Sportradar CEO talks betting on simulated sports during SBC Digital Summit

April 28, 2020 11:11 AM
  • Buck Wargo, CDC Gaming Reports
April 28, 2020 11:11 AM
  • Buck Wargo, CDC Gaming Reports

While sports bettors look for live sports action to return in May with German and Korean soccer, the founder of sports data and content company Sportradar said simulated sporting events are filling some of the void until professional sports leagues return.

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Carsten Koerl, Sportradar’s CEO, kicked off SBC’s global Digital Summit Monday and offered some hope of the return of live soccer next month in Europe and Asia to provide more betting content and some sense of a return to normalcy.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Sportradar has tried to fill some of that gap. It launched an AI-driven product simulating event data from major professional sports matches that started with soccer and expanded to cricket. Other sports, including tennis, will follow, Koerl said. Sportradar partners with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and FIFA.

Simulations have been part of a growing trend in alternative betting. Earlier this month, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved state sportsbooks offering wagers on televised eNASCAR virtual races.

Koerl said they had to get creative in March when events were shuttered globally, and the sports betting industry faced a challenge it never saw before. What would normally require four to five months to develop took eight days.

“We didn’t have the Premier League (and other leagues), but we know all of those matches should have been played, and it’s possible to simulate,” Koerl said. “It shows me you can do enormous things when you’re creative and align the resources. It’s working and generating profit for the market.”

Sportradar recently released Euro Cup 2020 virtual sports using technology that allows fans to hear and see virtual soccer matches for wagering, Koerl said. It also has worked with leagues and federations to create live tournaments for darts, tennis and table tennis, he added.

In April, there’s been an 11 percent increase in available (simulated) sports compared to April 2019 and live data is up 20 percent compared to last year at this time, he said.

“We’re not saying wagers are the same size, but it’s an offering created because of the crisis,” Koerl said.

The possible return of soccer in May provides a glimmer of hope that some sense of normal life is returning—even if it’s without thousands of fans, Koerl said. “Everyone is locked at home and many are missing sports. I miss it desperately. It will be very slow, but some of the leagues will come back in four to five weeks. That’s a positive signal it’s beginning to stabilize and get back to live sports, which is the fuel for all of us and needed for society.”

More than 300 operators and more than 10,000 people are signed up to participate in this week’s conference whose sessions are available on replay. For more information, https://sbcevents.com/sbc-digital-summit/#schedule.

SBC Managing Director Andrew McCarron kicked off the conference citing the importance of learning the best practices from one another in facing the “biggest hurdle the business has ever seen. Hopefully, it will be a short-term disruption, he said.

“You have to play for a longer term in an environment with no certainties,” McCarron said. “That is what this event is all about. It’s tough. There are no two ways around it, but that collective mentality seems to be there. That’s the great thing and what we found doing this event.”