Over The Top App was born out of a real problem we experienced firsthand.
When we launched Brane, our mission was to connect communities, with a strong focus on sport. Fans want to belong, to talk, to react in real time, and to feel closer to the teams and creators they support. Community was always the centre of what we were building.
The Problem We Hit
At the start of last year, we launched Community as a Service, allowing fan chat and community features to be integrated directly into existing apps.
That is where reality set in.
We quickly discovered a major barrier to adoption:
- Many sports club apps are built once and then forgotten
- Tech stacks become outdated, unsupported, or incompatible
- Architecture decisions made years ago block modern features
- Smaller clubs often cannot afford an app at all
In some cases, clubs had apps that were impossible to integrate with. In others, the idea of building and maintaining an app was completely out of reach.
The Beginnings
To solve this, we started building what we internally called the Brane Boilerplate.
The idea was simple:
- Make it easy to launch an app from day one
- Bake AI, community, and engagement features into the foundation
- Avoid rebuilding the same basics every time
- Remove long-term technical debt before it starts
Instead of retrofitting community and AI into old systems, everything would be ingrained from the beginning.
The Realisation
As we built, something became clear.
This problem was bigger than sport.
Content creators, smaller brands, and niche communities were facing the same challenges:
- High upfront app costs
- Ongoing maintenance burdens
- Dependency on developers for simple updates
- Fragmented platforms with no single source of ownership
Everyone wanted control. Very few could afford it.
The Birth of Over The Top App
That is when Over The Top App was born.
By turning our framework into a SaaS platform, we could:
- Keep every app updated automatically
- Roll out new features to everyone at once
- Reduce costs to a fraction of traditional app development
- Eliminate the need for in-house dev or content teams
Clients no longer needed to manage apps themselves or change how they already operate. They could keep doing what they were doing while their app evolved in the background.
Ownership Without the Overhead
Over The Top gives clubs and creators something rare:
- Full ownership of their app and audience
- No reliance on outdated tech stacks
- No constant rebuilds or rewrites
- No need to manage infrastructure or updates
Our platform handles the foundations. Our clients focus on content, fans, and growth.
And when something truly custom is needed, our team can still build bespoke solutions on top of a proven framework. That means time and budget are spent on innovation, not on rebuilding app essentials from scratch.
Built to Be Fair. Built to Scale.
Over The Top is designed to be fair for everyone:
- Affordable access to modern app technology
- Continuous improvement for all clients
- Shared innovation without shared compromise
- A sustainable model that grows with our partners
We believe ownership should not be reserved for the biggest players with the biggest budgets.
That belief is why Over The Top App and OTT2.0 exist.