Sports data tech firm Sportradar AG has raised $44 million in venture capital in a round led by Revolution Growth that included Michael Jordan (yes, that Michael Jordan) and Mark Cuban.

Founded in 2003, Sportradar claims to be the world’s leading supplier of sports and betting-related data.

The company offers a service that tracks data for the betting and sports media industry, including fixtures, results, odds compiling and in-running services, along with providing front-end feeds including statistics and live scores.

Given that there is conjecture in some sports as to who owns the data from the given sport, Sportradar works in partnership with international sports federations including UEFA and the German DFB/DFL to provide applications and practical solutions for its customers.

With its headquarters in Switzerland but with 1,000 developers and sports specialists across 30 locations around the world, the company entered the United States market in 2013 and has since secured exclusive partnerships with the NFL, NHL, International Tennis Federation and NASCAR, along with providing data to Google, Yahoo Sports and Turner Media.

“The Sportradar team is ahead of the curve in understanding the crucial role data plays in creating innovative content and products that captures audiences,” Revolution Growth Co-Founder and Partner Ted Leonsis said in a statement. “With superior technology and development that is already providing the fastest, most accurate data feeds, Sportradar is well-poised to capitalize on the rapidly expanding, multi-billion dollar global sports market.”

Big Data

Sports are not a field many would initially think about when considering Big Data, but the concept is still the same: extremely large datasets that can be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, be it, in this case, those patterns and trends pertain to players in a given sport.

It’s been the better part of over 40 years since something as simple as using video to analyze a team’s performance came into being, and the use of data analysis at this scale is a grandchild of that idea.

Figures were not immediately available for the how much business Sportradar is bringing in, but given their relationships with leading sporting bodies, if it’s not the biggest player in this space, it soon will be.

The company said they would use the new round to build a complementary suite of value-enhancing products and applications for its client base.

 Image credit: Sportradar