Buzz words are nice, but the stakes are stacking up for sports, wagering and technology leaders as to who will dominate and commercialise future audiences.
“Nothing is linear anymore. We must expect that sports live in a mixed environment. But there is now an opportunity to commercialise every element, data point, broadcast, bet and now merchandise as an experience”.
“We are now developing technologies for a high-speed sector, that is being powered by AI” says Sportradar AG CEO Carsten Koerl, welcoming the keynote panel on the MEO stage at SBC Summit Lisbon.
Fans are no longer fixed on one point or engagement and move between live sport, data, social media and betting, their experiences is fractured, but their lies the opportunity.
“We all kind of wish we were Michael. We wish we were out there winning championships,” reflects DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, on his experience of following Michael Jordan as an athlete and now as a sports business magnet.
Jordan’s relentlessness to “dominate all arenas” inspires Robins to oversee the development of DraftKings’ all-in-one Super App, as the principal technology project of the NASDAQ technology group.
“The idea of the Super App was we’re going to take all these different products that we have, which a lot of which were living in different apps before, and bring them all into one single app,” Robins says.
A packed MEO stage is at Jordan’s whim, and he speaks about why his relationships with DraftKings and Sportradar feel authentic to him.
Jordan knows the weight his name brings to the companies he has invested in, their markets and audiences, but authenticity is key and a discipline that won’t be compromised.
He applies the same thinking to his recent investment in NASCAR, an interest rooted in going to races with his family.
Jordan now sees the opportunity for NASCAR to reach audiences beyond its traditional base, with Sportradar and DraftKings.
The conversation returns to trust as Jordan acknowledges that today’s fans can “follow every statistic, every movement and every betting market”, but Jordan says he would have approached the game as he always did: “I just play the game. I can’t worry about what people are betting on. I can’t worry about what the stats are.”
Basketball’s greatest showman now trusts Robins and Koerl as two individuals who are obsessed with being at the forefront of the next evolution of sports and wagering, whilst understanding the pressure on both to provide safe environments for fans.
For Jordan, the only outcome he could control was what he did on the basketball court. For Koerl and Robins, the challenge is what happens around it: giving fans more ways to follow, understand and take part in the game.
