One of the immovable laws of the sports industry is that the business revolves around the fans. Sportradar, the sports data and content company, has worked to evolve over the years to take this to heart. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland. With offices all over the world, they produce a range of products, from digital cards and data widgets to research solutions such as radar360. As a company spokesperson shared, every product released by Sportradar is built with a focus on storytelling, thus, the fan is kept front and center.
WHO ARE THEY?
Sportradar has long been a well-established sports data brand in Europe. Carsten Koerl launched the business in 2001 with a focus on innovation. By 2005 the company pioneered a new vertical in the sports industry by establishing an “early warning” partnership, which kept an eye out for any suspicious betting patterns and odds movements, starting with the top German soccer league and their national soccer association.
Today, Sportradar has diversified the uses of its sports data and now serves three customer segments – bookmaking customers and lotteries; digital and media customers; as well as leagues and competition organizers. One reason Sportradar has made inroads into the sports data market is that they work to make their products and solutions appeal to all parties involved in the sports industry – fans, teams, leagues, media companies and gaming operators. The firm now covers more than 40 sports around the world, from baseball and badminton to eSports, working to translate sports data into digestible and engaging narratives.
Mr. Koerl also worked to bring the same ambition to North America. In 2013, they acquired SportsData LLC, a Minneapolis-based sports data provider to propel the company into the U.S. market. In just two years, Sportradar has gone on to partner with the NFL, NBA, NHL and NASCAR all while introducing a new U.S. advisory board that includes sport industry legends Mark Cuban, Michael Jordan and Ted Leonsis.
“Sportradar’s development is driven by organic growth. We focus on scalable data solutions that enable fast growth. We also are offering new products – our product portfolio has grown tremendously – to a new and ever-growing customer base,” says Ulrich Harmuth, Managing Director of Digital Sports at Sportradar. “The acquisition of SportsData (2013), allowed us to enter the US market and set the stage for deals with the NFL, NBA, NHL and NASCAR. These league deals will allow us to extend our product offering even further.”
INTEGRITY SERVICES
One of the main services Sportradar offers worldwide is their Integrity Services in which they work to identify match-fixing and result manipulations. Sports associations like UEFA and FIBA, and most recently, the NHL and NBA, use these services to detect and monitor suspicious or fraudulent betting activities, ensuring that these sports and competitions have a valuable partner supporting the defense of their integrity.
“Sportradar is the industry pioneer for these kinds of services. We have a team of 40 full time expert analysts that detect and investigate possible manipulation and we’re very proud to have a track record of successfully initiating or supporting over 130 sporting sanctions and more than 24 criminal prosecutions across the globe,” said Harmuth.
The integrity initiative is particularly important for Sportradar’s founder and CEO, Carsten Koerl.
“I am truly proud that our Integrity Services provide a tool to support the excellent work of federations and leagues internationally in protecting the integrity of sport,” Koerl remarked at the time of Sportradar’s official announcement with the NBA.
ESPORTS
In the past year and a half, Sportradar has upped their concentration on eSports. First, with an integrity and data deal with the ESL and later through the launch of a comprehensive data API. The company believes eSports will become a key hook for digital media companies as they look to attract millennials and broaden their audiences.
Live data will be key to opening up a wide array of digital enhancements for the eSports community. Real-time game centers for eSports, informative apps for your mobile devices with schedules and standings, historical stats for players and teams: these are the tools that media companies are accustomed to having for any sport they cover – from NFL to MLB to NBA – with great depth. There is also a big opportunity with brands: they can use the company’s data and solutions to promote their products to a specific and targeted demographic.
STORYTELLING AND AD TECH
In the US, Sportradar is focused on its digital business. At the time of its acquisition of SportsData, the company identified media companies – and digital solutions — as an untapped area for its data. The shift to media has led to a new focus on product development.
Steve Byrd, CCO of Sportradar, explained Sportradar’s range of tools and reiterated the company’s focus on content, saying that Sportradar is more than just a data company – it is a group of storytellers.
“It’s a way to quantify what announcers have always stated, but in a much more qualitative way,” said Byrd. “You can’t just deliver a data feed to the market to fully maximize the potential of the content. It has to be productized, visualized: it has to present the story that you’re trying to tell.”
Sportradar has created a suite of player-centric content visualizations based on the NFL’s Next Gen Stats player tracking statistics to enhance the storytelling media companies bring their audiences. Next year, Sportradar will work with its partner Second Spectrum to enhance NBA player tracking. Meanwhile, its radar360 tool makes it easy to retrieve detailed data and create customized data views to analyze different scenarios and situations.
Sportradar has also made strides in the marketing world with what Byrd calls “marketing in the moment,” which uses live sports information to drive digital advertising. “If Anthony Rizzo or Kris Bryant hits a home run during the World Series, the power of promoting a Cubs hat or their jersey in the moment of the home run is so much more powerful than just a random MLB paraphernalia ad or a digital banner that isn’t connected to the game action,” said Byrd.
What’s next for Sportradar? While the company is tight-lipped about future plans, nobody expects they will stand-pat. “Without question, our flexibility and ability to adjust to fast-changing market environments is a strength,” says Harmuth. “We are looking forward to invigorating how fans engage with and gain insights into their favorite sports.”