Two industry experts from Sportradar outline the company’s new National Basketball Association (NBA) offerings that will shake up the experience for fans, sportsbook operators, rightsholders and media partners
Sophie Thomas, VP group operations:
Sportradar is a long-term strategic partner of the NBA and, as such, we’re fully invested in creating further value for the NBA and our clients.
We began working with the league in 2016 as a provider of real-time statistics for media, and in 2021 we expanded our partnership with a landmark 10-year global agreement including exclusive betting, media, rest-of-world AV rights and access to tracking data.
At the core of this part is a true commitment to collaborative innovation and a drive to transform how fans experience and engage with the league. We’re working closely with the NBA to develop the next generation of immersive and engaging products, creating stories out of every three-pointer or steal, retaining fans for longer and ultimately creating value-add for the NBA and client across betting, media and performance.
By combining our access to an unmatched breadth and depth of exclusive NBA content including skeletal tracking data and deep analytics, with our AI-fuelled proprietary technology, we’re able to innovate in a way that no one else can.
Sportradar 4Sight
Patrick Mostboeck, SVP fan engagement:
Sportradar 4Sight is Sportradar’s proprietary streaming technology. It uses AI, machine learning and Computer Vision to incorporate real-time, data-driven and animated overlays into a live sports stream, to create an interactive viewing experience that sportsbook operators can use to additionally engage extra customers.
The data points visualised during a match are relevant to betting markets and provide bettors with insight that helps them for more informed decisions.
Our AI models within Sportradar 4Sight offer an unparalleled depth of data to engineer contextually relevant insights which are visualised within a live stream and delivered at low latency, so that essentially punters can bet on them.
Operators benefit from these animations for an enriched viewing experience and by educating the audience about heat’s happening in a game, what’s likely to happen and why that is important, so we provide greater context on what is going on.
Tapping into the modern sports fans’ affinity for data and insights, Sportradar 4Sight can attract the net generation of the fan, increase stickiness in the sportsbook apps and therefore ultimately unlock additional revenue opportunities.
NBA Advanced Visualisations
Mostboeck:
Sportradar is enhancing the broadcasting experience this season for the NBA’s media partners with the introduction of NBA Advanced Visualisations.
We are applying cutting-edge AI to the exclusive data that we get from the NBA to extract contextually relevant, real-time insights. Our proprietary technology enables the real-time creation of those dynamic assets and visual overlays to enrich and further contextualise the broadcaster’s storytelling and therefore drive greater understanding and appreciation of the action on the court.
This offering, which can only be delivered by Sportradar due to our partnership with the NBA, and our industry-leading tech allows broadcasters to tailor the way they present the game and underpin the stories and facts they’re calling out with additional engaging visualisations.
From a broadcaster’s perspective, it can be a point of differentiation from every other sports media outlet reporting about the NBA in terms of the quality of the presentation, driven by the depth of data that is presented.
Due to its extensive scale and additional features and storytelling possibilities, NBA Advanced Visualisations also positions itself as a premium, sponsorable asset and is another example of Sportradar developing value-add solutions for our partners and clients.
emBET
Mostboeck:
Going further into our offering for media and broadcasters, I’m also delighted to offer an update on emBET.
EmBET is a product that we have announced also in partnership with the NBA earlier this year and is a unique OTT solution from Sportradar that allows rightsholders, media brands and betting operators to incorporate real-time betting information into the live stream.
EmBET adds a layer of interactivity to a live stream. Sports betting content such as points, spreads, over-unders and money lines are integrated into a stream to support and elevate the in-play betting experience.
EmBET also facilitates connections between fans in a live stream while unlocking new revenue streams for OTT streaming and sportsbook partners.
Currently already available with NBA League Pass, the leagues’ OTT service, Sportradar is unveiling new features this season including a function which allows bettors to keep track of the bets within the stream. Additionally, emBET is now compatible with a wide range of devices including connected TVs and Android devices.
All of these functions not only create more engagement opportunities, but also further monetisation for all stakeholders – the NBA, our sportsbook partners and media companies.
Only Sportradar, through its access to the content as well as industry-leading technology, can deliver a solution like emBET.
Live player markets
Mostboeck:
Finally, and connected to emBET and our other products, we’re also expanding our live betting content offering with the introduction of live player markets.
This enables betting operators to increase engagement with bettors who follow individual players and want to bet on player performance.
The level of granularity is only available as a result of the depth of data and the AI technology Sportradar applies, which results in an expanded portfolio of bet types, creating more engagement opportunities by giving fans more choice.
