The Bundesliga is expanding its official app with an innovative feature that takes interactive and personalized use to the next level: the AI assistant “Captain,” developed together with the Bundesliga’s long-standing partner Amazon Web Services (AWS), is now available. This conversational interface, built on AWS data and AI services, gives fans access to live statistics, historical match data, tactical analyses, trivia, and video highlights.
Captain is available now to help fans with questions during the Bundesliga summer break: the new feature also has access to the match data from the FIFA World Cup 2026 as well as past World Cups.
Smart companion for all football enthusiasts :
Captain gives fans the ability to ask questions about the Bundesliga and individual matches, clubs and players via the chat function. For example, “Show me all Harry Kane’s headed goals in a video”, to which Captain responds with a personalized video playlist for the user.
In addition, fans receive recommendations tailored to their personal interests and previous behavior in the app, including insights into live events and historical Bundesliga data based on their preferred clubs. Captain is a knowledgeable companion for football enthusiasts, actively interacting with app users and responding to their queries in German or English based on their preference.
Coach Mode: Learn and get involved in a playful way
The new “Coach Mode” combines knowledge and competition. Captain’s gamification module offers the opportunity to take part in a football quiz every day and to demonstrate – or expand – your expertise. Those who know a lot about football rules, tactics, and the history of the game can collect points for the leaderboard. As the new feature is available internationally, the results are displayed in country rankings. “Coach Mode” adapts to the individual level of knowledge and thus introduces new users to football and the Bundesliga in a playful way.
Bastian Zuber, Chief Product & Technology Officer of Bundesliga Media, explains: “With the help of cutting-edge AI, we are opening up a new dimension of football content for fans. Captain delivers what football enthusiasts have asked of us in the past: it makes real-time statistics, historical data and our comprehensive Bundesliga video content accessible to them. This has been achieved thanks in no small part to the excellent collaboration with our partner AWS.”
AWS Global Head of Sports Julie Souza says: “Fans can get overwhelmed with fragmented information across multiple apps and platforms. Captain brings everything into one intelligent companion that knows decades of football history, understands what’s happening on the pitch in real time, and adapts to each individual fan. Whether you’ve followed the Bundesliga for 20 years or are discovering the sport as soccer takes center stage this summer, Captain meets you where you are.”
Captain learns from every interaction and will be continuously developed and expanded based on available data and user feedback. New users can download the app to get started, and existing users should update to the latest version to access the new features.
Background information:
Fan-centric approach
The development of Captain was based on extensive insights into the behaviour of football fans and app users. This includes:
- around 78 per cent of Bundesliga fans obtain live data from different sources during a match,
- around 70 per cent of 16- to 34-year-olds chat about match action while watching football, and
- many fans follow individual stars just as closely as their favourite teams. For example, according to a recent Harris Poll, in the U.S., 61% of fans say that it is the individual athletes who bring football to life for them, and almost half follow individual players just as closely or even more closely than individual clubs.
Captain accompanies fans during the FIFA World Cup
This summer, 48 nations and over 1,000 players will take part in the FIFA World Cup, including many players from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. When they compete on the world stage, Captain will deliver relevant information and context in real time. To enable this, Captain will access the match data of this year’s tournament and past World Cups.
About AWS:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.
