LiveRamp scales identity API to 200,000 requests per second for DAZN
LiveRamp implemented a scheduled, CRON-based infrastructure pre-heating strategy to handle DAZN's massive authentication surges during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Rather than relying on reactive Kubernetes metrics, the proactive scaling successfully managed traffic spikes of up to 200,000 requests per second with zero failures. The technical setup also utilized Google Cloud Armor rules as a multi-tenant safeguard to isolate DAZN's traffic and protect other platform users.
Key Takeaways
- Scheduled pre-heating of infrastructure via CRON replaced Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaler for predictable 15-minute pre-match spikes.
- Bigtable instances were prioritized in the scaling sequence due to longer provisioning times compared to Kubernetes node pools and pods.
- Load testing using Grafana k6 and Locust validated system stability at 200,000 requests per second with zero errors.
- Google Cloud Armor rules were utilized as a multi-tenant safeguard to isolate DAZN traffic and protect the platform's broader customer base.
Why It Matters
The shift toward proactive capacity planning highlights a critical limitation in standard cloud-native autoscaling for live sports. As streaming platforms move toward high-concurrency, identity-driven monetization models, reactive metrics like CPU utilization are proving too slow for the 'kickoff event' pattern. For the broader ecosystem, this technical blueprint confirms that protecting multi-tenant stability requires both aggressive pre-heating and granular traffic isolation via edge security rules. Future success in live-sports ad tech will depend on this move away from reactive elasticity toward scheduled, event-aware infrastructure orchestration.
Additional Context
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup represented a massive expansion of the tournament, featuring 32 clubs across 63 matches. Per FIFA and DAZN (September 2025), the event drew a global audience of 2.7 billion fans and recorded DAZN's highest single day of registrations on opening day. DAZN secured the exclusive global broadcast rights for approximately $1 billion, opting to stream all matches for free to maximize user acquisition for its ad-supported and betting ecosystems. This high-volume audience strategy created unprecedented pressure on authentication and identity resolution systems, particularly during peak matches like the final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.
This trend reflects a broader industry pivot toward live events as the primary driver of streaming growth. Per Ampere Analysis (January 2026), live sports and event programming were responsible for 60% of significant sign-up peaks across major SVOD platforms in 2025. Furthermore, 50% to 75% of new users during live broadcasts opted for ad-supported tiers on services like Netflix and Prime Video. As global CTV ad spend is projected to exceed $38 billion in 2026, the technical ability to resolve identity in real time during traffic spikes has become a foundational requirement for secondary monetization through targeted advertising and interactive social features.
Read full article at liveramp.com
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