Sportradar has strengthened its foothold in European sports, announcing a ‘comprehensive extended agreement’ with France’s basketball league, the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB).
Beginning at the start of the 2021/22 season, the multi-year agreement will see Sportradar become the official data partner of the LNB, collecting and distributing the league’s in-game data through Synergy Stats.
The new agreement will cover data collection and distribution, AV rights, media rights distribution, automated production and streaming services and the continuation of the LNB.TV OTT platform.
Furthermore, Sportradar will provide betting integrity monitoring, conducted via Sportradar Integrity Services’ (SIS) Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS). The data and analytics firm will monitor all LNB games to identify potential match manipulation, having detected over 500 suspicious fixtures across global sport last year and reporting over 5,5500 over the past 15 years.
“The LNB is one of the most important basketball leagues in Europe and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them to grow the sport further and drive new commercial opportunities,” said David Lampitt, Managing Director, Sports Content and Partnerships at Sportradar.
“Basketball is a strategically important sport for Sportradar, and the acquisition of Synergy Sports has extended our 360-degree capabilities in the creation and distribution of data and video content, enabling us to deepen our relationships with key basketball leagues and federations around the world.
“We are delighted to partner with the LNB and that they have put their trust in us to deliver advanced data, analytics and technology solutions.”
Sportradar first partnered with the LNB for the 2020/21 season, and has internationally distributed the league’s media rights whilst also creating the LNB.TV platform, enhancing fan engagement by showcasing matches and editorial content across both live-stream and on-demand verticals.
The extension agreement represents Sportradar’s first partnership with a national basketball league since the acquisition of Synergy Sports, which will serve as the distribution partner of the tournament’s AV rights and will partner with the LNB’s teams using its AI driven Automated Camera System.
Michel Mimran, Managing Director, at Ligue Nationale de Basket, added: “This new agreement is very exciting for the LNB and will expand the way we work with a trusted partner.
“Sportradar will now provide us with end-to-end solutions on many fronts including AV production, AV rights as well as data collection and commercialisation. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with Sportradar for years to come.”