SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The SBC Summit Barcelona is well underway, with Sportradar’s CEO Carsten Koerl and others appearing on panels and as keynote speakers at the event, discussing technological developments in sports betting.
Dalraj Bahia is Managing Director of Operations within the firm’s Betting & Gaming vertical. Working alongside Sportradar’s Chief Product Officer, Dalraj manages a global team to lead and develop a suite of Betting & Gaming products.
Previously, Bahia worked within the Direct Private Equity team at CPP Investments, where he focused on lead and co-lead investments across a variety of sectors. He also has experience in the hedge fund industry, having worked as an Analyst at Liongate Capital. Dalraj holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Why is speaking at SBC Barcelona important to Sportradar?
It’s an important event in our calendar that brings the industry together. The discussion panels are lively and insightful, so I’m looking forward to hearing from the many innovators and thought leaders taking part this year.
Sportradar has three speakers at the event. Our CEO Carsten Koerl will deliver the keynote address on Day Two. Set to be interviewed on stage by Sports Betting Hall of Fame member Simon Bold, Carsten will discuss his experience leading the largest international sports technology company during one of the most challenging times in the industry’s history and share his outlook on the global markets.
My colleague Mike Falconer is speaking on the digital marketing panel ‘knowing when to engage players’, while I’ll be tackling technology and innovation in the betting and gaming industry as part of the ‘how to choose a technology partner’ discussion.
YOU’RE PARTICIPATING IN THE ‘HOW TO CHOOSE A TECHNOLOGY PARTNER’ PANEL. TELL ME, WHAT MAKES A GOOD TECHNOLOGY PARTNER?
Good question! Having a sophisticated tech stack is the obvious answer, but there’s more to it than that. Looking at this from a client perspective, I would want to partner with a technology company that’s prepared to invest time getting to know my business and genuinely understand what my organisation is trying to achieve.
Cutting edge technical capabilities are important but having a team of experts who know how to deploy that technology in order to help my business solve its problems is crucial. That’s how we approach client relationships at Sportradar – we help our clients solve the problems they face, in the interest of achieving success, growing their business, and driving their bottom lines.
The ability to innovate is also important. Generating ideas that support the strategic aims and drive the growth of a clients’ business is a powerful USP. Innovation stimulates change and encourages continuous improvement. In the hyper competitive sports betting market, even a small improvement can have a big impact on a business’s growth and revenues.
WHAT TECHNOLOGY IS GOING TO ADVANCE THE BETTING AND GAMING INDUSTRY?
I’m excited about Computer Vision and the benefits it can bring to the industry. For those unfamiliar with the technology, Computer Vision is a form of artificial intelligence that will allow us to understand sport on a much deeper, more detailed player related level.
Over the next few years, it will change the way we collect and process sports data. As individuals, we are very good at understanding what is happening in front of us at sporting events, however we have limited capacity in the amount of data we can manually interpret, record digitally and upload.
Computer Vision yields a 100-fold increase in the level of statistics and data-points that we can offer our clients, significantly scaling the commercial opportunities available to them. It’s a game changer and in the future will create more immersive experiences for sports fans and provide leagues and federations with richer insights into fan behaviour.
