Sportradar reported a 30% rise in revenue from €561.2m (£490.1m/$591.2m) in 2021 to €730.2m in its full-year 2022 financial report, driven by 78% growth in the US, as well as 26% growth from its international operations.
The company’s reported revenue beat its annual projected outlook range of €718m to €723m. US revenue stood at €127m for the year, as opposed to the €71.7m the business reported in 2021. This compares with the 25.8% rise in its international betting segment which grew from €309.4m to €389.1m from 2021 to 2022.
From this revenue, the business announced adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €125.8m, a 23% increase from the €102.0m the company achieved in 2021.
The business hailed the strong results across all its key performance metrics. CEO Carsten Koerl said he was “very pleased” with the company’s results, driven by what he described as “exceptional execution”.
“We saw excellent performance across all of our key performance metrics despite challenging macroeconomic conditions including a second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA in the US,” said Koerl.
Koerl also highlighted Sportradar’s relationships and harnessing of new technological capabilities as key to the company’s success in the year ahead.
“Our continued long-term partnerships with leading global sports bodies, and innovation across new technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer vision and as important, a team passionate about delivering solutions to our clients, make us very excited about our growth in 2023 and beyond.”
Increased costs drive reduced profit
Despite the continued revenue and EBITDA growth, Sportradar’s profits fell 18.0% from €12.8m to €10.5m from 2021 to 2022. Additionally, the company actually made a loss of €33m in the three-month period ending 31 December.
This is due to rises in a number of key costs of the 12-month period.
The businesses purchased licences and services costs rose 47.4% between the years, to €176.0m compared to €119.4m the previous year. Sportradar said the increase was driven by “continuous investments in content creation, greater event coverage and higher scouting costs.”
Personnel costs also saw large growth during the period, rising 44.7% year-on-year from €183.8m to €266.0m. The quarterly rise was even more dramatic, rising 72% to €81.0 compared to the €34.0m the company announced in the three-month period ending 31 December.
The data company said that this was due to a €9.0m in acquisition costs, a one-time cost of €5.0m due to management restructuring as well increased headcount associated with “investments in AI and Computer Vision.”
Sportradar also reported 42.8% year-on-year increases in its depreciation and amortisation costs, which increased to €184.8m from the €129.4m the business announced the previous year.
Fourth quarter
Revenue for the three-month period ending 31 December stood at €206.3m, an increase of 35%.
The company’s rest of world segment grew year-on-year by 29% to €105.9m for the three-month period, accounting for 51% of total revenues.
According to Sportradar, this was driven by strong performance from the businesses managed betting services division, in which trading volume grew 75% year-on-year.
Sportradar said that this was the result of a strong Fifa World Cup performance.
The US segment also saw significant growth during the quarter, with revenues rising 77% year-on-year to €41.2m year-on-year.
“Our fourth quarter financial results illustrate the momentum we’ve built throughout 2022,” said interim CFO Ulrich Harmuth. “We demonstrated operational leverage in our business model, despite making significant investments in our products and technology, streamlined our organisation to be more customer-centric, and strengthened our balance sheet by repaying our debt.
“Our 2023 guidance of revenue growth and margin expansion reflects the investments we have made to date and the growing global sports market opportunity.”
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