As the Ice Hockey World Championships approach, many restaurant owners have several questions on their minds. Should we show the World Championships? Do the games fit our restaurant, and is it financially worthwhile to show them? To make decision-making a bit easier, we have compiled tips in this text for showing the World Championships in a restaurant.
Text updated on April 17, 2025
Finnish people are a hockey nation - that much we already knew. The success of the Lions in the World Championships evokes strong emotions among Finns, and during the tournaments, hockey becomes a major topic in both the media and everyday conversations. One can easily draw the conclusion: if anything attracts customers to the screen, it's the World Ice Hockey Championship. Many people are looking for places where they can watch the games together with others. A restaurant that shows ice hockey can naturally have a competitive advantage over other establishments.
When a restaurant airs the Ice Hockey World Championship, it can also attract entirely new customers who may not have visited the restaurant before. If the restaurant provides excellent service and a cozy atmosphere during the World Championships, this increases the customer base and consequently boosts sales and revenue even outside the World Championship season.
From the restaurant's perspective, the most important question relates to the costs associated with showing the Ice Hockey World Championships. For this reason, we started considering ways in which restaurants can ensure that showing the World Championships becomes financially rewarding. The financial benefit and risk brought by the World Championships can be assessed using a simple calculation formula. Start calculating by answering two questions:
By multiplying the number of drinks sold by the average profit margin, you can estimate the profitability of the World Cup. When you show all the exciting World Cup hockey matches and Finland makes it to the finals, you'll surely be flashing that register quite a bit. 😊
The restaurant can also offer other services during the game, such as raffles, special offers, snacks, or other World Cup-themed products. Well-thought-out additional services attract customers and increase cash flow. The excitement of the tournament and team spirit encourage people to loosen their purse strings if the restaurant has suitable tournament products prominently available. The sky's the limit, so put on your thinking cap and test out those tournament drinks!
For example, a game night score prediction contest is perfect for the Ice Hockey World Championships. Use it to entice customers to your restaurant to watch the game. Post a poll on your restaurant's social media (e.g., Facebook or Instagram stories) where your customers can guess the winner of the game. You can also ask customers for their prediction at the time of purchase and distribute a specific card, token, or even a drink glass based on their answers. Those with the correct prediction token can receive a discount coupon, for example, at the end of the game.
The Ice Hockey World Championship will take place from May 9–25, 2025, in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark. Just like last year, all World Championship games will be available with Finnish commentary on Viaplay. If you already have a Viaplay business subscription, you can show every game with your current plan. However, there’s no need to commit to a 12-month contract just for the World Championship — you can now order the Viaplay Hockey event package from Feelment.
How does a full-on World Championship hockey experience sound? With the Viaplay Hockey event package, you can show all 64 games of the tournament with Finnish commentary, plus 18 studio broadcasts hosted by Viaplay’s top-tier team. In addition to the World Championship games, the event package gives you full access to Viaplay’s entire sports offering for one month. So you can treat your customers to top-level sports even beyond the hockey games.
Nothing is more stressful than technical issues—especially when Team Finland is playing! That’s why it’s a good idea to make sure everything is up and running before the tournament begins. Through the Feelment app, you can broadcast V sport channel content (V sport 1 Suomi, V sport 2 Suomi, and V sport+ Suomi). Almost all World Championship games will be available on V sport channels, with the exception of a few individual matches (May 11: Germany vs. Kazakhstan, May 17: Czech Republic vs. Kazakhstan, May 18: Slovenia vs. Austria).
If you want full access to all of Viaplay’s sports content, including every single World Championship game, we’ll provide you with separate login credentials for the Viaplay service. This way, you can stream Viaplay's sports content via a web browser or the official Viaplay app.
V sport channels are played through the Feelment app installed on a Windows computer. Our general hardware requirements can be found here if needed. At the moment, V sport channels can only be streamed via cable. (Wireless streaming through the Feelment TV app is coming soon.)
We recommend streaming sports content from the Feelment app and the Viaplay website on separate devices, as using both on the same computer tends to mess with display settings—and trust us, it’s a headache you don’t want (we've tested it 😅). So if you plan to stream all games via Viaplay, be sure to dedicate a separate computer for that.
You should also pay close attention to your internet connection—poor connectivity will ruin the viewing experience without fail. For sports streaming, we always recommend a wired Ethernet connection. The network speed should be at least 10 Mbps per stream. If you’re streaming multiple games at once, make sure your connection can handle 10 Mbps for each stream. For example, streaming three matches simultaneously would require at least 30 Mbps. Additional tips on choosing the right connection can be found [here].
For restaurant owners in need of display solutions, we recommend the Grano Media Tower rental display, which is perfect for showing the Ice Hockey World Championships. It's a portable, large-scale, double-sided display designed for guiding at festivals and mass events, as well as generating advertising revenue. You can effortlessly stream Ice Hockey World Championships or other sports content (or even karaoke) onto the screen using cabling.
The media surface measures 2 x 3 meters and can be rotated vertically and horizontally. Each display weighs 2000 kg and is easily movable with a forklift, designed to withstand wind and weather. It's the perfect solution for creating a summer hockey viewing experience – you just need to ensure adequate power and sound. The Feelment team has collaborated with Grano on various projects, and we warmly recommend them as a partner.