Pursuing the vision to be Europe's greatest ice hockey competition, the CHL provides 32 teams from 13 national leagues with the platform to play a total of 125 games for the right to be crowned continental champions, from August to February. 

Headquartered in Zug in Switzerland, CHL AG is the company holding all competition rights while also organising the event.

Games are currently broadcast in more than 60 territories worldwide with long-term contracts in core markets.

In 2017, working with data-driven sports marketing agency Two Circles, the CHL sought to place insight and understanding around the European ice hockey fanbase at the centre of all decision-making.

To do this, the CHL conducted European ice hockey's largest ever survey.

More than 21,000 respondents from across the continent were asked about what they want from their hockey experience and relationship with the CHL.

Two Circles was also engaged to undertake a deep analysis of the CHL's current and potential fanbase – both at a European level and club-by-club basis

An audit of all CHL digital platforms was commissioned to understand how they could attract a greater following from a drive for greater engagement.

It is claimed data-driven fan insight has driven strategic commercial decision-making that has achieved growth in several key areas.

Among them, for the 2018-2019 season, is digital, with double-digit percentage growth for every owned digital media channel – including YouTube growth of 83 per cent year-on-year and Instagram growth of 47 per cent year-on-year, and more than 10,000 fans engaged in the newly-introduced "Fan Challenge".

Another area is sponsorship, with new partnership deals with digital-first brands – such as iLOQ – looking to reach their audiences primarily through digital channels with highly-engaged audiences.

The third area is events, with the 12,000-plus tickets for the CHL final selling out in a day.

It marked the fifth consecutive CHL final sell-out.

Speaking ahead of the start of the new CHL season next Thursday (August 29), chief executive Martin Baumann expressed his happiness with the results but said there is more work to be done.

"I think we have to do our homework in many areas," he said.

"First of all I think we have to continue to grow the atmosphere in the venue and this is a huge task to do that together with the clubs.

"We deliver them all kinds of tool boxes and ideas, and I think progress there is huge.

"The next step is to have even more spectators in the venue because this is also not an easy thing.

"When you think about it, we start next week in August with our tournament and if they already have 75 per cent sold-out venues in August, this is amazing.

"What we have seen so far, with all the activities those clubs do with the fan activation and so on, it seems that our work is quite fruitful and I expect more activity.

"On our side, we would like to deliver even more and better content."