Case Study

Ice hockey up close: EHC Red Bull Munich turns fans into stars with AI

With the “Be a Star” feature in the EHC Red Bull Munich app, fans can now slip into the shoes of their idols. A few clicks is all it takes to turn a simple selfie into an authentic picture in full ice hockey gear.

Contact us

PRIVACY

Je déclare avoir lu et pleinement compris la note d'information sur la protection des données personnelles Privacy Notice et j'exprime par la présente mon consentement au traitement de mes données personnelles par Reply SpA à des fins de marketing, en particulier pour recevoir des communications promotionnelles et commerciales ou des informations concernant des événements ou des webinaires de l'entreprise, en utilisant des moyens de contact automatisés (par exemple, SMS, MMS, fax, e-mail et applications web) ou des méthodes traditionnelles (par exemple, appels téléphoniques et courrier papier).

Something went wrong with the form submit. Try again.

#Sports
#Icehockey
#App
#GenAI

The project at a glance

Personalized fan experience with AI-powered face swap

The scenario

A new way to experience ice hockey

EHC Red Bull Munich is not only one of the most successful teams in German ice hockey, but also a real crowd-puller. Every weekend, around 10,000 fans watch the puck fly across the ice in the teams‘s stadium, the SAP Garden. But what if they could do more than just watch and slip into the role of an ice hockey star themselves? A new feature of the EHC Red Bull Munich app now brings them a step closer to this dream.

The solution

Become a pro with “Be a Star”

With the new “Be a Star” feature in the EHC Red Bull Munich app, fans can feel like ice hockey pros. A few clicks is all it takes to turn a simple selfie into an authentic picture in full ice hockey gear. Select your favorite player, upload a photo – voila, your own face appears in the locker room. The results can be saved and shared directly on social media.

How we did it

AI-powered image generation on scalable cloud infrastructure

“Be a Star” is based on state-of-the-art image generation and powerful cloud technology. ComfyUI, an innovative visual development environment for AI-powered image processing, plays a key role here. Complex workflows are intuitively orchestrated in ComfyUI so that different Stable Diffusion models interlock precisely.

The result: realistic, detailed images in which fans can see themselves in full ice hockey gear. A scalable cloud infrastructure based on AWS ensures that “Be a Star” works smoothly even at peak times, such as during a game when many fans access it at the same time. Amazon Rekognition and Nova automatically filter out undesired images thanks to targeted training, ensuring a consistently positive experience.

The result

A success that extends far beyond ice hockey

This feature is also exciting beyond the world of ice hockey: the FC Bayern Munich basketball team, which also plays in the SAP Garden, have integrated the feature into its app. An impressive example of how AI can bring fans and top athletes closer together.

EHC Red Bull München

EHC Red Bull Munich is one of Germany's most successful ice hockey clubs and has been playing in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), the highest division in German ice hockey, since the 2010/11 season. With four championship titles (2016, 2017, 2018, 2023), the club is one of the leading names in German professional sport. The club stands for top-class sport, promoting young talent and continuous development – both on and off the ice. Thanks to its close links with the Red Bull Ice Hockey Academy in Salzburg and EC Red Bull Salzburg, EHC is committed to sustainable talent development and is one of the most innovation-driven clubs in European ice hockey. Since 2024, the SAP Garden has been the new home of EHC Red Bull Munich. The modern arena offers a holistic digital fan experience and sets new standards in terms of spectator comfort, sustainability, and event quality. As part of the Red Bull sports family, the club aims to further professionalize ice hockey in Germany and make it attractive to a broad audience – with local roots and an international outlook.

Machine Learning Reply

Machine Learning Reply offers customized end-to-end Data Science solutions, covering the entire project life cycle – from initial strategy consulting, data architecture and infrastructure topics, to processing data with quality assurance using Machine Learning algorithms. Machine Learning Reply has extensive expertise in the field of Data Science in all key industries of German HDAX companies. Machine Learning Reply empowers clients to successfully introduce new data-driven business models and to optimize existing processes and products – with a focus on distributed open source and cloud technologies. With the Machine Learning Incubator, the company offers a program to train the next generation of decision-makers, data scientists and engineers.