Case studies / Cancha
Rebuilding a sports media business around AI.
- Discipline
- AI strategy, editorial transformation, partnerships, operating model design
- My role
- Strategic advisor, NORD
- Worked with
- CEO, editorial, product, gaming and commercial leads
- Market
- Mexico
Confidential: product, company and client names are anonymised and some details are simplified.
01 / Overview
From an AI experiment to the way the business operates.
A Mexican sports media and gaming business needed to move faster than its structure allowed. Editorial, product, gaming and commercial were working hard, but separately.
As strategic advisors, we partnered with the CEO, editorial leads, product, gaming and commercial teams to rethink the business for a local audience and an AI first future.
The work covered editorial structure, audience behaviour, partnerships and a shared operating layer that brought every team's data into one place.
02 / The challenge
A global playbook in a local market, with teams in silos.
The business had grown on models borrowed from Europe and the US. They didn't fit Mexican audiences, content felt overproduced, editorial output was capped by headcount, teams reported separately and too much was being built in house that could be licensed faster.
5+ days
average time for performance insight to reach the teams who could act on it.
03 / My role
Working directly with leadership and teams.
We sat with stakeholders across every department to understand how decisions were really made, then shaped the new model with them.
- 01Advised the CEO and leadership team on AI strategy and team design
- 02Ran workshops with editorial, product, gaming and commercial leads
- 03Redesigned the editorial workflow around AI
- 04Mapped what to build, what to partner on and what to license
- 05Designed collaborative AI dashboards as the shared operating layer
- 06Supported teams through the World Cup as a live test of the new model
04 / The vision
Four pillars.
One connected system instead of separate departments, with six data streams unified into one operating layer.
Local first content
Faster, more direct formats led by trusted voices, not banner ads.
AI powered editorial
AI across research, drafting, translation, optimisation and distribution.
Partner led capability
Sports data, streaming, gaming tech and distribution accessed through partners.
Shared intelligence
Collaborative dashboards where teams ask questions and act together.
05 / Key lessons
What the work taught us.
01
Local behaviour beats global playbooks
Creator led campaigns delivered 3.4x the conversion of display. Local payment methods cut checkout drop off by 38%. Less polished content drove 52% more engagement.
02
AI changed the economics of editorial
Output rose from 40 to 180+ articles a day and cost per article fell 70%, by redesigning the team around people who train, direct and improve AI.
03
Big moments expose what works
The World Cup pushed traffic to 6x the monthly average, with match reports live within 90 seconds and gaming registrations up 210%.
04
Partnerships move faster than builds
5 new capabilities launched in 6 months, against an estimated 18 to 24 months to build internally.
The operating layer
Inside Cancha
Under NDA. Cancha is a fictional name, and all company, product and client names are anonymised.
06 / Impact
A business that learns faster than its market.
Impact
- Editorial rebuilt around AI, lifting output 4.5x
- Production costs down 70% per article
- The biggest ever traffic event, during the World Cup
Ways of working
- New capabilities to market 3x faster through partnerships
- One shared, live view of performance for every team
- Weekly reporting down from 12 hours to under 2
07 / Reflection
Transformation happens with people, not to them.
The biggest shift wasn't the technology. It was getting leadership and teams to see the business as one system and make decisions together. AI made that possible, but working alongside the people who run the business every day is what made it stick.
Stakeholder feedback
NORD didn't just advise us, they worked alongside our teams to rebuild how we operate. We came out faster, more connected and ready for what's next.
Alejandra Ruiz · VP of Product, Cancha
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