Mr, Mikael Santelli, VP Rights & Revenue Protection – Sportradar
How the world’s leading sports technology company leverages AI, global partnerships, and evolving strategies in the global fight against sports piracy and data theft
In today’s world of sports, now easily accessible online, where every pass, goal, and game stats is shared instantly on the web, the risk of piracy and data misuse is higher than ever. Leading the charge to protect the integrity of sports content is Sportradar, the world’s leading sports technology company trusted by major sports leagues like the NBA, UEFA, MLB, and ATP.
Founded in 2001 and located in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Sportradar has grown into the world’s leading provider of sports data intelligence and digital content solutions. It offers a wide range of services across sports betting, media, integrity, and anti-piracy, including real-time data collection, live match tracking, audio-visual content protection, betting fraud detection, and rights enforcement. By combining advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and forensic watermarking with strategic partnerships, the company helps rights holders and sports organizations around the world protect their valuable content and uphold the integrity of the game.
We have the opportunity to sat down and interview Mr. Mikael Santelli, VP, Rights & Revenue Protection at Sportradar, to share with us how the company uses its cutting-edge innovations, how they handle global partnerships, and the brands very own evolving AI tools to tackle digital threats head-on. Santelli also reveals valuable insights on how Sportradar is redefining content protection in a constantly shifting online ecosystem.
Here’s what he had to say.
Megabites.com.ph: Can you briefly explain what Sportradar is and what the company does?
Mikael Santelli: Sportradar is a global leader in the collection and distribution of sports data and content. We operate across various sectors of the sports ecosystem including sports betting, media, and broadcasting. We partner with sports federations and rights holders around the world to gather, manage, and redistribute data in a secure and efficient way.
We work with some of the biggest names in sports globally. Beyond the commercial aspect of our business, we place a strong emphasis on integrity. It’s crucial for us to ensure that the data we handle and share with our partners is not only accurate and valuable but also secure and protected. Our commitment to integrity helps safeguard the reputation of both our partners and the wider sports industry.
Image sourced from the Sportradar website
Megabites.com.ph: What services, technologies, or tools does Sportradar provide/use to detect and prevent rights misuse across digital platforms?
Santelli: Yes, absolutely. It’s a phrase that gets used quite often, but I genuinely believe it’s something we do exceptionally well. At Sportradar, we use cutting-edge technologies and continuously explore the latest advancements in AI whether it’s implementation, integration, or ongoing development. We stay at the forefront of combating rights misuse.
Specifically, when it comes to detecting misuse and rights violations, we employ a range of tools and techniques. Some are more traditional, such as watermarking and fingerprint analysis, but we also utilize advanced AI-driven solutions. These include anomaly detection systems and keyword recognition to help identify unauthorized use or distribution across networks.
Our fingerprinting technology is applied at a broader scale, helping us track and verify content more effectively across various platforms. All of this is part of our commitment to protecting the digital rights of our partners and ensuring their content is used appropriately.
Image sourced from the Sportradar website
Megabites.com.ph: How does Sportradar work with leagues like the NBA, MLB, ATP, and UEFA to protect their media and data rights? (How Sportradar applies those tools in actual partnerships)
Santelli: The way we apply our tools and services really varies depending on the partner. You could say we take a bespoke or tailored approach with every rights holder we work with, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That approach wouldn’t be effective given the unique needs and challenges of each organization.
It also depends on the specific sport and region. What might work for basketball in one country might not be relevant for basketball in another. So, we invest time in understanding our partners in how they operate, what their challenges are, and what kind of protection they need.
From there, we provide a range of tools such as forensic watermarking, Digital Rights Management (DRM), and tailored implementation strategies. Our goal is to ensure end-to-end monitoring…so from the moment content is created to when it’s redistributed in the market, we can observe and verify that it follows an authorized distribution path.
That’s essentially how we support organizations like the NBA, ATP, UEFA, and others. Each partnership is unique because each sport and jurisdiction comes with its own set of requirements and threats.
Image sourced from the TVK League website
Megabites.com.ph: Can you share a recent example or success story where Sportradar helped a league or federation combat unauthorized use?
Santelli: I’ll share one good example we’ve experienced. We’ve built a strong, long-standing partnership with the Korea Professional Men’s Football League or also known as the K League. One of the key areas we’ve been working on together is combating piracy, particularly from a broadcast perspective with both nationally and regionally. We started by deeply understanding the specific piracy issues they were facing.
From there, we deployed our technological tools to identify, monitor, and ultimately disrupt unauthorized use. This includes detection technologies that allow us to track and package evidence, followed by action in close collaboration with the league. It’s important to note that we never act alone. We work closely with rights holders like the K League to ensure everything is coordinated and effective.
As a result of this joint effort, we’ve seen a significant impact. Over the past couple of years, we’ve observed a 48% reduction in piracy activity in the monitored regions. That’s a clear sign that the combination of technology and strong partnership really does work. It’s been a very encouraging outcome for both us and the K League.
Megabites.com.ph: What are the biggest threats today when it comes to the unauthorized use of audio-visual content and official sports data?
Aside from the general proliferation of sports piracy which, across the whole industry, I think everyone in sports recognizes it to be a major challenge, not only is it difficult to identify and tackle, but it’s also a growing threat due to the use of new technologies. These technologies not only help us develop ways to detect and disrupt illicit activity, but they also embolden piracy providers and entities. As you can imagine, much of this activity doesn’t happen in plain sight. It has to stay hidden, because the people behind it know that what they’re doing is illegal, illicit, or otherwise problematic and that it comes with serious consequences.
They often operate under the table or in the dark corners of the digital space. So as a result, they’re frequently at the forefront of utilizing new technologies. One of the biggest challenges, not just for Sportradar, but for the entire industry. Is ensuring that when we tackle this problem, we also adopt and leverage these technologies. In a way, you have to think like the criminals to catch the criminals.
It’s about making sure there are no open goals, situations where a new technology is released and bad actors immediately take advantage of it, while we stick to a tried-and-tested method. So, we must stick with this and be flexible, staying open to adopting new technologies, and recognizing that this is a constant process. You can never sit back, relax, and think the job is done, because it never really is.
Megabites.com.ph: With the emergence of AI and considering that Sportradar is also leveraging AI technologies, is it possible to use AI to detect and combat threats that are also AI-driven?
Santelli: AI detecting an AI…interesting thought! It really depends on how sophisticated the AI in question is. If an AI is mimicking human activity closely enough, it might appear to us as legitimate human behavior or intelligence. In that case, it becomes difficult to distinguish between what’s artificial and what’s real.
It really depends on the sophistication of the actors using the technology and of our own technologies, too. Something that may not be detectable today could very well become identifiable tomorrow. That’s the nature of this, we are always evolving. So yes, it’s something we’re constantly working on and whether the threat is AI-driven or human-led, I’m not sure that distinction is always the most important.
If it’s piracy, it’s piracy. As long as we can trace it back to the source and disrupt it effectively, that’s what truly matters, not necessarily whether it was created or executed by a human or an AI.
Megabites.com.ph: What trends are you seeing in how piracy and data theft are evolving in the sports industry?
Santelli: As we’ve just discussed, I think it’s the adoption of these new technologies.
Piracy actors are very good at understanding jurisdictional limitations where they can’t access certain markets. So, the fusion of tools like VPNs and artificial intelligence is now forming what you might call the new frontier of sports piracy. It’s shifting borders and becoming truly transnational, and that trend is only going to continue in that space.
Gone are the days when piracy was grounded in one specific jurisdiction, when we could say, “This activity is taking place in Country X.” What we’re now seeing across the industry is a truly global phenomenon, with operations, servers, and even CDN (Content Delivery Network) systems based in places like the Netherlands, Brazil, India, and many others.
Megabites.com.ph: How do you see Sportradar’s role evolving in the next five years as digital threats become more sophisticated?
Santelli: And again, I think we don’t want to overuse the word AI, unfortunately. But, I think it’s a continuation of adopting and maintaining our market primacy within this space, at the forefront of technological developments, right? So with each new development and iteration of artificial intelligence, and new technologies that spin off from this, we need to make sure we’re at the forefront of understanding them.
What they are, how we can utilize them from an investigative perspective, from understanding, as you could say, the abuses in the piracy space or the content space. And, as the whole landscape shifts, we have to understand new and various frontiers. For example, Web3 was a big thing a while ago, right? How does that look in a couple of years’ time? Will we have new platforms where information is shared more widely? Will we move from social media as it currently stands to a completely new environment? And we have to make sure that, we’re in that space.
To promote our services as a company more widely, but also to understand how that can be abused and working closely with the leaders in this space, such as Googles of now and the future to ensure we have strong partnerships to collaborate with them to disrupt and remove illicit content.
So, what we’d like to see over the next five years alongside technological advancements is greater collaboration between rights holders, governments, companies like ourselves, as well as social media platforms that can enforce legislation to make it harder for pirates to operate. The only way we can truly combat piracy is through a collaborative effort and alignment among all key stakeholders. Without that, it’s like playing Whack-A-Mole that’s dealing with one issue at a time. But if we all work together, we can hit at the same time and be far more effective.
I think that’s what we can expect within the next five years with more collaboration and more technological advancement from us at Sportradar.
Protecting Sports from Match-Fixing in 2024
Sports Integrity 2024 Report by Sportradar
In 2024, Sportradar continues to lead the global fight against match-fixing with its powerful mix of technology, data, and teamwork. In the company’s latest Integrity in Action report, they revealed that out of over 850,000 monitored matches across 70 sports, only 1,108 were flagged as suspicious, showing a 17% drop compared to the previous year. That’s good news for fans and athletes alike.
Soccer remains the most affected sport, followed by basketball, but strong progress is being made, especially in Europe. A big part of this success comes from Sportradar’s use of Artificial Intelligence. Their UFDS system now uses AI to monitor four sports: tennis, table tennis, volleyball, and handball catching 93% of suspicious activity in these areas.
But it’s not just about tech, Sportradar also focuses on education and prevention. In 2024, their Integrity Education programs reached over 27,000 people, including athletes, coaches, and officials. They also work closely with betting companies through their Integrity Exchange, which helped identify 291 suspicious matches thanks to shared data.
On top of that, Sportradar supported major events like UEFA EURO 2024, the Paris Olympics, and Copa América with live monitoring and expert analysis to keep games fair and clean. With more than 100 sporting sanctions handed out this year and stronger global cooperation in place, Sportradar is showing that it’s possible to stay one step ahead in the fight to protect the integrity of sport.
For more information about the company, visit https://sportradar.com/
You can view Sportradar’s Integrity Services’ report thru this link:
https://sportradar.com/content-hub/report/integrity-in-action-2024-global-analysis-and-trends/
