Sportradar CEO bullish on Brazil as shares leap on strong Q4 

The CEO of Sportradar said that the firm will attack Brazil when the regulated market opens after reporting a 22% year-on-year (YoY) jump in revenue in Q4 2023.

Speaking after the release of the firm’s Q4 financial report, Carsten Koerl estimated gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the country would be $5bn per year and labelled the market a “focus area” in the future.

Having entered into an agreement with the Conmebol, the governing body for South American football, for exclusive global data rights in Q4, Sportradar is already active in the region.

Koerl said: “It is a very exciting market. It is a priority for us and for me. The market, how we see it at the moment, is still in the grey zone so we will still see adaptations.

“There is a piece of law which was introduced in December last year, still there are no licences given – we expect this will happen Q2, beginning of Q3 so the market is ramping up.”

He added: “From a size perspective, the online grey market with the big players is maybe $2bn GGR. We expect with regulation that market is growing on a $5bn GGR per year.

“To put that into comparison, the US is around about $10bn, so that shows you it’s a very scalable and sizeable opportunity and it’s an opportunity driven on football.

“Our Conmebol deal is very supportive. We are looking into strengthening this portfolio to attack Brazil. It’s a focus area for us.”

Koerl’s comments came after the New York-listed firm reported strong growth in the final three months of the year, which sent its share price jumping more than 11%.

Sportradar posted a 22% YoY increase in revenue to €252.6m from €206.3m in Q4 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA grew 13% to €39.5m while adjusted EBITDA margin was 16% compared to 17% in the corresponding period in 2022.

Looking at segment information, rest of the world (RoW) betting revenue increased 25% YoY to €132m due to “increased sales of the company’s MBS solution”.

Adjusted EBITDA for RoW stood at €55m, a 19% YoY increase, while adjusted EBITDA margin slipped to 42% due to “higher operating costs”.

In the US, there was a 28% YoY increase in revenue to €52.7m with Sportradar putting this down to strong market performance, contributions from the NBA deal and selling services to new and existing clients. 

Q4 2023 US EBITDA came in at a loss of €1.5m, down from €4.3m profit in 2022 due to “step-up costs of the new NBA deal”.

The group also swung a profit for the final three months of the year at €23.2m compared to a €33.3m loss in Q4 2022.

For full-year 2023, revenue increased 20% YoY to €877.6m on the back of 20% growth from RoW betting and 30% growth from the US. 

This was at the upper end of Sportradar’s 2023 annual outlook range of €870m to €880m. 

Adjusted EBITDA on the year came rose 33% YoY to €166.8m.

Sportradar said it “expects to deliver at least 20% year-over-year growth in revenue” which would stand at €1bn with adjusted EBITDA of at least €200m – a YoY growth of at least 20%.