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NFL to embrace sports betting with expanded Sportradar data deal

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The US National Football League (NFL) has extended its existing data deal with Sportradar to cover the distribution of its official data to sports betting operators in the US and regulated markets around the world.

The expanded agreement, the terms of which were not disclosed, sees Sportradar granted exclusive distribution rights for real-time play-by-play data and the NFL’s proprietary Next Gen Stats (NGS) player tracking data to gambling operators.

Sportradar, which said the data will help improve the speed and accuracy of NFL data and enhance protections for consumers, will also have rights to distribute live audiovisual game feeds to betting operators in select international markets.

In addition, the agreement will also see Sportradar’s Integrity Services division monitoring betting on all NFL pre-season, regular season, and post-season games, with the NFL and its franchises having access to Sportradar’s integrity education workshops.

“Sportradar has been an excellent partner the last four years and has provided the league, our teams, and media marketplace with innovative data products,” NFL Media executive vice president and chief operating officer, Hans Schroeder, said.

“We look forward to working with Sportradar to deliver fast, accurate official league data that will innovate and improve experiences for our fans across platforms.”

Carsten Koerl, chief executive of Sportradar, added: “We are confident we will maximise our strong partnership with the NFL and deliver ground-breaking products across the gaming, fantasy and the media worlds.

“As the unequivocal global leader in sports data, we are ideally positioned to support the NFL in providing innovative products to enhance the way fans experience the game and help maintain the continued integrity of the NFL competition.”

Sportradar has been serving as the NFL’s exclusive distributor of official play-by-play statistics, as well as the NGS tracking data to media outlets, since 2015.

The original partnership led to the creation of Radar360, a research platform that is used by the NFL, its member franchises and media outlets. This will also be covered by the extended deal.