Frank Wenzig: ‘the Line Between Virtual And Reality Is Getting Thinner’

Sportradar has expanded its global broadcast and betting rights deal with the Bundesliga to integrate highlight clips from 3,500 archived matches into its Virtual Sports Bundesliga betting solution. Frank Wenzig, the company’s virtual gaming lead, discusses how virtual betting is lifting the Bundesliga’s exposure in emerging markets

Virtual sports betting has evolved from a niche market a decade ago to become an asset to the fan-engagement strategy today. According to Statista, the global online gambling sector is anticipated to be worth close to $93bn by 2023 and already supports considerable growth in the real-world sports viewing experience.

Last year, Goldman Sachs estimated that the online sports betting market could expand to roughly $39bn within the next decade alone – and will skew to the younger sports fan as consumers growing up with streaming media continue to cut the cord on linear-TV.

While virtual sports betting is still a relatively new concept compared to its real-world cousin, there are several rights holders that already leverage the virtual betting space.

For example, bookmakers in the UK facilitate bets on the Virtual Grand National (VGN), a computer-simulated version of Aintree’s world-renowned horse race, which attracted close to five million domestic TV viewers in April 2020 – and millions more globally – when it replaced the real Grand National in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moving forward, as sports continue to digitize their content, other top-tier sports leagues are now beginning to make moves in the virtual space, too – notably, German football’s Bundesliga top flight expanded its partnership with Sportradar in 2021 to introduce AI-driven, virtual betting solutions to sportsbooks outside the Dach region, and to help grow visibility of the Bundesliga brand in international markets.

Frank Wenzig, managing director for Sportradar’s virtual gaming division, based in Bremen, says that the acceleration of virtual betting solutions in recent years is borne from consumer demand for “more realistic and mobile-first gameplay”. Under the terms of the Bundesliga arrangement, Sportradar provides bookmakers with virtual betting tools, including the recently launched Virtual Sports Bundesliga, which became the first ever sports gaming solution to integrate real-match video highlights from 3,500 archived Bundesliga matches during the past 10 years, so to create an interactive gaming experience for fans.

“It’s true that the customer now expects the same quality for virtual sports as they have for live sports,” Wenzig continues. “The line between virtual and reality is getting thinner. It’s only a matter of time before the line will more or less disappear. Within betting, it’s not only about realistic visualisation. It’s also about realistic odds that you see across all the existing betting markets for live sports.

“I think we will see more of these types of products in the future and more federations will follow this. The Bundesliga is the fastest-growing soccer league in the world – currently they have more than one billion fans worldwide. Through our network of roughly 900 sports operators in more than 120 countries, we’re providing global reach for the Virtual Sports Bundesliga solution.”

Among the markets showing promises of consumer growth, Wenzig cites Sportradar’s relationships with state-owned lottery operations in Azerbaijan, Hungary, Russia, and Turkey, where he says they are able to offer the Bundesliga’s virtual betting solution as part of a “limited betting offering”.

“Traditionally, sports betting is hard to achieve in these jurisdictions,” Wenzig elaborates. “Nevertheless, through our solutions, we give the rights holder the reach and visibility to new and existing fans in these markets.

“The Bundesliga is a well-known brand, globally – there is enormous value in their brand. What this also means is that, through integration in multiple jurisdictions, even those where the popularity of the Bundesliga is not so big, a virtual betting solution can help to strengthen the brand.

“We offer multiple other [virtual betting] football modes, too,” he continues. “So, while we are able to offer Bundesliga content to these markets, this also creates interest and demand for cross-selling to our other products, too.”

Sportradar first partnered with the Bundesliga 15 years ago, as part of a multi-year partnership that includes the distribution of international broadcast and betting rights. While the new deal sees Sportradar provide bookmakers with Bundesliga video clips through its Live Video Notification solution, Wenzig says that their latest virtual sports betting offering is boosting engagement across the Bundesliga’s other pillars.

“For example, we have seen an increase of 25 percent across the sale of Bundesliga tickets,” Wenzig says. “It’s still early days, but that it is a clear proof of concept. In general, virtual sport is a tool for fan engagement and to help the Bundesliga in markets where it is traditionally hard to cut through.”

He adds, “We clearly anticipate global interest [in the Virtual Sports Bundesliga solution] considering the popularity of soccer and its position as the most popular sport to bet on.”

Looking to the future, Wenzig says that the demand for virtual sports betting has the capacity to “unify” the way bookmakers regulate the industry. As demand increases for more short-form, digital content, and sports properties tap new solutions to monetize archived content, he believes more markets will look to engage with sports in the virtual betting space and has potential for “alignment between the different jurisdictions”.

“It’s still a bit speculative but, to give an example, it was only eight to 12 weeks ago when non-fungible tokens (NFT) weren’t really being noticed,” Wenzig continues. “Now, this is a hot topic and there is even a lot of noise around the metaverse, too. Even if this is early days for the technology, there is a lot of expectation and predictions for these digital trends.

“For me, if we are able to enrich or add value to the audience, this has the power to become the new normal and to lift it to the next level. The bigger the market is for virtual betting, the more demand there will be for license certification. For us, due to this fast-growing sector and virtual betting’s increased popularity, we’re confronted with an increasing demand for licensing and certification in the future.”