Esl Partners With Sportradar

Data service provider Sportradar has continued to boost its sports portfolio after confirming a new partnership with esports company, ESL.

The latest announcement follows statistics distribution deals with with the NHL and NFL last month.

As part of the new agreement with ESL, Sportradar will develop a range of products and services and has exclusive rights to process real time match data, as well as offer live scoring.

Alongside this will also be a fraud detection system, which will broadcast insight into any suspicious betting patterns to help tackle the growing rise of betting in esports.

ESL CEO Ralf Reichert said: “The rapid growth and expansion of the esports industry presents us with an ever increasing myriad of not only opportunities but also challenges, the most important of which is arguably the preservation of the integrity of the competitions.

“ESL has led the charge on integrity in esports for many years with proprietary anti-cheating software and the recent introduction of anti-doping policies in its tournaments. With an ever increasing volume of betting on esports competitions, expanding our anti-fraud initiative to also include match fixing, collusion other activities related to illegal, underage and irresponsible betting, was the next logical step in our efforts to preserve and promote integrity across our many competitions.

“Sportradar as the global leader in sports data was the logical partner for such a cooperation as it is not only the most experienced but also most committed data provider in the industry. We look forward to taking this important and historical step with them to ensure a continued growth of the esports marketplace.”

Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl, added: “Esports is without a doubt the fastest growing sport globally across all measurables: prize money, fan viewership, sponsorship revenue. We are incredibly excited to form such a trustful and comprehensive partnership with the leaders in this space.

“They are at the vanguard of this exciting sector. By partnering with us, they have today made a clear statement that they want to be the esports innovator with the most sophisticated, most  engaging and most beneficial relationship with their data and those interested in that data. On our part, we will be processing and delivering data in accordance with our industry-leading standards, ensuring that end users get the fastest, most accurate and most engaging data possible.”