​​Ceeblue Delivered Subsecond Streaming on Akamai

Ceeblue, a Netherlands-based innovator in ultra-low-latency streaming, faced the challenge of delivering subsecond streams for a sports betting customer on an accelerated timeline while keeping the customer’s Akamai-based workflows intact. Needing the capacity to handle unpredictable traffic surges and support global reach without compromising on speed, Ceeblue began collaborating directly with Akamai’s development team. By running its WebRTS technology and Media Fabric platform on Akamai cloud computing and content delivery services, Ceeblue delivered real-time streaming at scale with minimal disruption to the customer’s operations. It also created a foundation for future innovation with Akamai’s accelerated compute capabilities, and laid the groundwork for even faster transitions to subsecond streaming.

Ceeblue specializes in a niche even within live video streaming: ultra-low-latency delivery. Its Media Fabric platform was designed for sub-500-millisecond streaming. “For iGaming and sports betting in particular, lower latency increases the probability of driving customer engagement and higher revenue,” said Lawton Cheney, CCO of Ceeblue. 

For years, Ceeblue has run a custom-built, multi-protocol CDN that supports, among others, WebRTC and High-Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP). While powerful, its award-winning delivery model requires customers to switch from their current delivery providers, which often creates friction from a business or logistical standpoint.

To overcome this blocker, Ceeblue built WebRTS, a protocol designed for subsecond latency on standard CDNs at global scale. It uses less bandwidth, avoids buffering under congestion, and keeps streams locked to live for a seamless viewer experience. For broadcasters, iGaming, and sports betting, that translates into higher engagement, longer betting windows, and greater revenue.

“What excites us about WebRTS is that we can finally run on traditional infrastructure and partner with established providers that have already built world-class networks. Akamai, with its globally distributed infrastructure, was an obvious choice,” said Cheney.

Ceeblue got an opportunity to prove this model when a large sports streaming customer faced an urgent need. Sports streaming presents unique challenges: Traffic patterns spike during events, with audiences surging unpredictably. In addition, this customer needed to transition to the new service almost immediately, with as few modifications to its current workflow as possible.

To enable this, Ceeblue and Akamai joined forces on an intense 40-day project. “It was as if our teams had worked together for years,” Cheney recalled. “Knowing Akamai’s capacity to reliably deliver events of this scale gave us peace of mind.”

A key win was that the customer didn’t need to re-architect video flows or renegotiate contracts. “The onboarding was fast and easy, and the customer didn’t have to migrate DRM or other components,” Cheney said. 

Just as important was that the customer seamlessly enjoyed the advantage of Ceeblue’s Media Fabric platform. WebRTS is segmented and DRM-ready. Plus, its protocol-agnostic design makes real-time streaming on Akamai’s globally distributed infrastructure possible with almost no changes to existing workflows. With Ceeblue’s origin deployed inside the Akamai network, the customer saw improved performance without additional overhead.

“Akamai delivered our subsecond streams globally for this customer, with the scale and resiliency to absorb flash crowds and unpredictable spikes,” Cheney continued.

From that collaboration, Ceeblue began running a managed origin on Akamai Cloud, Akamai’s distributed cloud platform offering a blend of edge and centralized cloud computing services. It also started delivering streaming content across Akamai’s global network of servers that caches content near users to speed delivery and cut latency.

WebRTS delivers subsecond latency across Akamai’s globally distributed architecture, without forcing broadcasters to choose between speed and scale. Cheney said, “Akamai’s infrastructure and cloud computing services enable us to bring to life our vision for powering high-stakes broadcasts with WebRTS.”

Ceeblue sees WebRTS as a cornerstone for future sports OTT broadcasting and beyond. By partnering with Akamai, Ceeblue makes transitioning from HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to subsecond streaming more of a flip of a switch than a laborious and costly undertaking. “With its delivery and origin efficiency, WebRTS offers a viable, lower-cost alternative for solving latency issues,” Cheney said.

Ceeblue is also exploring new ways to push performance and efficiency further. By leveraging Akamai Essential Compute and Accelerated Compute at the edge, it envisions offloading compute-heavy encoding, transcoding, and packet processing closer to users.

“With CPUs and VPUs at the edge, we could shift encoding outward, cut RTT further, and make smarter delivery decisions. That ties compute and delivery tightly together for better efficiency, scalability, and quality of experience,” Cheney concluded.