Betting On The Future: How Sportradar Merges Sports, AI And Fan Engagement

To learn more about Sportradar, click here.

In a world where competing trends and technologies vie for the attention of an increasingly atomized audience, sports has an opportunity like no other.  

Back in 2018, ICCO, a global organization for public-relations consultancies, conducted a massive survey of 113,932 digital consumers around the world. It found that 85% of all internet users surveyed reported watching at least one sport, either online or on television.  

This attachment to sports spectating has made it unique – other cultural phenomena like music and film do not consistently draw such massive viewing figures. In fact, 75 of the 100 most-watched primetime telecasts of 2024 were sporting events. And with the repeal of the federal ban on sports betting in the U.S. also in 2018, the opportunities to engage those sports viewers online have since grown tremendously. 

This is because an ever-increasing number of people are shifting their viewing methods from linear TV towards online streaming. But where things get even more exciting is with the recent development – and increasing deployment – of Generative AI, which will power sports' interactions with fans.  

At the forefront of bringing this innovation to the sports sector is Switzerland-based Sportradar Group SRAD. Throughout its 20-plus-year history, sports technology company Sportradar says it has been gathering, parsing and innovating through sports data to become the leading technology partner to sportsbooks worldwide. 

Through its client relationships with global brands such as Flutter (the parent company of FanDuel), DraftKings and Bet365 and others, it provides services to the biggest betting operators in the world, helping them create new, enriched experiences for sports fans and bettors.  

Through its partnerships with major sports leagues and federations like the NBA, the MLB, the NHL, the ATP, Bundesliga and UEFA, it instantaneously draws data and content from inside the action itself. And through relationships with media companies like FOX Sports, it means sports viewers can get in-depth insights – in real time – from every game. 

These partnerships mean Sportradar is an important service provider to the sports economy. For many years it has used machine-learning and artificial-intelligence techniques, and it is now branching into computer vision to enhance and accelerate its base data-gathering processes. This deep sector experience and technological expertise mean it is well placed to harness fans' attachment to their sports, bringing them ever closer to the games they love.  

According to Sportradar's Chief Technology and Chief AI Officer, Behshad Behzadi, a recent hire from Google's GOOG AI leadership team, the way it is doing that is through three emerging trends in technology to create "hypersmart, hyperpersonalized and hyperimmersive" content. 

The first, hypersmart, relates to the sports "brain" powered by Gen AI. This is the fundamental technology that makes everything else possible. It is what creates the connections needed to truly enhance the experience for the sports fan.  

It does this by making every piece of actionable data – every useful insight and piece of analysis – instantly available at the fingertips of the fan through the products it sells to betting operator and media clients.  

The second, hyperpersonalization, is the memory function in the relationship with the fan. By understanding viewers' tastes and preferences, their likes and dislikes, the sports brain can serve their needs like an expert Maître d' does his regular customers at a top restaurant.  

This might mean providing automated, AI commentaries with a bias towards a particular team. It might mean those commentaries being delivered in a different language or by a particular celebrity voice, again generated by AI.  

Or it might even mean personalizing the content of the commentary according to the individual fan's familiarity with the sport – an expert soccer "ultrafan" will need less explanation of the basics than a first-time viewer. The AI can solve for this. 

And the third, hyperimmersion, is about delivering deeply engaging interactive experiences to the platforms fans are on. The extreme version could be futuristic augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR), but, right now, smartphones are the primary connection.  

Hyperimmersive content could mean creating custom viewing angles and dynamic animation overlays inside the action. Because data can now be captured, analyzed and turned into viewing experiences faster than ever before, fans can engage with the action ever more intimately. 

Generative AI makes all this possible, and it is an enormous opportunity for Sportradar. This is because these three converging trends will themselves drive the increasing convergence of the three previously distinct worlds of sports, media and betting into a largely new form of entertainment altogether, the company believes. 

This is again where Sportradar is confident it stands to benefit – by sitting at the intersection of these three elements. With targeted innovations around fan engagement – proprietary products that are drawing fans ever closer to their sports – it says it is a critical partner to the entire sports value chain. These include:  

• ad:s, a programmatic advertising platform that connects betting operators with individual consumers; 
• 4Sight, a tool overlaying data and insights into the action in real time; and  
• emBET, delivering in-play betting activity straight into the sports stream. 

Through its partnership with the NBA, Sportradar recently launched some of these tools for the start of the 2024-2025 season.  

Gen AI, AR and VR technologies and others are expected to help increase audience sizes, fans' dwell time in the action and their in-game wallet spend, all by growing the breadth of opportunities for interaction. This in turn, is expected to drive the opportunity sports have to grow their already vast reach. 

Sportradar's revenues and earnings are growing in turn. Year-over-year revenues to the three-month period ending in September 2024, the most recently reported, had grown 27% versus the 2023 equivalent. The company expects 2024's full-year turnover to grow by 24% against 2023's – and for full-year Adjusted EBITDA to grow by "at least" 29%. 

A hypersmart, hyperpersonalized and hyperimmersive sports ecosystem will work to drive a hyperefficient, convergent sports-betting-media economy. Sportradar expects its burgeoning suite of sports technology solutions at the heart of it. 

Learn more about Sportradar here.

Featured photo by Pavel1964 on Shutterstock.

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