Twilio-powered App Identifies the Pubs Streaming the World Cup Tournament Final Matches; Fans are Invited to Complete the World Cup Index

Matt Cortland, creator of the Guinndex, uses Twilio Programmable Voice to help fans discover where to watch the World Cup semi-finals and final matches

LONDON, July 14, 2026 - Today, the World Cup Matches Pub Index launched, showing fans where they can watch the tournament's biggest fixtures, including the semi-finals and final. Built using Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the infrastructure for customer engagement in the AI era, the Index utilised an AI voice agent that called thousands of pubs to answer the question fans are asking ahead of the tournament's biggest week: which pubs are actually showing the matches?

The result is a public, searchable resource at guinndex.co.uk/worldcup. Beginning today, fans and hospitality workers across the UK are invited to add or confirm whether their own local pub is showing the remaining games, turning a one-off AI snapshot into a living Index that gets more complete every day through to the tournament final.

By seamlessly combining Twilio Programmable Voice, ElevenLabs' conversational AI agent platform, and Anthropic's Claude Code, Cortland built an automated outbound calling and data extraction pipeline. The Voice AI agent was capable of holding natural conversations with pub staff, asking whether they'll be screening the World Cup Matches and automatically recording the results to build a comprehensive Index to pubs showing the match.

Within just 48 hours, the project successfully contacted and verified thousands of pubs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, gathering data on venues planning to broadcast the matches.

The Index shows how AI agents can move beyond answering questions to completing useful real-world research tasks through natural conversation. But the Index is only as strong as the community behind it. That's why it's built to evolve, with fans and pubs contributing updates that keep it accurate, comprehensive, and ready for every match through the tournament final.

"Anyone who's tried to organise watching a big football match with friends knows the drill - you want to meet with your friends to watch a match and spend half your lunch break ringing pubs to see if they're broadcasting the game you're interested in," said Matt Cortland, AI Engineer and creator of the project. "I wondered whether an AI could save everyone that hassle. Twilio made it possible to build a voice agent that could have thousands of real conversations with pubs, so fans can spend less time calling around and more time debating about the things they actually care about."

Among the findings:

• 62% of pubs that responded to Corland's AI calls confirmed they will show the World Cup Matches.

• The AI successfully completed 100% of conversations without human intervention.

• As of today, 2,313 of pubs will show the World Cup and 1,302 will be football-free pubs

"This is exactly the kind of project that shows where Voice AI is heading," said Jake Kanter, Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Twilio. "Matt didn't build another chatbot, he built something genuinely useful. Instead of thousands of football fans individually calling pubs to ask the same question, an AI agent did the legwork once and created a resource everyone can use. That's the exciting part about programmable communications: developers can build AI that doesn't just talk, it gets things done in the real world."

"Nothing brings people together like a summer of sport and pubs across the country are the perfect backdrop," said Simon Rand, Founder of the Save British Pubs campaign. "However, pub owners are being squeezed from every direction, and around two pubs in Britain closed every day in the first quarter of 2026. We hope this data will encourage more people to head out, get together and support their local - because once they're gone, they're gone forever."

The World Cup Matches Pub Index is available at guinndex.co.uk/worldcup, allowing supporters to search participating pubs before kick-off.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the World Cup Matches Pub Index?

The World Cup Matches Pub Index is a public, searchable directory designed to show football fans across the UK exactly which venues are broadcasting the remaining World Cup matches, including the semi-finals and final. Built using Twilio's customer engagement infrastructure, the index was initially populated by an autonomous AI voice agent that called thousands of pubs over a single weekend. Starting today, it transitions into a crowdsourced resource where fans and hospitality staff can manually add, verify, or update their local pub's streaming status in real-time.

How does the AI voice agent work?

Developed by creator of Guinndex, Matt Cortland, the system combines three core technologies: Twilio Programmable Voice for the underlying global telecom infrastructure and call routing, ElevenLabs' Conversational AI platform for natural, human-like voice synthesis, and Anthropic's Claude Code for data extraction.

When a pub answers, the AI agent identifies themselves as AI for research purposes and conducts a brief, natural conversation to ask if they are screening the matches. The agent interprets the nuance of the live response, extracts the relevant data points (e.g., whether they are showing the match, require a booking, or are remaining "football-free"), and automatically syncs that information to the live index without human intervention.

How many pubs were contacted, and what did the data find?

Over a 48-hour period, the system successfully called and interacted with thousands of venues across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Key initial findings include:

• 62% of responding pubs confirmed they will be broadcasting the matches.

• 2,313 pubs are verified as screening venues.

• 1,302 venues confirmed they will remain football-free, offering an alternative for patrons looking for a quiet space.

• The AI successfully managed and completed 100% of the recorded phone calls without requiring a human operator to step in.

Why did Twilio and the developer build this?

The Index acts as a powerful, real-world demonstration of the "agentic era" in communications. It proves that conversational AI has evolved beyond passive, reactive chatbots into proactive agents capable of handling complex, high-volume research tasks. Instead of thousands of individual fans wasting time calling pubs manually, a single developer used Twilio's scalable platform to gather the data once for the benefit of the wider community.

How can fans and pub owners participate?

The Index is built to evolve dynamically throughout the tournament. Fans, bartenders, and pub owners can visit guinndex.co.uk/worldcup to search for local venues or contribute directly by claiming a pub, confirming its screening schedule, or logging updates. This interplay between automated AI data collection and active community crowdsourcing ensures the directory remains precise and comprehensive up until the tournament final.