Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News

Tag: Eric Conrad

  • United Soccer League Announces Exclusive, Long-Term Partnership with Sportradar to Fuel its Global Growth

    United Soccer League Announces Exclusive, Long-Term Partnership with Sportradar to Fuel its Global Growth

     

    The United Soccer League (USL) announced a global, six-year partnership with Sportradar to drive fan engagement, through the application of innovative data and audio-visual products, for North America’s largest professional soccer organization.

    As the USL’s Official Betting and Technology Partner, Sportradar now collects, licenses and distributes USL’s official betting and media data, as well as offer live streaming of USL competitions for sports betting to its global network of more than 900 regulated betting operators and 350 media outlets. The deal covers more than 600 USL matches per year across all three USL professional leagues, including USL Championship, USL League One and the newly formed USL Super League, set to launch in August 2024.

    “The USL aims to be the most widely available league for fans both domestically and abroad. This partnership demonstrates a step forward in the betting and technology space for USL’s Men’s and Women’s professional leagues, and we are proud to grow with Sportradar – a leader in the business – as we have since 2018,” said USL Chief Commercial Officer Court Jeske.

    “We are pleased to enter this partnership with North America’s largest professional soccer organization. Sportradar’s comprehensive products and solutions will enable USL to capitalize on opportunities across betting, media, and fan engagement, driving value for all stakeholders. This partnership strengthens our global portfolio of soccer rights, as we can leverage the data to develop highly innovative products and move up the value chain with our clients,” said Eric Conrad, EVP, Strategic Partnerships, US & LATAM at Sportradar.

    Additionally, the USL will continue to utilize Sportsradar’s Integrity Services, a partnership established in 2019. This collaboration encompasses bet monitoring facilitated by the Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), Intelligence and Investigation (I&I), Integrity Audit, and Education and Prevention initiatives, including anti-match fixing workshops.

    The USL retained Sportfive to manage the negotiations with Sportradar. The USL has exclusively worked with Sportfive since 2019 to unlock the value of betting and media data for the organization.

  • Sportradar Appoints Eric Conrad Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships & Content for North America

    Sportradar Appoints Eric Conrad Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships & Content for North America

     

    Sportradar announced the appointment of Eric Conrad as Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships & Content, North America. Conrad will report directly to Eduard Blonk, Chief Commercial Officer.

    In this newly created role, Conrad will build upon the successful foundation established by the US Sports Content and Partnerships (SCP) team, which will now report to him. Over the last several years, the SCP team has secured critical partnerships including the NHL, NBA and MLB, all of which have primed Sportradar to innovate and drive value for its customers and sports fans as well as establish the company as the market leader in North America. Conrad will work closely with Sportradar’s media and betting partners to maximize commercial returns, as well as pursue new, long-term partnerships that will help drive consistent, continued growth.

    Conrad is an accomplished sports media executive with more than 20 years of transactional sports rights experience at both major professional leagues and industry leading media companies, having personally negotiated hundreds of agreements across multiple sport genres for both US and international markets. He joins Sportradar from Univision where most recently he was Executive Vice President, Sports Programming and Acquisitions with the responsibility of building their sports rights portfolio by securing partnerships with top leagues and properties in the world, including FIFA, UEFA, Concacaf, Conmebol, and MLS, among others.  Prior to Univision, Conrad served in various roles within ESPN’s Programming and Acquisition team and held media rights and sponsorship sales positions with MLB and the NBA.

    Sportradar Chief Commercial Officer Eduard Blonk said: “Eric joins Sportradar at a time of rapid growth for the North American market. Eric has the leadership track record and experience we believe are critical to lead the regional SCP team, including the ability to forge additional partnerships, a strong focus on value creation with the sports fan in the center and a focus on delivering value to our customers.”