Sports data provider Sportradar will launch a series of new NBA sports betting products tonight, coinciding with the opening tip of the 2024-25 season.
These artificial intelligence-driven markets blending traditional statistics and next-generation information like skeletal tracking data will, according to the company, “redefine the standards of fan engagement and open up new revenue streams for the NBA and its partners and Sportradar clients” including US sportsbooks that offer them.
One of these new features, the Swiss company claims, can help predict “likely outcomes,” which would figure to be of great interest to bettors.
Sportradar lists Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel as sportsbook partners.
Sportradar’s NBA Products for Bettors
- Virtualized Live Match Tracker: Utilizes computer vision and real-time NBA stats to create three-dimensional visualizations. These streams, delivered through a sportsbook app, are customizable, including viewing angles of the court.
- 4Sight Streaming (above): Produces animated overlays and “actionable insights,” Sportradar claims, by “processing an unparalleled volume of deep data.” Sportradar contends this feature “can predict the likely outcomes in a game so that fans can make informed real-time betting decisions.”
Fourteen computer vision cameras mounted in each NBA arena will capture 60 frames per second to paint a graphic customizable illustration, Blaz Zitnik, Sportradar’s SVP of Betting Entertainment Tools said in a presentation to media. These factors, he believes, will better illustrate the factors that influence a winning or losing bet.
“We can understand if a finger or a knee or a hip are leaning in the right direction to score a basket or if a player’s accelerations are getting slower throughout the game,” he said. “So that enables us to better understand the game, predict the outcomes, generate insights to enhance storytelling. Additionally, we develop new and innovative statistics, but most importantly, we can offer a completely new gamified visualization that brings the action even closer to the bettor and engage more deeply with the game.”
Bettors, Zitnik said, can tailor the live stream to improve their in-game bets. Or at least their perseverating over them.
“The camera can always focus on the player the bettor has placed the bet on and display relevant statistics such as a countdown of how many more points the player needs to score for the bettor to win the bet,” he said.
- emBET: This feature returns for a second season on NBA League Pass. With it on internet-connected television and Android devices, bettors can monitor their wagers in real-time.
DraftKings, FanDuel Agree to Dump Certain NBA Props
Sportradar’s new products won’t be much help with certain prop bets.
According to ESPN, at least DraftKings and FanDuels have agreed to discontinue “under” prop bets involving players who are working under two-way NBA/developmental contracts. This follows a call from Commissioner Adam Silver to curtail certain offerings after the Jontay Porter sports betting scandal quaked the league last year. Porter, a former member of the Toronto Raptors was banned permanently after the league found he conspired with gamblers to under-perform on certain props in at least two games.
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