball Federation launched SalibandyTV, a nationwide OTT service built by Icareus, uniting all Finnish floorball matches under one platform and returning 80–90% of ticket sales revenue directly to clubs.

Floorball is Finland’s third most popular sport with over 65,000 licensed players and nearly 800 clubs. Until 2022, floorball broadcasts were fragmented across different channels and platforms. The Finnish Floorball Federation saw the opportunity to build a centralized, community-first streaming service that would benefit both fans and clubs alike.

After surveys, research, and years of experience with other providers, the Federation partnered with Icareus to create SalibandyTV: an OTT service launched in autumn 2022.

Summary

SalibandyTV was designed around three clear goals:

Serve clubs’ needs by making streaming easy and rewarding.
Bring all Finnish floorball into one platform, from juniors to national teams.
Provide a user-friendly and reliable experience for fans.

The model is simple yet powerful: clubs can stream matches free or paid, with 80–90% of ticket revenue automatically returned to the club. This unprecedented revenue share gives clubs a sustainable way to finance their activities, while fans benefit from a single hub for almost all Finnish floorball action.

Product

Challenge

The Federation wanted a service that could:

Unite fragmented floorball broadcasts in one place.
Make streaming simple for clubs of all sizes.
Provide meaningful revenue opportunities for grassroots sports.
Ensure discoverability and reliability for fans.

The solution needed to work at scale, covering thousands of matches per season from juniors to adult leagues, while staying cost-efficient for clubs.

“We are extremely enthusiastic about this project. Thousands of matches each year, a wide variety of users, and the chance to bring everything under one service. It’s a huge opportunity for the sport.”

Toni Leiponen

CEO, Icareus Ltd

Solution

The Federation chose Icareus Video Cloud for Sports OTT, a turnkey white-label video cloud solution tailored for sports organizations. SalibandyTV includes:

A purpose-built mobile app for easy game streaming directly by clubs.
Flexible monetization with pay-per-view, and subscription services planned.
Integrated advertising options for sponsorship visibility.
Scalable infrastructure to handle thousands of live streams yearly.

Icareus also provided a roadmap for future enhancements, including scoreboard integration, statistics services, AI-based automated cameras, and expanded monetization models.

“The heart of the matter is that we genuinely are doing this for the Finnish floorball community and for the clubs. When a club streams a game on SalibandyTV, 80–90% of the ticket sale revenue is automatically returned to the club—percentages not reached before.”

Pekka Ilmivalta

Executive Director of the Finnish Floorball Association

Results

Within its first six months, SalibandyTV became a resounding success:

Hundreds of clubs registered.
Thousands of matches streamed.
Tens of thousands of fans signed up.
Revenues exceeded expectations, with grassroots clubs earning new, significant income.

The service is widely embraced by the Finnish floorball community as “our own media.” Clubs actively promote it, fans enjoy simple access to content, and sponsors gain new visibility through display and video advertising.

"...the feedback has been extremely encouraging and positive without exception. I am pleased that our media solutions are now clear and in a good model for a long time."

Jussi Ojala

Communications director of the Finnish Floorball Association

Looking ahead

SalibandyTV will continue to expand with features like subscription packages, advanced statistics, AI-powered production tools, and enhanced fan experiences. For Finnish floorball, this marks a new era of accessibility, community engagement, and financial sustainability.