Sportradar isn’t exactly a household name for most sports fans.
But if you’ve watched ESPN, bet with FanDuel or DraftKings, or attended an NBA or NHL game, you’ve undoubtedly seen the Switzerland-based company’s products. In the sports betting ecosphere, Sportradar is a well-known and trusted company.
“As a B2B business, we’re not actively engaged in consumer marketing or self-promotion,” says Sportradar EVP, Strategic Partnerships Eric Conrad during a recent interview. “… You’ll never really hear us say here’s the direct-to-consumer product launching on some Sportradar brand. I think we’re really happy to kind of sit behind the scenes and service our partners.”
Sportradar’s customer base includes not only the aforementioned ESPN, FanDuel, DraftKings, and leagues but also NASCAR and Major League Baseball, Caesars Sportsbook, and bet365. According to Conrad, the key to attracting a diverse range of clients is customer-centricity.
“Whether that’s a league or federation, a media company we partner with, or a sportsbook, we’re always trying to focus,” he says. “And if we have to hire additional people for that, if we have to develop new products for that, that’s what we’re thinking of to fulfill the needs of our clients and then plan our budgets around that.”
Sportradar’s product range includes odds and sports data, livestreams, and engagement tools. Conrad says the simplistic explanation of what Sportradar does is deliver data-driven products, but once one delves into different facets of the gaming industry, “it’s a much larger conversation.”
“I think what we try to establish is what are the needs of a particular partner in the short term,” he adds.
For instance, Sportradar’s emBET product allows viewers of the league’s NBA League Pass the ability to view games and select bets on the channel. When users are ready to place a wager, they are directed to FanDuel or DraftKings sites. For the NHL, Sportradar provided the back-end support for a direct-to-consumer international service, NHL TV.
Conrad says that providing the services requested by clients involves creating solutions “in the short term while having an eye towards the idea that these are long-term partnerships we have. So it’s also what do you guys need in five or six years. How are we going to use the investment in our AI technologies to arrive at what you need.”
Conrad adds that while the products may differ, most of the companies Sportradar serves have the “same conceptual or philosophical needs,” and the basic service provided is a media data feed that clients can tailor for their customers.
“That’s the starting point for how we engage over 500 media companies that are our partners,” Conrad says.
Fan engagement is the he common denominator in the application of Sportradar products. The leagues and media companies can use those features differently, but the end goal is always the same.
“The NBA, MLB, NHL, any of them, are looking for growth,” Conrad says, “Especially in the U.S. after the legalization (of sports betting) in 2018, we provide an advocate for that. I think because of the products and services that we offer, alongside that, we kind of have an advantage with the leagues. We don’t have to pay that price premium because there are things we bring outside of that. And those benefits, they typically look at the expansion of betting markets that that end up driving that commercial growth.”
