Sportradar CEO: Firms that don’t embrace AI will be “out of the market in three years”
Carsten Koerl lays out bullish plans for tapping emerging technology after the appointment of former Google head Behshad Behzadi as chief AI officer
Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl has claimed companies that fail to embrace AI will be “out of the market in three years”.
Speaking at the 52nd JP Morgan Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference today, 21 May, the CEO gave a bullish view on AI and the importance of the technology for businesses.
Koerl’s comments come after the New York-listed supplier snapped up former Google vice-president Behshad Behzadi as its new chief technology officer and chief AI officer earlier this month.
Behzadi, who worked across Google Assistant and image recognition technology Google Lens, was described by Koerl as a “world-renowned leader” upon confirmation of his appointment.
Touching on the impact Behzadi would make, Koerl said his arrival would have a top-down improvement flow for the sports data business.
He remarked: “An engineer wants to learn; he wants to embrace; he wants to learn from the best.
“Securing this leader will put a lot of pressure on our engineering population. But what it will do, is transform the population to AI-first thinking. This is a journey, but you’re going to need to have an anchor point to start, and you’re going to need to do it carefully,” he added.
On the pertinence of AI, Koerl did note that while the concept remains a “buzzword”, it differs to previous tech developments in recent years.
During his fireside chat at the conference, the exec recalled when Sportradar was planning its IPO, how advisers told the business to make constant reference to crypto and blockchain ahead of going the float in 2021.
Koerl said: “[Crypto and blockchain] is not really something which I believe is creating value for us. But it was a buzzword at the time.
“AI is also a buzzword but AI has a very different meaning for companies. If you are not going [with] this and you are not fully embracing [it], you will be out of the market in three years.
“I am totally sure about this. [AI] is something that is here to stay [and it] is something where you have to find, as a leader of a business, the way you can put this to work for you,” he added.
Last week, Sportradar championed the power of its AI-driven personalised odds technology, Alpha Odds, in increasing its bookmakers’ profits by 15%.
The global AI market was estimated to be worth £197bn in 2023 and is forecast to grow at an annual compound growth rate of 37% from 2024 to 2030.