SVG Sit-Down: Sportradar's Brian Josephs on Data as the Fuel of Sports-Betting Experiences The sports-data provider inks deal with XFL, builds new virtual in-play game for MLB By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, February 14, 2020 - 1:42 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
As data grows into one of the most valuable assets in sports today, one company has distinctly separated itself from the pack in regard to providing America's biggest sports leagues with deep statistics and analytics. Sportradar is leading the way globally on delivering this new level of sports data to broadcasters, sports leagues, and other major entities. In fact, the company is officially partnered with every major sports league in the U.S., including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.
At just six weeks into 2020, Sportradar has already extended its dominance over the sports industry, striking a deal to provide data to the XFL and building a new virtual in-play game for sports betting with Major League Baseball.
As Sportradar VP, Digital Sport, Brian Josephs is at the epicenter not just of the use of data to fuel future sports-betting experiences but of an entirely new world of digital and streaming experiences for sports fans. He sat down with SVG to take a look at the year ahead, the growth of sports betting in the U.S., and much more.
Sportradar's Brian Josephs expects media and tech companies to increase experimentation in sports betting this year.
What have been the early-2020 highlights for Sportradar?
The virtual[-gaming] deal with MLB was something that was very exciting to see to come to life. Virtual gaming is probably a foreign concept to many folks in the U.S. but offers a really great experience for fans that want their MLB year-round and bettors that want to engage in that type of product in that way.
It was something that we talked about early on with Major League Baseball, partnering with them on what new or unique betting experiences could look like, what new products can get offered to the market to offer MLB fans that opportunity. Virtual gaming was a really good fit to that.
It was great to see that deal get done and see us come out the gate fast this year, working really closely with a great league partner to bring that to life.
2019 felt very much like a year when people in the sports-betting space positioned their chess pieces: leagues partnering with sports books, partnering with companies like you. Are you expecting more of that in 2020? Where do you guys see yourself in the overall timeline?
I think you'll continue to see more partnerships and announcements and statements coming online. It will be a continued rollout. I don't think we will necessarily see maturation of the U.S. betting market from the media side. 2019 was a year in which a couple of media companies took steps dipping their toe into the betting space. The NBS Sports RSNs were obviously ones that did the predictor game and integrated betting content into a streaming experience. Others, like Amazon Prime Video, have experimented or gone completely live with interactive video experiences.
When we look ahead to 2020, I look at it as a year of experimentation where you will see more and more big media and big technology companies, as well as operators themselves, experiment and try new things, particularly [related] to streaming and in OTT. OTT essentially offers a wonderful platform for innovation, one that I think will be targeted by all sides of the industry for experimentation around both betting and other, different content types and experiences that can be offered to consumers.
Sports betting is, of course, the very trendy thing to talk about right now, but, for your company, it's more than that, right? Data-as-content for leagues is very valuable. One example is Statcast in MLB. How are you involved in that?
Oh yes, absolutely, and Statcast is a good example of a new data set that the league's looking to offer options through. [ESPN] has done a Wild Card Game where they offered a Statcast-heavy broadcast, and it was awesome. The booth at that game did an incredible job, and the content was unique. The graphic integration on ESPN was spectacular, and that, I think to your point, is a really good example of offering consumers an option for those that want it.
That kind of content starts to do two things: one, educate the sports fans here in the U.S. a bit more about betting and what to look for; two, stimulate betting activity from that fan base. So storytelling around betting and leveraging that data, including historical data, is a focus of ours. We're looking at everything from market insights around team performance, how they perform against the spread, over/under betting splits, what volume of bets money is on either side of a particular bet. We're also monitoring in-game alerts looking at close markets, as well as leveraging player props and projections to look at the fantasy player here in the U.S. (as well as the broader fan base that's accustomed to following individual player performance).
It's about looking at the full game-life cycle, leveraging historical data, some of the lines and odds pregame, as well as how those markets are evolving and unfolding over the course of the game. That's really important for us and a big part of what we're working on for this year.
North America Stories
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
SVG Sit-Down: Sportradar's Brian Josephs on Data as the Fuel of Sports-Betting Experiences The sports-data provider inks deal with XFL, builds new virtual in-play game for MLB By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
