Given Sportradar’s position at the intersection of sports data, technology, media and betting, a partnership with the NBA would appear to be a perfect fit, considering the league’s long-established reputation as an innovative trend-setter.

Now, with the 2024-25 season of basketball’s premier competition having tipped off on October 22, Sportradar is helping to revolutionise the NBA fan experience by introducing a suite of engaging solutions as part of an expanded collaboration.

The latest launches build on Sportradar’s existing role as the exclusive, worldwide distributor of NBA data, with the two parties enjoying a longstanding partnership dating back to 2016. They also leverage Sportradar’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence and skeletal tracking data that captures 29 points of movement on every single player. This enables hundreds of thousands of datapoints to be harnessed in every single game.

Virtualised Match Tracker

Sportradar’s Virtualised Live Match Tracker tool amplifies engagement for sports bettors. By leveraging computer vision, real-time official NBA data can be transformed into 3D visualisations that are delivered through a hyper-personalised stream.

Customisable viewing angles are at the fingertips of sports betting customers. This, in turn, heightens engagement and optimises revenues for sportsbooks that carry the Virtualised Live Match Tracker, with the end users served tailored in-play betting opportunities.

“This solution allows us to better understand the game, predict the outcome, and generate insights to enhance storytelling,” said Blaz Žitnik, senior vice-president of Betting Entertainment Tools (BET) at Sportradar.

“Additionally, we have developed new statistics, but most importantly we can offer a completely new gamified visualisation that brings the action even closer to the bettor and engages them more deeply. The Virtualised 3D Live Match Tracker is a next-generation product that offers a unique graphical visualisation of the game.”

Beyond this, Žitnik believes that interactivity and community will be at the heart of the future sports betting experience.

“We believe that building a community will play a crucial role in betting, where we plan to bring a next-gen user interface and the best experience to transform fan engagement in ways never seen before,” Žitnik said. “How fans watch, bet, and interact with sport will change in the future and we are determined to play a key role here.”

4Sight Streaming 

Launched earlier this year for tennis, and now available for coverage of the NBA, 4Sight Streaming generates animated overlays that are designed to enrich the viewing experience. Underpinned by swathes of deep data, these overlays include actionable insights for sports betting in real time.

The AI-powered streaming technology launched for coverage of men’s tennis earlier this year under Sportradar’s wide-ranging and multi-year agreement with Tennis Data Innovations, a specialist joint venture vehicle of ATP and ATP Media. However, 4Sight Streaming has now additionally been integrated into the NBA offering for the new season – and, according to Sportradar, it has the potential to transform the presentation of the sport.

Specifically, the animations provide sports bettors with data-driven details that can help them to make more informed betting decisions during games.

This tool is particularly important with sportsbook coverage of the NBA, which is the most popular sporting property to bet on among the highly sought-after 18 to 34-year-old category in the US, according to a 2023 YouGov study.

“Tapping into the modern sports fan’s affinity for data and insights, 4Sight can attract the next generation of fans and increase ‘stickiness’ by a multiple of 12 in the respective sportsbook apps and therefore unlock additional revenue opportunities,” said Sportradar senior-vice president of fan engagement Patrick Mostboeck.

emBET 

There are further benefits for sports bettors, media platforms and betting operators alike through Sportradar’s live-streaming solution, emBET. The solution incorporates betting-related graphics based on real-time data, helping to leverage the increasing in-play betting revenue-generating opportunity.

The proportion and value of in-play bets globally will increase year-on-year at a faster rate than pre-game wagers until at least the end of this decade, when live bets will account for 43% of all wagers, according to the latest projections from H2 Gambling Capital.

In fact, the NBA itself acknowledged the growing importance of in-play betting when it integrated emBET into its NBA League Pass streaming earlier this year, with the solution incorporating real-time betting content, odds and offers and into live streams.

The latest functionality update will allow betting customers to keep track of their wagers within the stream. This is particularly important given the rising popularity of same-game parlay bets, especially in the US.

Meanwhile, emBET is also now compatible with more devices, including Android mobile phones and internet-connected televisions.

“All of these functions not only create more engagement opportunities, but also further monetisation for our stakeholders, the NBA, our sportsbook partners, and media companies,” said Mostboeck. “Only Sportradar, through its access to the content as well as the streaming technology, can deliver a solution like emBET.”

NBA Advanced Visualisations 

Sportradar’s new NBA Advanced Visualisations tool taps into a similar appeal by showcasing rich, interactive graphics that leverage real-time skeletal tracking data.

These visual elements that are designed to enhance the user experience and deepen understanding of the action can include everything from heat maps to stunning player performance graphics, adding a dynamic element to support media companies’ storytelling.

The visualisations complement a suite of fan engagement solutions that are designed to fuel the passion of the league’s estimated two billion global followers. However, Sportradar is clear that the new innovations are just the latest phase in an ongoing drive to boost the experience for followers of the world’s most popular basketball league.

“We have the proprietary technology that we need to deliver and drive revenue for both the NBA and our clients,” said Sportradar’s vice-president of group operations, Sophie Thomas. “We work with 900 betting operators and 500 media platforms so we have a unique ready-made reach that the NBA can leverage to grow its own reach and further monetise its fans.”