Today’s sporting events depend on broadcasters, internet providers and cloud platforms to transmit vast amounts of data across continents in real time.
As a striker steps up to take a decisive penalty at the Fifa World Cup, another race is unfolding far from the stadium. Within seconds, footage from the pitch travels through fibre-optic networks and is processed by cloud platforms.
Artificial intelligence analyses the data, while interconnected data centres route the footage to billions of screens around the world. Behind the scenes, cybersecurity teams work to protect the broadcast infrastructure and prevent hackers from disrupting one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
For football fans, the experience feels seamless. A goal appears almost instantly on televisions, smartphones and tablets, accompanied by live statistics, player tracking and instant replays. Behind that seemingly effortless experience, however, lies a vast digital ecosystem where every millisecond counts.
“It is a complete ecosystem. It is a journey from the pitch to the screen,” Kamel Al-Tawil, Managing Director, MENA at Equinix, told.
He said today’s sporting events depend on broadcasters, internet providers, cloud platforms and interconnected data centres working together to move vast amounts of information across continents in real time.
“If any part of that supply chain breaks, you don’t get the experience,” he said. “You don’t want to watch a penalty five minutes after it happens.”
Deutsch described data centres as the “kitchen” of the digital world, where internet providers, cloud platforms and content services converge before broadcasts are delivered from facilities closest to viewers. This helps minimise delays, even when millions of fans tune in simultaneously.
Artificial intelligence has also become central to the modern viewing experience. Beyond powering technologies such as Video Assistant Referee (VAR), AI analyses player movements, ball speed, possession statistics and other live data that have become integral to football broadcasts.
But while billions of fans focus on the action on the pitch, cybercriminals are watching too.
“Where you see a crowd, you will also find criminals,” said Dr Claude Fachkha, cybercrime expert and associate professor at the University of Dubai.
Fachkha said major sporting events are attractive targets because they bring together huge online audiences, valuable digital infrastructure and millions of financial transactions within a short period. “Attackers are after money, personal information or simply the opportunity to damage an organisation’s reputation.”
Among the biggest threats are distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that overwhelm online services, fake streaming websites designed to steal passwords or payment details, phishing campaigns targeting eager fans, and attempts to disrupt the digital infrastructure supporting live broadcasts.
“People are excited. They want to watch the match immediately, so many click the first streaming link they find without checking whether it is legitimate,” Fachkha said. “That is exactly what attackers are counting on.”
Cybercriminals often imitate legitimate broadcasters or streaming platforms, he said, directing users to convincing fake websites where malware can be installed or sensitive information stolen.
For broadcasters, the challenge is not only preventing attacks but ensuring viewers never notice them. “If a live broadcast goes down, people immediately switch to another platform,” Fachkha said, highlighting why uninterrupted availability is one of the industry’s top priorities during major sporting events.
To prevent disruptions, broadcasters and technology providers build multiple layers of resilience into their infrastructure. If a server is overwhelmed or compromised, traffic can be automatically redirected to backup systems through load balancing, allowing streams to continue with little or no interruption.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly helping security teams respond faster. Rather than relying solely on engineers to monitor systems manually, AI can continuously analyse network traffic, detect unusual activity and flag suspicious behaviour in real time.
“AI doesn’t get tired,” Fachkha said. “It can monitor systems 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” He cautioned, however, that human oversight remains essential.
While AI can rapidly identify anomalies, it can also produce false positives by flagging legitimate activity as malicious, or false negatives in which genuine threats go undetected. “You still need people making the critical decisions.”
Fachkha also noted that cyberattacks are not always aimed at stealing information. Some are designed simply to hijack attention, briefly replacing legitimate broadcasts with unauthorised images or messages. Even if engineers restore services within seconds, such incidents can damage trust in the platform.
Looking ahead, he expects AI to become even more deeply integrated into cyber defence, helping security teams anticipate attacks before they occur rather than simply responding after the fact.
For Deutsch, the rapid growth of AI is also reshaping the infrastructure needed to support global events, driving demand for highly connected data centres capable of processing and distributing enormous volumes of information with minimal delay.
As AI, cloud computing and streaming continue to evolve, experts say the technology powering global sporting events is becoming increasingly sophisticated — and increasingly invisible.
Every pass, save and goal may be decided on the pitch. But ensuring billions of fans can witness those moments without interruption is a game of its own, played across thousands of servers, countless kilometres of fibre-optic cables and security operations centres working around the clock, long before the final whistle.
