SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
ALT Sports Data has closed a seed funding round, raising $5 million in ‘strategic funds’ to accelerate the development of new disruptive solutions empowering all sports stakeholders and audiences.
The funding round was described as ‘oversubscribed due to overwhelming interest from investors’ seeking to back the enterprise of former GoPro alumni Joe Dunnigan (CEO), Todd Ballard (CMO), and Michael Jordan (CPO – not the basketball legend).
The round was co-led by Relay Ventures and Eberg Capital, with participation from Motley Fool Ventures, Scrum Ventures, and a consortium of strategic investors.
As outlined in the funding round statement, investors have backed ALT Sports to redefine how sports audiences engage with and visualise sports “via the convergence of data, media, wagering and gaming”.
ALT Sports believes it has proven its start-up credentials by empowering a roster of ‘challenger sports leagues/events’ to help captivate wider audiences and commercial opportunities for its partners of Formula Drift, PowerSlap, Bare Knuckle Fighting, and the Monster Energy SuperCross Championships.
Expanding its ambitions, CEO and co-founder Joe Dunnigan believes ALT Sports will fulfil its mission to deliver the best platform to connect and commercialise sports: “ALT Sports Data is more than a data provider.”
“With our growing portfolio of rightsholders and partners, we’re creating the infrastructure that’s driving new revenue and deeper engagement across the entire value chain.”
Tech observers are watching developments closely. In February, Formula 1 (F1) announced ALT Sports as its “official betting data supplier” – outmanoeuvring legacy data and media incumbents to partner with motorsport’s biggest commercial property.
The deal merges the data rights of F1 with ALT Sports’ proprietary trading platform to deliver optimised real-time odds and pricing, alongside streaming and additional engagement tools for exclusive use for F1 sportsbook partners.
“ALT Sports is redefining what sports betting looks like by unlocking untapped markets with the same discipline and scale as the traditional sports data giants,” said John Albright, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Relay Ventures. “Their team is building the engine that will fuel the future of fan engagement.”
The venture’s ambitions are further supported by the development of NXTbets, a media and wagering solution providing tools for an audience of over 175 million sports fans engaged within the ALT Sports ecosystem.
The closing of its seed funding marks a new milestone for ALT Sports in its ambition to challenge the sports data and the commercialisation tools of established competitors such as Sportradar, Stats Perform, and Genius Sports – only time will tell if ALT Sports can join their crowded ranks.
“We’ve backed some of the biggest shifts in data and marketplaces as ALT Sports is building both,” said Roger Ehrenberg, Founding Partner at Eberg Capital. “They’re ahead of the curve on where sports consumption and betting are heading.”
