Sportradar Partners With The NBA To Help Bring A New Era Of Sports Viewership To Fans

Click here to listen to Sportradar's 3^rd Quarter 2024 earnings call

Melting into a leather recliner or plush couch facing a big screen to watch games on Sunday may have been a hallowed tradition for generations of sports fans. But according to St. Gallen, Switzerland-based Sportradar Group AG SRAD, this is changing – viewers in their twenties don't see sports competing with linear viewing like feature movies. Sport remains one of the only experiences that demands being seen live, but for this audience, it also competes with gaming and social media for viewers' attention. And Sportradar, positioned at the intersection of the sports, media and betting industries, is reimagining this shift. 

Marrying Live Sports With Immersive Data And A Game Of Opportunity? 

Sportradar is a global sports technology company creating immersive experiences for sports fans and bettors through deep and insightful analytics and value-added solutions served up in real time as a game is being played, immersing the viewer in the action.

Part of this is achieved by using generative AI technology that can deliver a hyper-personalized experience with custom viewing angles and real-time, dynamic animation overlays. One result of this is that viewers interested in making online bets can potentially better understand what is happening on the court.

Sportradar says it provides sports leagues, news media, consumer platforms and sports betting operators a range of solutions to help grow their businesses. As a result, Sportradar is partnered with some of the biggest sports organizations in the world.

In 2016, Sportradar became the NBA's official provider of real-time league statistics. In 2021, it announced a 10-year, exclusive global partnership with the NBA, WNBA and the NBA G League (the NBA's minor league farm system) to distribute official league data and create content using the leagues' exclusive data.

Today, Sportradar is also partnered with organizations like the ATP, the NHL, MLB, NASCAR and top global soccer properties UEFA, CONMEBOL, FIFA and Bundesliga. The company says it covers close to a million events annually across several major sports.

Sportradar's push to find new ways for fans to get closer to the action has helped drive its topline growth. The company's most recent earnings report is a testament to that.

Sportradar's Growth-Oriented Strategy To Drive Broad-Based Outperformance

During Sportradar's third-quarter 2024 earnings calls, the company reported that revenue increased 27% on a year-over-year basis for the same period.

When earnings were released on Nov. 7, Carsten Koerl, Sportradar's CEO, said that the company continues "to show strong momentum in the U.S., which we expect to be further bolstered by the growth of in-game betting and with the start of the NBA and NHL seasons."

The company's optimism for this appears to be bolstered by its October 2024 announcement that it has expanded its relationship with the NBA with the launch of a suite of next-generation fan engagement products.

These include a tool that transforms real-time official NBA data into 3D visualizations and customizable viewing angles that help keep fans engaged in a betting operator's app as they are served in-play betting opportunities.

Another tool works to predict possible outcomes in a game so that fans can have a greater appreciation of the action on the court and, if they so choose, make better informed betting decisions in real time. Furthermore, subscribers to NBA League Pass in the U.S. now have functionality that allows them to track bets within a broadcast.

Innovations like these helped Sportradar's quarterly profit to increase by 14.5% to €37 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 30% to €66 million. And Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 25.8%. Net cash from operating activities for the quarter increased to €118 million, while free cash flow increased to €62 million.

During the conference call, Sportradar announced that it was raising full-year guidance for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and margins. The company also noted it had repurchased $8.3 million worth of its shares during the quarter. 

Potential Opportunities Exist For Further Growth

Sportradar says it has served over 50 billion ad impressions for over 200 gambling operators over the past year. During the company's earnings call, Sportradar also noted that it had added paid search to its ad:s marketing service. This can enable operators to more effectively reach and acquire customers searching betting and gaming-related topics online.

Sportradar also launched a micro markets strategy for soccer and the ATP, which provides up to 1,500 betting opportunities in a single match. The company plans to expand micro markets to basketball, baseball, American football and ice hockey in early 2025.

The recipient of several industry awards, Sportradar was recognized in two categories at the 2024 American Gambling Awards. Its 4Sight technology was named Betting Product of the Year. The company was also named Data Service Provider of the Year.

Sportradar is planning an Investor Day in 2025.

Learn more about the Sportradar earnings call here.

Featured photo courtesy of Sportradar.

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