Wasabi Adds Vancouver Canucks to its Growing Sports, Media & Entertainment Roster

Wasabi Technologies has strengthened its sports, media & entertainment customer and partner portfolio with the addition of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Vancouver Canucks.

In a new partnership with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, Wasabi becomes the Preferred Cloud Storage of the Canucks with extensive branding integration for the 2024 NHL season, while the Canucks benefit operationally from Wasabi’s cloud data storage services via a multi-year technology deal.

Wasabi hot cloud storage is purpose-built for sports and media & entertainment (M&E) workloads, offering more affordability, accessibility, and simplicity than competitors. Its recent acquisition of Curio AI from GrayMeta further enables M&E customers like the Canucks to quickly search and index their entire video archives based on people, places, emotions, logos, and audio, and deliver content in the moment it is needed.

As the demand for Wasabi hot cloud storage grew for M&E, it opened a storage region in Toronto in the spring of 2022 to help service Canada’s extensive film and television industry. Overall, Wasabi has 13 storage regions worldwide across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific supporting M&E industry customers across professional sports, film and television, animation, publishing, and more.

“As the sports world turns full force to digital innovation, sports organizations must be able to effectively manage their data in all areas of their operations while managing growing IT costs and simultaneously delivering an exceptional fan experience,” says Terry Kalna, chief revenue officer, Canucks Sports & Entertainment. “Wasabi is offering an alternative to the market that will provide us with the freedom to innovate without having to worry about unexpected data storage bills. That changes the game.”

The Canucks join Wasabi’s roster of professional sports organizations, which features the Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, and Liverpool Football Club, who are utilizing Wasabi hot cloud storage to innovate fan experience, digital strategy, and club operations. The Canucks will be able to quickly store and access their data from one simple tier with no fees for egress or API calls, meaning they can put their data to work in real time to enhance key facets of its business.

As the Preferred Cloud Storage of the Canucks, Wasabi’s brand will be displayed throughout Rogers Arena, online and in-game broadcast moments. Wasabi will also expand its Corporate Social Responsibility program to support the Canucks for Kids Fund, which benefits children’s health and well-being, education, and grassroots hockey development across British Columbia.

“Canada is known for hockey, and for its booming entertainment industry. With Wasabi’s capabilities for professional sports and entertainment companies, this brand partnership could not be a better fit,” says Michael Welts, chief marketing officer, Wasabi Technologies. “We look forward to not only being great brand partners with the Canucks, but to also help them unleash their data and bring a next-level fan experience to British Columbia and beyond.”