An app has already been launched by Iplay Sport for handball, which has been designed to help athletes build their digital market strategy and brand.

The bandy app is set to be rolled out next month ahead of the World Championships, due to take place in Sweden from January 29 to February 5.

It will allow fans to get live-updates from competitions when they download the app on either iPhone or Android.

Organisers of the tournament claim it will be possible to show support by cheering on teams during games and follow players' preparations before and during the Championships.

Iplay Sport will provide an e-magazine called Iplay Buzz, which will show fans who are unable to attend the tournament what is happening around the arena and during games.

Eight teams will feature in the Group A World Championships, where the top bandy nations will seek to claim the title.

Hosts Sweden will be joined in the group by Belarus, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia and the United States.

It will be the 37th edition of a tournament historically dominated by Sweden and Russia, as well as the former Soviet Union.

Finland are the only other nation to have claimed the world title, having won the annual competition back in 2004.

Group B will be contested by Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Somalia and Ukraine.

Their competition will take place from January 24 to 28.

Bandy, a winter sport played on ice in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal, was officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 2001.

It featured as a demonstration sport at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Norway’s capital Oslo.

Three years later, the Federation of International Bandy was officially registered by four founding countries; Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Soviet Union.