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Sportradar Reports Strong First Quarter 2023 Results

Published

3 years ago

May 10, 2023

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Sportradar Group AG, a leading global technology company focused on enabling next generation engagement in sports through providing business-to-business solutions to the global sports betting industry, today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2023.

First Quarter 2023 Highlights

Revenue in the first quarter of 2023 increased 24% to €207.6 million ($226.2 million)1 compared with the first quarter of 2022.
The RoW Betting segment, accounting for 52% of total revenue, grew 25% to €108.5 million ($118.3 million)1, primarily driven by strong performance from Managed Betting Services (MBS) and Live Odds.
The U.S. segment revenue grew 55% to €39.7 million ($43.3 million)1 compared with the first quarter of 2022, driven by higher sales of betting products as well as the Company’s digital advertising (ad:s) product. The U.S. segment generated positive Adjusted EBITDA2 for the third consecutive quarter with an Adjusted EBITDA2 margin of 17%.
Total Profit for the first quarter of 2023 was €6.8 million compared with €8.2 million for the same quarter last year. The Company’s Adjusted EBITDA2 in the first quarter of 2023 increased 37% to €36.7 million ($40.0 million)1 compared with the first quarter of 2022, demonstrating operational leverage from higher revenue despite increased investment into Artificial Intelligence (AI) for liquidity trading, and Computer Vision technology.
Adjusted EBITDA margin2 was 18% in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 176 bps compared with the prior year period.
Adjusted Free Cash Flow2 in the first quarter of 2023 was €12.4 million, compared with €12.9 million for the prior year period, as a result of improved working capital management offset by an unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange rates. The resulting Cash Flow Conversion2 was 34% in the quarter.
The Company’s customer Net Retention Ratio (NRR) was 120% in the first quarter of 2023, an improvement over the NRR from the fourth quarter of 2022 of 119%.

Carsten Koerl, Chief Executive Officer of Sportradar said: “We started fiscal 2023 on solid footing, as we continued to deliver strong top line growth, predominately by growing our value add products such as MBS and Live Odds in the Rest of World business, and strong, profitable growth in our U.S. segment. We are also demonstrating operational leverage as we continue to focus on cost discipline across the organization and invest prudently to grow our top line. We are confident that our ongoing product innovation in AI and computer vision will enable us to remain a market leader and increase shareholder value for our investors.”

Key Financial Measures
In millions, in Euros € Q1 Q1 Change
2023 2022 %

Revenue 207.6 167.9 24 %

Adjusted EBITDA2 36.7 26.7 37 %

Adjusted EBITDA margin2 18 % 16 % –

Adjusted Free Cash Flow2 12.4 12.9 (4 %)

Cash Flow Conversion2 34 % 48 % –

Segment Information

RoW Betting

Segment revenue in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 25% to €108.5 million compared with the first quarter of 2022. This growth was driven primarily by increased sales of the Company’s higher value-add offerings including MBS, which increased 40% to €37.1 million as well as Live Odds services which increased 29% year over year.
Segment Adjusted EBITDA2 in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 6% to €47.4 million compared with the first quarter of 2022. Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin2 decreased to 44% from 51% in the first quarter of 2022 due to increased investment in AI technology for MTS and Computer Vision technology. These investments will enable the Company to further grow revenue and improve its Adjusted EBITDA margin over time.

RoW Audiovisual (AV)

Segment revenue in the first quarter of 2023 decreased 3% to €44.6 million compared with the first quarter of 2022. Revenue was impacted by the expected completion of the Tennis Australia contract partially offset by growth in sales to new and existing customers.
Segment Adjusted EBITDA2 in the first quarter of 2023 increased 27% to €11.3 million compared with the first quarter of 2022. Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin2 improved to 25% in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 19% in the first quarter of 2022 due to savings associated with the completion of the Tennis Australia contract.

United States

Segment revenue in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 55% to €39.7 million ($43.3 million)1 compared with the first quarter of 2022. Results were driven by growth in core betting data products and the ad:s product.
Segment Adjusted EBITDA2 in the first quarter of 2023 was €6.8 million ($7.4 million)1 compared with a loss of (€6.4) million in the first quarter of 2022. This is the third consecutive quarter with positive Adjusted EBITDA2 indicating the strong operational leverage in the U.S. business model despite continuous investments. Segment Adjusted EBITDA margin23improved to 17% from (25%) compared with the first quarter of 2022.

Costs and Expenses

Purchased services and licenses in the first quarter of 2023 increased by €11.6 million to €48.4 million compared with the first quarter of 2022, reflecting continuous investments in content creation, greater event coverage and higher scouting costs. Of the total purchased services and licenses, approximately €14.0 million were expensed sports rights.
Personnel expenses in the first quarter of 2023 increased by €25.2 million to €77.5 million compared with the first quarter of 2022. The increase was primarily as a result of increased investment for growth which was driven by higher headcount associated with investments in AI and Computer Vision, increased share based compensation, and inflationary adjustments for labor costs.
Other operating expenses in the first quarter of 2023 increased by €1.7 million to €21.2 million, compared with the first quarter of 2022, primarily as a result of higher software license costs, higher audit fees and implementation costs for a new financial management system.
Total sports rights costs in the first quarter of 2023 decreased by €2.8 million to €51.2 million compared with the first quarter of 2022, primarily due to savings from the expected completion of the Tennis Australia contract.

Recent Company Highlights

SportradarSportradar renewed its partnership with the Big Ten Network extends partnership with the Big 10 Conference to broaden its footprint in the U.S. college space by powering its OTT platform B1G+ through the 2024-2025 college athletics season. Sportradar is providing its technology and data-driven OTT solutions to manage B1G+’s OTT web, mobile and connected TV apps, UX/UI design and third party integration.
Sportradar announced the integration of its ad:s technology into Snapchat, creating a new channel for betting operators to engage and acquire customers using the Company’s paid social media advertising service. Using Snapchat’s advanced age and location targeting capabilities to ensure only legally qualified audiences are reached, betting operators have a potential to reach Snapchat’s 350 million daily active users and over 750 million monthly active users.
Sportradar was selected as the successful bidder for the global Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) data and streaming rights starting in 2024 as a result of the Company’s commitment to product innovation. Sportradar offers the broadest reach to tennis fans globally and has been a supplier of official ATP Tour and Challenger Tour secondary data feeds since 2022.
Sportradar published its first Sustainability Report highlighting its commitment to sustaining its business, communities and environment. The report is based on Sportradar’s five key sustainability priorities, sustainability, people, oversight, respect and technology-led (SPORT), which are aligned with the standards and framework of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Sportradar Integrity Services released its second Annual Report on Betting Corruption and Match-Fixing in 2022, revealing the Company had identified 1,212 suspicious matches across 12 sports in 92 countries, an increase of 34% year over year. The overall data confirmed that 99.5% of sporting events are free from match-fixing, with no single sport having a suspicious match ratio of greater than 1%.
Sportradar named technology executive Gerard Griffin as Chief Financial Officer effective May 9, 2023. Mr Griffin previously served as CFO of Zynga Inc., a global leader in interactive entertainment, and will be responsible for Sportradar’s accounting, finance and investor relations functions. Mr. Griffin brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in financial and operational management within the gaming, media and technology sectors.

Annual Financial Outlook

Sportradar reaffirmed its annual outlook provided on March 15, 2023, for revenue and Adjusted EBITDA2 for fiscal 2023 as follows:

Sportradar expects its revenue for fiscal 2023 to be in the range of €902.0 million to €920.0 million ($983.2 million to $1002.8 million)1, representing growth of 24% to 26% over fiscal 2022.
Adjusted EBITDA2 is expected to be in a range of €157.0 million to €167.0 million ($171.1 million to $182.0 million)1, representing 25% to 33% growth versus last year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin2 is expected to be in the range of 17% to 18%.4

AI chatbot esports

G2 Esports and Theta Labs Launch AI Agent Sami

Published

29 minutes ago

February 17, 2026

Wladimir P.

g2-esports-and-theta-labs-launch-ai-agent-sami

G2 Esports has partnered with Theta Labs to launch “Sami,” a next-generation AI agent designed to enhance fan engagement across multiple competitive esports titles.

The AI-powered assistant will provide G2’s global fanbase with instant access to match schedules, player stats, team rosters, tournament standings, and real-time competitive updates. Sami supports major titles including League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, VALORANT, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, and Call of Duty.

Accessible via the official G2 website and Discord starting February 17, Sami is built to deliver accurate, always-on responses to fan queries in natural language. From tournament updates to player performance metrics and G2-specific trivia, the AI agent reflects the organization’s unique brand voice and competitive culture.

AI-Powered Fan Engagement at Scale

Sami is trained and deployed using Theta EdgeCloud’s hybrid cloud-edge infrastructure, which integrates over 30,000 distributed edge nodes with cloud services from Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. The system delivers approximately 80 PetaFLOPS of GPU compute power, enabling real-time processing and analysis at significantly reduced costs compared to traditional centralized cloud platforms.

The AI infrastructure dynamically assigns workloads to high-performance GPUs, including NVIDIA A100 and H100 cloud GPUs, as well as RTX 3090 and 4090 desktop GPUs, optimizing performance and cost efficiency. This decentralized architecture allows G2 to scale fan engagement globally while maintaining low latency and high reliability.

Strengthening Esports AI Innovation

Theta Labs has rapidly expanded its presence in the esports industry, powering AI-driven fan experiences for organizations such as Cloud9, FlyQuest, Evil Geniuses, NRG, Gen.G, Dignitas, 100 Thieves, Method, and Team Heretics.

According to Mitch Liu, CEO of Theta Labs, esports fans increasingly demand instant access to team data and competitive updates. AI agents like Sami enable organizations to provide 24/7 automated engagement while maintaining a unique community personality.

Sabrina Ratih, COO of G2 Esports, emphasized that Sami is more than a standard chatbot. Built to reflect G2’s playful and competitive tone, the AI assistant combines advanced machine learning with brand-driven communication to deliver both entertainment and functionality.

The Future of AI in Esports

The launch of Sami positions G2 Esports at the forefront of AI-driven fan engagement in competitive gaming. By leveraging decentralized GPU infrastructure and blockchain-powered cloud computing, the partnership with Theta Labs signals a broader industry shift toward scalable, cost-efficient AI solutions for esports organizations.

As AI integration becomes a competitive differentiator in esports, solutions like Sami are expected to redefine how teams interact with their global communities in real time.

The post G2 Esports and Theta Labs Launch AI Agent Sami appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

blockchain game survey

30% of Web3 Gamers Fear Pay-to-Win More Than Market Volatility

Published

1 hour ago

February 17, 2026

Wladimir P.

30%-of-web3-gamers-fear-pay-to-win-more-than-market-volatility

Player concerns in Web3 gaming are shifting away from external market forces like token volatility toward internal game fairness and design, according to recent survey data from 51 Games.

Despite frequent industry focus on crypto market cycles and price spikes, nearly 30% of Web3 gamers identify pay-to-win mechanics as their top issue, while only about 19–20% point to token inflation or economic instability as their greatest fear — signaling a deeper worry about gameplay integrity.

More than half of respondents (51–52%) believe that effort should directly translate into reward, making transparency and merit-based progression central to long-term engagement. Players are competitive by nature: when asked how they respond to others earning more, 40% feel motivated to catch up and 27% want to understand the strategy behind others’ success, while only a small minority feel frustrated or believe outcomes are unfair. This suggests that gamers reject systems where earned skill is overshadowed by spending power.

These preferences help explain why pay-to-win concerns resonate more strongly than market volatility. Players accept market fluctuations — which lie outside their control — but react negatively when in-game advantages appear tied to wealth instead of effort or mastery. While market and token risks still matter to around one in five respondents, fairness consistently ranks higher on the priority list.

Matvii Diadkov, Founder of 51 Games, notes this shift clearly: “When players say they fear pay-to-win more than market volatility, they signal that they want rules that reward effort, not spending power.” For developers, this means refocusing from purely token price issues to economic game design that fosters trust, progression clarity, and balanced incentive systems.

Fairness now functions as a key retention driver. Games that offer skill-based progression with visible, fair rules tend to build stronger player loyalty and long-term investment. Aggressive monetization may lure short-term users, but it can undermine trust and engagement when players feel outcomes depend more on spending than skill. Overall, Web3 gamers demonstrate strategic economic awareness: they evaluate reward structures, compare value propositions, and seek systems where effort, not spending, defines their success.

In a rapidly evolving industry, aligning internal game economies with player expectations for fairness, transparency and merit-based advancement appears to matter more than managing external token volatility — a crucial insight for Web3 developers seeking sustainable engagement.

The post 30% of Web3 Gamers Fear Pay-to-Win More Than Market Volatility appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Latest News

TrafficGuard Launches in the United States to Help More Businesses Combat Growing Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic

Published

2 hours ago

February 17, 2026

GamingAmericas.com

trafficguard-launches-in-the-united-states-to-help-more-businesses-combat-growing-ad-fraud-and-invalid-traffic

The New York expansion strengthens TrafficGuard’s ongoing commitment to reducing global advertising fraud and non-genuine digital traffic, as U.S marketers demand greater transparency, control, and performance certainty amidst AI boom.

TrafficGuard, a leading platform for digital ad verification and fraud prevention, has announced the launch of operations in the United States to support its global growth strategy. TrafficGuard CEO, Mathew Ratty, has relocated to TrafficGuard’s New York office, formalising and accelerating the company’s existing U.S presence to further serve evolving invalid traffic and ad fraud prevention demands in the U.S, and support its growing channel ecosystem. With commercial and customer-facing teams already operating in the United States, this move reflects a deliberate step to scale local leadership, support, and go-to-market execution.

Ratty will support the next phase of U.S growth by meeting with customers and partners in the United States. His presence demonstrates TrafficGuard’s commitment to gathering first-hand feedback on customers’ traffic quality, invalid behaviour, and ad performance challenges across complex, high-spend media environments. He will leverage these insights to boost data integrity, optimisation confidence, and campaign resilience for US businesses with the most efficient solutions to monitor, detect, analyse, and respond to invalid traffic, including but not limited to fraud.

“We’re seeing a rapid increase in sophisticated ad fraud alongside high volumes of non-genuine and non-incremental traffic in the United States, with impacts on budgets becoming much more frequent,” said Mathew Ratty, CEO of TrafficGuard. “For U.S advertisers operating at scale, it’s no longer just about blocking bad clicks. It’s about protecting decision-making, optimisation models, and growth efficiency. That’s where TrafficGuard’s enterprise-grade approach stands apart. We remain committed to building resilience to protect brands across the globe. With an expanding U.S team and accelerated product innovation, 2026 is shaping up to be a defining year for TrafficGuard.”

In 2025, TrafficGuard strengthened its executive leadership team with the appointment of Miguel Lopes as Chief Product Officer, based in the United States. With deep experience building and scaling enterprise technology, Lopes is fast-tracking new product development and unlocking additional acquisition channels, ensuring TrafficGuard continues to meet the demands of high-spend, multi-channel advertisers and enterprise media teams.

TrafficGuard is a multi-award winning platform that detects, mitigates, and reports on digital invalid traffic and ad fraud before it hits advertising budgets, trusted by thousands of global businesses including enterprise brands operating across highly competitive verticals such as finance, eCommerce, travel, and gaming. This strategic move will further strengthen TrafficGuard’s presence in the United States as its U.S customer base continues to grow and more brands seek locally supported, enterprise-ready solutions. The company is riding a robust growth pipeline, with plans to significantly expand its team in the region and enable brands to boost their revenue and confidently scale advertising campaigns by eliminating non-genuine, non-incremental, and wasteful traffic across paid media.

“It’s clear that tackling ad fraud and invalid traffic more broadly is becoming a more urgent priority for advertisers in the U.S, and this is one of the main drivers behind our decision to expand in the region,” said Chad Kinlay, CMO at TrafficGuard. “As AI accelerates automation across media buying, marketers need independent, enterprise-grade validation to ensure performance data can be trusted. TrafficGuard helps brands defend profitability today while building smarter, more resilient growth for the future.”

The expansion reinforces TrafficGuard’s position as a leader in a rapidly evolving ad landscape. The company is enhancing enterprise-grade traffic validation, prevention, and optimisation intelligence and accelerating the rollout of innovative products across the globe to meet the demands of next-generation digital advertising, while ensuring U.S customers are supported by local expertise, local teams, and local insight.

The post TrafficGuard Launches in the United States to Help More Businesses Combat Growing Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.