How World Aquatics Are Unlocking Instant Access and Incremental Revenue in Global “Dark” Markets
Overview
World Aquatics is the global governing body for aquatic sports, delivering world-class events to audiences worldwide. As part of its digital strategy, the federation set out to expand direct-to-consumer access to its events - without undermining existing broadcast agreements.
While World Aquatics typically extensive global linear and digital rights coverage for their championships, a number of territories remain unsold. These “dark markets” represented unmet fan demand and untapped revenue at moments of peak intent.
Since June 2023, World Aquatics has partnered with Recast to address this opportunity - using instant, pay-per-view access and precise distribution controls to convert global fan intent into real-time value.
Solution
World Aquatics now embed its event streams directly into its own website, enabling fans to access live and on-demand content instantly, exactly where they discovered it.
Using Recast’s infrastructure, World Aquatics have complete control of their content - setting pricing, time-based passes (1, 7, 14, 28 or 90 days), and geo-restrictions to ensure existing broadcast agreements are protected while opening up distribution in unsold territories.
Fans in these markets are able to unlock access instantly, paying only for the content they want, with no subscriptions or friction. Replays are automatically published shortly after each session ended, allowing fans across time zones to watch on their own schedule - driving additional engagement and revenue beyond the live window.
Each transaction is split and settled to any associated parties according to the configured rules, enabling World Aquatics to generate incremental revenue without upfront costs, licensing complexity, or operational overhead.
Results
By complementing its global broadcast deals with instant direct-to-consumer access, World Aquatics have now converted previously inaccessible markets into meaningful revenue streams -territories that would historically have generated zero value.
Using Recast to embedding access directly on its owned digital platforms led to stronger fan engagement and higher spending. Comparing their 2024 World Championships in Doha to the previous year World Aquatics achieved impressive results:
- Average revenue per fan increased by 53%
- 2,188 Access Passes sold, generating a 44% year-on-year increase in pass revenue
- 38.6% of total sales came from replays, highlighting the value of frictionless, on-demand access
- Revenue from the host nation increased by 1,800% year-on-year, enabled by precise geo-blocking controls
The result was a more efficient distribution model - one that aligned fan demand, access, and monetization at the moment of intent.
World Aquatics and Recast's partnership now spans 4 seasons. As we continue into 2026, the global governing body is leveraging Recast's effortless distribution infrastructure to enable publishers such as USA Artistic Swimming to distribute their content, with Adam Andrasko, CEO of USA Artistic Swimming, describing the onboarding as 'so easy'. Publishers use Recast at zero cost, and both parties benefit from automatic, in-built revenue splits and instant settlement from every transaction.
Partnership & Collaboration
The partnership between World Aquatics and Recast continues to be highly collaborative. The federation has actively contributed to Recast’s product roadmap, ensuring the solution continues to evolve around fan needs, rights constraints, and operational realities.
Recast’s ease of use and reliability during live events has allowed World Aquatics to focus on what matters most: delivering a high-quality experience to a global audience, while retaining full control over distribution and monetization.
What World Aquatics Say:
“Expanding media distribution and making world-class aquatic sport events accessible online to fans around the world is one of the priorities included in our digital strategy for this Olympic cycle.
Recast has enabled us to stream events direct-to-consumer in new markets, significantly expanding our global reach and making our content more accessible to audiences who might not otherwise be able to watch. At the same time, Recast has helped us generate new, incremental revenue streams that complement our existing broadcast agreements.”
Luca Fasani
Digital Director, World Aquatics
