Key Sentence:
- Sportradar founder and CEO Carsten Körl were at a crossroads 21 years ago.
- His first foray into sports data with the new company Bwinwas successfully published on the Austrian Vienna Stock Exchange.
Still, shortly after the IPO, Körl lost control of the company he founded. Even so, the deal left him financially independent, and although he doesn’t remember exactly how much he made, retiring at 35 was enough for him.
The thought never crossed his mind, Carsten Koerl said. Instead, after a long holiday in Australia, he began to make plans for his next steps. His opportunity came a few months later in Norway, where he spent 150,000 euros (then about 135,000 US dollars at the time) in 2001. To acquire a majority stake in a rising sports betting and data company called Market Monitor US. The company eventually became Sportradar.
“This is a good time to say, ‘OK, Carsten Koerl let’s start something new because I’m on my way,’ Curl told Forbes on Tuesday morning via Zoom with a beaming smile.
This decision yielded excellent results. Switzerland-based sports radar, which helps sports leagues to collect data such as in-game statistics and distribute it to media companies and betting providers, went to the Nasdaq on Tuesday. After opening at $27 per share, the company’s stock fell to $25.05 when the market closed, with a business value of $7.4 billion. Koral, who remains CEO with 81.8% of the voting rights, retains a 31.8% stake. Forbes estimates his holdings at $2.4 billion.
Sportradar Founder and CEO Carsten Körl
Koral, 56, born in southern Germany Carsten Koerl and now lives in Switzerland, said the sports radar gave him the perfect vehicle to focus his dual passions on sport and technology. His love of sports and competitions began in his childhood when he became a sponsor of the German football club Bayern Munich. This continues today.
“Two weeks ago, I was rocking with my son in a ravine in Switzerland because he wanted to see if dad could do it or not,” the man said with a laugh. “Of course I can. I’m competitive.”
However, as reported in a 2018 article in the Globe and Mail, Koerl realized that a future in athletics was impossible and turned to computer science. He studied electrical engineering and microprocessor technology at Konstanz University of Applied Sciences before founding Bwin (then Betandwin) in 1997 and Sportradar in 2001.
Today, sports radar has become a dominant player in the field of sports data. Since expanding to the US in 2014, the company has had more than 900 sports betting customers such as DraftKings, FanDuel, and Flutter and more than 150 sports league partners, including the NBA, MLB, and NHL. According to Sportivo, the NHL also has the right to purchase. An estimated $90 million stake in Sportradar under its data rights agreement with the company. According to a statement made before the IPO, Sportradar posted a net profit of under $18 million from $478 million last year.
However, the company is not without challenges.
The uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought the sports world to a standstill, threatens Sportradar’s business. Another critical hurdle: earlier this year, data company Genius Sports took over the license rights to the NFL data, which Sportradar held for two years.
The NFL retained a 7% stake in Sportradar’s US subsidiary as part of the previous agreement. Nevertheless, Koral believes its size, sales, and profits will keep it competitive. (Genius Sports has a market cap of $3.7 billion.) When it comes to achieving billionaire status, Curl says not much will change for him. He still wants to stay out of the limelight, but like two decades ago, he doesn’t want to retire early either.