PubMatic Launches AI-Powered Live Sports Marketplace with Real-Time Game Moment Curation, FanServ Joins as Premier Partner
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM), the independent technology company delivering digital advertising's supply chain of the future, today launched an AI-powered Live Sports Marketplace that enables advertisers to target specific game moments across streaming platforms in real-time. This breakthrough proprietary technology analyzes live game data, offering granular event-level curation and real-time access to premium live sports ad inventory.
The Live Sports Marketplace launches with FanServ as its premier partner, providing immediate access to premium NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL and National Women's Soccer League inventory, including exclusive local programming for the Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies, and Cleveland Guardians. This partnership is a pivotal step in unifying and expanding access to premium live sports inventory across the digital ecosystem.
"FanServ was built by fans, for fans, and now, with PubMatic, we're redefining how brands reach and engage fans through programmatic sports advertising. This partnership is about more than just access, it's about precision and possibility," stated Brad Friedman, CEO of FanServ. "By combining FanServ's deep sports expertise with PubMatic's unique event-level curation, we're empowering brands to connect meaningfully at the exact moments that matter most, across every platform they love," added Ben Goodfriend, VP of Demand Partnerships.
The Live Sports Marketplace launches with substantial momentum, building on PubMatic's sports advertising business where live sports activity has more than tripled in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The company exceeded its entire 2024 live sports activity in just the first six months of 2025, positioning it to more than double last year's performance and demonstrating explosive market demand for precision-targeted live sports solutions. Beyond FanServ's premium inventory, the marketplace provides unified access to major publishers including MLB, FuboTV, DirecTV, Spectrum Reach, and Roku, and covers comprehensive sports content from major leagues (MLB, NBA & WNBA, NHL, MLS) to alternative sports (surfing, pickleball, MMA, FIFA, NASCAR & F1, tennis, golf, cricket) and NCAA college athletics. The company has recently monetized CTV inventory for the official FIFA Club World Cup, which took place from June 19 to July 17.
Currently, traditional programmatic sports buying often fails to distinguish between low- and high-engagement moments, leading to wasted impressions during less impactful periods, such as commercial breaks in lopsided games, while missing opportunities to reach audiences during the most valuable, high-attention moments. The marketplace addresses these and other critical pain points, including fragmented streaming and under-monetized inventory, limited targeted precision across live events, and the technical complexities of managing unpredictable viewership spikes and behaviors. The Live Sports Marketplace enables advertisers and publishers to unlock the full value of live sports audiences through:
- Industry-First Event- and Channel-Level Precision: PubMatic's proprietary AI enables advertisers to target specific games, teams, or even high-impact moments, across a fragmented streaming landscape, maximizing relevance and engagement for every campaign.
- Dynamic Scheduling & Real-Time Packaging: By importing and analyzing live TV schedules from all partners, the marketplace uses up-to-the-minute sports schedules, ensuring brands can target the right moments as they happen across all publishers.
- Expert Management of Live Spikes: PubMatic's owned-and-operated infrastructure can expertly manage unpredictable spikes in live viewership, with the potential for separate endpoints for DSPs dedicated to live sports, ensuring seamless, reliable ad delivery at scale, even during the most high-demand moments.
- Scalability and Automation Roadmap: The platform is designed to provide both immediate manual flexibility and future automation, supporting scalable, automated deal creation and reporting. This ensures that both buyers and sellers can benefit from streamlined workflows and real-time insights as the market evolves.
"This revolutionary technology and premium partnership with FanServ transforms fragmented live sports inventory into programmatically accessible, of-the-moment opportunities, setting a new standard for precision and impact in digital sports advertising," stated Nicole Scaglione, VP of CTV and Online Video at PubMatic.
According to eMarketer, 114.1 million people are projected to watch live sports digitally in 2025, compared to 82.0 million via traditional TV. As audiences migrate to streaming and connected devices, there is a real need for real-time, precise, and scalable ad delivery during unpredictable, high-attention moments. With the Live Sports Marketplace, PubMatic delivers the precision, speed and reliability advertisers need to succeed.
To learn more about the Live Sports Marketplace and how it can elevate your live digital advertising strategy, please visit www.pubmatic.com/live-sports
About Fanserv:
Fanserv pairs the power of sports with the promise of digital by unifying inventory, enabling granular targeting, and providing unparalleled analytics. As the exclusive monetization partner for premiere teams, leagues, and federations, Fanserv delivers seamless monetization solutions purpose-built for live sports.
About PubMatic:
PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM) is an independent technology company maximizing customer value by delivering digital advertising's supply chain of the future. PubMatic's sell-side platform empowers the world's leading digital content creators across the open internet to control access to their inventory and increase monetization by enabling marketers to drive return on investment and reach addressable audiences across ad formats and devices. Since 2006, our infrastructure-driven approach has allowed for the efficient processing and utilization of data in real time. By delivering scalable and flexible programmatic innovation, we improve outcomes for our customers while championing a vibrant and transparent digital advertising supply chain.
Press Contact:
Ashley Jacobson, Director of Corporate Marketing, [email protected]
Broadsheet Communications for PubMatic, [email protected]
