Sportradar strikes major tennis, cricket deals days apart
Switzerland-based sports tech company Sportradar now has access to ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tennis Data after attaining a sub-license, while also closing a deal to provide live fielding data on the ongoing cricket World Cup.
Fielding data in live cricket has been a particularly difficult domain to crack so far. ©Aksh Yadav/Unsplash
What the new tennis deal signifies is the formation of a brand-new peripheral feed that will make betting-related services revolving around the official ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour accessible to numerous bookmakers around the globe.
Tennis tech to be built on top of existing layers
This peripheral feed will display scores straight from the umpire, providing completely uninterrupted coverage throughout the season. Bookmakers will relish this as this will boost the stability and reliability of in-play betting markets, improving customer experience. Sportradar said that the new feeds would run “in parallel with the existing official fast data feed and is made possible through a sub-licensing agreement with Sportradar, TDI and IMG Arena”. Moritz Gloeckler, the MD partner of Sportradar, said this deal would allow Sportradar to offer more depth to their services.
“By taking a constructive and innovative commercial approach, TDI has found a way to serve another part of the market with official data. This sub-license agreement enables Sportradar to improve the depth and availability of trusted products to sportsbooks who were previously unable to access official data, broadening the appeal of ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour events to fans and bettors.”
Second major deal in three days
This is Sportradar’s second major deal involving their sports technology offerings outside of the fraud detection and integrity services for which they’re widely known. Sportradar announced on Friday that they would be partnering with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to provide technology that captures live fielding data for the first time in the history of the game.
Sportradar said that their “innovative cricket data collection tool” would be used during the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup that is taking place in Australia. While cricket is well covered in terms of data around bowling and batting, fielding is a lesser known entity when it comes to data and analytics.
Having to track the dynamic movements of the fielders throughout the day is potentially what keeps this from happening, but Sportradar have said that they will be capturing 80 data points for every ball that is bowled during the World Cup. Based on the statement released by Sportradar, this data will most likely be used in a consumer-facing capacity across the ICC’s different digital channels, i.e. as an engagement tool rather than a broader data analytics one. Sam Taylor, Sportradar’s managing director for strategy, sports solutions, said that their endeavor was to create “the world’s most intelligent cricket platform”.
“We are committed to delivering innovation and technology to help grow the sport and are thrilled that these game-changing new features are being used for the first time at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The value of faster, deeper data to sport and its fans is well established, we are extending our pursuits to pinpoint the insights that have a meaningful impact on the game and thereby the knowledge, engagement and enjoyment of the audience. We look forward to sharing the outcomes and benefits with our cricket partners worldwide.”
