I expect 2021 to be groundbreaking in terms of what we expect to achieve in terms of digitalization and usage of data: Jonathan Earle, Sportradar

Sportradar is the leading provider of sports integrity solutions and sports data products. Sportradar rapid growth is driven by technological innovation and a deep understanding of their clients’ business needs. Their commitment to excellent service, quality and reliability makes Sportradar trusted partners to more than 1,000 companies in over 80 countries. They occupy a unique position at the intersection of the sports, media and betting industries.

Sportradar recently bagged a Multi-year, one of a kind, exclusive agreement with Asian Football Confederation starting from the 2021 season for a property that spans all the key premier football competitions including International (AFC Asian Cup) and Club (AFC Champions League) competitions across the Asian region. This anchor rights deal will act as a showcase for all parts of Sportradar (AV, Digital Services, OTT, and Integrity) to engage other major Sports Rights Holders in the region.

Sportradar’s Sports Media division partners with broadcasters, digital publishers, fantasy sports operators, social networks, tech companies and sponsors, offering them the most comprehensive and flexible sports data service in the market.

In a competitive sports media landscape, Sportradar’s data fuels every step of the fan engagement cycle from capturing social media traffic to content tools designed to increase visit duration and monetisation via our ad:service..

With our market data and industry expertise, Sportradar is uniquely positioned to provide custom monetization solutions to rights holders through a combination of advertising, subscription, retail, and sponsorship.

Whether it’s raw data via our renowned API offering or specific products, tools and solutions to derive value – Sportradar can provide the tools your business needs.

In conversation with Jonathan Earle, Customer Director, Sports Entertainment, Sportradaron their business, and the recent multi-year exclusive contract for the AFC.

Can you tell us about Sportradar? How did it come about?

Sportradar is the global provider of sports data and sports entertainment products and services. The company occupies a unique position providing Sports Rights Holders end-to-end services, platforms and solutions to grow their business by helping them understand more about their fans allowing them to drive more engagement & involvement in their sport and open up new (direct) revenue streams.

We are the trusted partner of more than 1,000 companies in over 80 countries and official partner of the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, FIFA, UEFA, The AFC and Football Marketing Asia. With deep industry relationships, Sportradar is not just providing deeper and broader insights into fandom but also safeguards the sports themselves through its Integrity Services division and advocacy for an integrity-driven environment for all involved.

Sportradar AG is a multinational corporation with headquarters in St. Gallen, Switzerland. As of November 2020, the company has 35 offices in 24 countries around the world including New York City, Las Vegas, London, Trondheim, Munich, Ljubljana, Sydney and Singapore.

The year 2020 saw a huge surge in digital and data usage, your thoughts.

Well it’s an insanely exciting time right now and I expect 2021 to be groundbreaking in terms of what we expect to achieve in terms of digitalization and usage of data.

With the pandemic, the vast majority of sports fans have had to watch their teams from home. It has been a tough period for everyone, but what we have seen is that fans look forward to watching sports, howsoever, they choose, as this is seen as a key constant to when life was a little more ‘normal’   and this has driven a huge surge in digital and data usage.

Sportradar prides itself in collecting the data, and then helping Sports Rights Holders turn that data into insights that they can show through all their media – whether that be on their website, through Match Trackers, in social media or through OTT.

The data Sportradar helps to collect also gives Sports Rights Holders a deeper and broader insight into what their fans want, how they consume and allows for even more personalization opening up new revenue opportunities.

How did this Data help the OTT platforms and brands as we saw a surge in many brand moving towards digital during this pandemic, did it make way for targeted communication?

If you take my 14-year-old son, he is being bombarded with messages from multiple sources all seeking his attention, whether that be FIFA on his PlayStation, to Netflix and Sunderland Till I Die, to Instagram, TikTok, Fortnite etc. the list goes on.

Sports Rights Holders understand that whereas when I was a boy, one of the only things to do (that was legal) was to go to watch your team live or play the sport at school/ weekends, now there is so much more choice and there is a real need to understand more about fans, their engagement, their involvement and above all else, what they want to see.

OTT as a platform allows this personalization. The Sports Rights Holder can provide personalized content based on the information it captures on its fans whether that be commentating in different languages, showing the game from different camera angles, allowing fans to watch with their friends to overlaying cool stats to deliver different experiences geared to their key segments.

OTT allows Sports Rights Holders to stay relevant, to talk directly to their fans and build new revenue streams.

How much of Football is viewed in India as compared to the other Asian countries?

Football in India is growing – obviously, cricket is number 1 and the excitement of the IPL is second to none. As a cricket fan myself, I am looking forward to the T20 World Cup this year in India and hope to see an India v England final! But football is growing – the English Premier League & other European leagues are helping grow engagement & involvement in the sports mad country and the emergence of the ISL will, I believe, only go from strength-to-strength.

This association of Sportradar with AFC how will it drive the fan engagement further in the continent?

The Asian region has about 1.8bn fanatical football fans – the biggest in the world. We want to play a part in growing that even more!

Sportradar will be providing a single, comprehensive solution, comprising market-leading proprietary and 3rd party services, delivering a deeper & broader understanding of the Asian football fanbase, whilst driving greater commercial returns for both The AFC and Football Marketing Asia whether that be the new AFC.com that will be launched this year with Sportradar’s OTT embedded within it to smoothly running match day experiences for fans once they are allowed back into the stadia.

Can you elaborate on the recent partnership?

The partnership is multi-year and builds on the long-standing relationship Sportradar have had with The AFC through our Integrity team and spans Audio Visual, data distribution and best in class fan engagement services. We are hugely excited about this partnership with both The AFC and Football Marketing Asia.

What would be your focus for this year?

At its simplest level – our focus is to provide the 1.8bn fanatical football fans in the region more personalized content to allow them to follow their favorite player, team, competition and to take their mind off what is a tough time for everyone. This personalized content will drive deeper fan engagement and involvement and also open up new direct revenue streams for The AFC and Football Marketing Asia.

We are hugely excited!