Sportradar And NHL Finalise 10-Year Data Partnership

According to a report released this week by Sportico, sports betting firm Sportradar and the National Hockey League (NHL) have finalised a new 10-year relationship.

The Swiss company will have exclusive rights to distribute NHL data to sportsbooks and media companies in the United States and around the world under the terms of the agreement. It will also use its ad:s platform to provide live streams to gambling operators, including out-of-market games to US sportsbooks, in order to assist the NHL with identifying foreign betting sponsorships.

Huge opportunity

Sportico quoted Steve Byrd, Sportradar’s US head of sports content and partnerships, as saying: “The NHL is a huge opportunity for us in a lot of markets where we have big betting operator clients, in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere. We’re excited to have video rights to stream games there, and to be doing these sponsorship packages that tie a lot of the rights together.”

Stephen McArdle, the NHL’s Senior Executive Vice President of Digital Media and Strategic Planning, was also quoted. He said: “We’re admittedly just at the starting point of this journey on tracking and using the data to tell stories. 

“Having another partner who is fully invested in learning along with us the right ways to share that data, to present that data, and in the sports betting context the right ways to use that data, that’s very important to us.”

Highlighting global, multi-vertical, wide-ranging capabilities

Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl told Sportico in the report: “The NHL has been a terrific partner for Sportradar for nearly seven years. This agreement truly highlights the global, multi-vertical, wide-ranging capabilities of Sportradar’s technology solutions and reflects how we use data to create engaging, personalized experiences for our partners and customers.”

The partnership’s financial details have not been revealed, but late bidding last year is thought to have approached $250 million.