How Data Turns Live Games Into Stories with Mark Holland, SVP Media Products at Sportradar

Five Pillars Behind Modern Viewing

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 0:00

According to a new report out by SportRadar, there are five definable pillars powering the modern and next generation of sports viewing. What are they? Find out today with Mark Holland, SVP of Media Solutions at SportRadar, as we unpack what they found in their report for you as a fan, as a buyer, rights or platform specialist, or anyone just interested in learning more about sports advertising trends. Enjoy. Last time we caught up with Brian Joseph's and we learned a lot about what sport radar is doing on the tech side, but you've got a new sport media report out that's got some pretty interesting insights. I'd like to talk about that today. So welcome to the show. Thank you, Tim. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to have you. Tell us about what's in the report. I think that the number one standout thing to me is fans are fans wherever they consume. It's not just the game, it's not just one app. What's inside of this report?

Data That Adds Meaning Live

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 1:00

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, this report covers a lot of different avenues, but you know, it really looks at you know the sports media production and just that consumption experience and how it's becoming just far more flexible, interactive, and personalized. And it really cater to how that modern fan is is evolving their behavior and how that content consumption is changing. The report covers you know a lot of different areas of that from like emotional storytelling, right? Like getting into the heroes, the rivalries, the milestones that you see in any given event, how experiences are starting to become more personalized and how that's you know becoming more available right across all the various platforms, how data is a big part of this. You know, data is enabling that storytelling and enabling that interactivity for the fan. And ultimately how, you know, companies like ours, the sport radar can help scale, you know, these types of experiences, enable these companies to, you know, to create these new experiences across all the different platforms.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 1:56

It's interesting to think about, to think about data, right? It's you know, sometimes we talk about data, data or data. Uh I think that's a debate we could have a separate conversation on, but we think of it and it sounds kind of sterile either way, right? It's this thing. What do I do with this thing? It's an amorphous blob until I make it into something, until I tell a story with it, until I bring the fan into this thing that goes beyond the game. Can you maybe give us a some examples of how does that show up? What does that look like? Emotional storytelling. We get the we get the action on the field or on the court, but what does that mean in practice? How are your partners using it?

Foresight Probabilities Change The Broadcast

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 2:36

Yeah, I mean, data is used in a lot of different ways. Everything from your base core experience to just, you know, a box score, right? Like what was the score of given event that I'm looking for? But as you're watching an event in a live broadcast on a stream or or even within highlights, data really helps provide context and meaning for what's going on. It kind of helps capture and understand a moment in time, right? It's like, well, sure, that was just a an individual hit, you know, in an MLB game, but it just happened to be, you know, maybe a career milestone, or that individual moved up in a leaderboard. You know, the simple things like that help you connect to those moments and to that game. And we're just seeing a lot more of that across, you know, to all sports experiences today, be it digital or you know, on streaming and in the linear broadcast as well. You know, we've got a couple of products uh recently, uh, one of them's called Foresight that allows sort of real-time probabilities and performance metrics are appearing on the screen as you're watching it. And it really kind of gets you involved in in interacting, you know, within the actual broadcast itself. But it but again, it gives you that context and meaning of like, was that a really you know challenging shot, you know, that that this player was about to make, or should they have passed you know over to that direction? What would have happened in those particular outcomes? And you're just seeing a lot more of that today. And I think it's allowing fans to you know have much more immersive experiences.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 3:58

I want to talk about the foresight product. My my son had a project for a math class where they got to choose a game. They had to come up with a game that taught other students from different grade levels. My son's in seventh grade, but it went as low as third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, had to create a game that taught each grade level about the math they were studying in class. And my son and and his group, they came up with a game that the students had to answer a question, and based on their answer, they got a number of shots, and based on whether or not they got the answer right and the number of shots they got, it determined the angle that they had to shoot from and the basket that they had to shoot at. And ultimately it ended up being a game of percentages and angles. And it was so fun to show them the podcast that we do with Brian, show him this is how Peacock and the NBA are using the same thing you're doing for your class project, percentages and angles to show probability. They had a leaderboard who made the most shots, the highest percentage made from the different angles. Love that it was a really cool way to tie that back in, but that's a great example of that. That I think, okay, uh, that's how we're taking data, we're changing the fan experience really at that point, beyond just even a call out about a stat. This is changing the way that we consume the sport.

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 5:20

Is that yeah, that's exactly right. That's such a good example. I love hearing that.

GameFrame Visuals And Personalized Feeds

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 5:24

Yeah, he got a hundred on it too, by the way, which I was so proud of as a dad. But that was that was fun to pump him up of like, hey, dude, this is a real business. This is a product, this is this is something that a company is doing. What else? What other ways are are you seeing companies, leagues, networks, streamers? How else are you seeing the product and the data be used?

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 5:47

I think there's there's a number of different ways. We actually have another product called uh game frame, similar to Foresight in a way that it you know allows you to you know tell stories obviously as it's going on. But this is an example of the you know, take your normal shot chart where it's actually virtualizing the individual player and showing the exact movements based on player tracking data of how they took all those shots. So from a storyteller and a broadcaster's you know perspective, it's not just showing the X's and O's on the court and say, you know, he's making them from the left side. Oh, that's cool. It's look at how he made them from the left side and why, you know, like the movements that he's making. And it really gets you, you know, to understand like, wow, that that player really did excel in this particular you know element of the game. And we're just seeing a lot more of that with like the visualizations, but you know, you also see you know, data is used in and just being able to cater to sort of the individual fan and sort of the personalized nature of their experience, right? Like, you know, leveraging technology and AI allows us to interrogate and analyze data so much you know faster and quicker, you know, during a live environment and produce content and produce that context, leveraging the data. And that allows you to start start to cater different different experiences to different fans. And we're starting to see more of that across you know the media landscape. Interrogate the data. I've never heard that before.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 7:07

What do you mean?

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 7:10

You know, it's one thing to say, you know, that that shot was made or that basket was made, but how is it made? What led up to that particular event, what happened after that event, like really diving into and interrogating, you know, all of the elements that's leading up to that that moment or that event to again provide context and meaning of like why was that important or why was that significant, or how you know, maybe it was just a simple pick and roll, but it was different in this, you know, particular way because of either the matchup or the players' movements or things leading up to the individual event.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 7:43

And what are, I guess, and this is again probably another episode entirely to itself, but from idea to execution, and I want to bring it all back to the report, but how does something like that start? Does it start at the league level? Is it identified by a streaming app saying, hey, we want to create this other fan experience to stay competitive with the market? Like where what's driving the innovation, if you will?

Scaling Across Streaming And Broadcast

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 8:09

I think the beauty of it is it's coming from everywhere. And that's what's making the industry move so quickly. It is coming from the leagues. You know, they're they're collecting a lot more data and what they're doing with the player tracking and and just the speed in which we're able to collect and capture data. Companies like ours are innovating and creating these new experiences and visualizations to help, you know, in our our partners and our clients engage fans. And media companies are obviously in touch with the end user, and they're seeing different ways that they can start to you know expand their storytelling ways. So it's really coming from all the different directions. And we're lucky enough where we can kind of sit in the middle of that and work with the clients, work with the leagues, obviously working with the data and knowledge about the fans as well to start to bring some of these experiences to life.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 8:52

I know that one of the big pieces in the report is scalability, which sounds a little bit like stability and being able to make sure that all these things kind of work across a pretty dynamic environment, broadcast, streaming, international, domestic, regional, all of these disparate. Talk to us about that. How does that come together?

Bottlenecks Plus World Cup Tease

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 9:16

Yeah, uh, scalability is obviously key, you know, for it for any individual, you know, broadcaster or anyone who's trying to create an experience to be able to do it across, you know, all these different platforms, right? It's it's not really this one size fits all where like I'm only worried about my website right now, or I'm only worried about the linear broadcast. It's they're creating these ecosystems across all of these different platforms. And when you have an experience, you want it to scale across all of those and you know, to your point, to be stable across all of those. So, you know, the foundational data that we provide, you know, we provide a very easy integration for companies to be able to produce these types of experiences across all the various platforms and things like Foresight or GameFrame, you know, in the same way to be able to enable it so that you know our partners can use those across all the various mediums that they're attempting to create these experiences from, enabling that scale.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 10:05

What are the what are the maybe the the choke points? Where do where do great ideas fall down or or hit snags in the process that don't always materialize? Like, what's the hardest part of bringing some of this to to life?

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 10:20

It's a good question. Say the hardest part time and resources can be a hard part for everyone. Isn't it always it it is? And you know, you you look at you know the broadcasting industry today, and you know, obviously they they're squeezed in a in a variety of different ways, and they're trying to find ways to innovate and and keep fans engaged. And you know, resourcing is is can be always tough there, but it kind of goes back to that scale and leveraging you know companies like like ours to be able to do and create those experiences for them so that they can do more with less.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 10:53

What are what are the things you're most excited about? There's a lot left on the sports calendar still this year. I'm sure Sport Radar is involved with different pieces in different ways. What are you most excited about?

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 11:04

Oh, I mean, the World Cup is coming up uh here in June. So that that's that's a big event real soon. So we're very excited about that. And we've got, you know, just you know, a lot of improvements within our our soccer data and uh across the company and what we're providing around soccer or football, I should say. But you know, we're also very excited, obviously, with the NBA playoffs going on right now, NHL playoffs, the other, you know, getting into the MLB season, and you know, all that's gonna cycle through, and we'll start seeing the fall sports coming at the end of the year as well. And every year brings, you know, new experiences and new opportunities, you know, to start to expanding upon the game. So I think all that together is just really exciting.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 11:41

It is. And we covered some some research. I there's a stat that I know is floating around about the World Cup, equivalent to three Super Bowl-sized audiences a day for a month straight. That's crazy. That is crazy. How can you tease us at all how Spore Radar is going to be involved with the World Cup? Are you able to talk about any of those relationships or partnerships, how we might see it show up?

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 12:06

I don't think I can talk a lot about the relationships or partnerships just yet, but I'd definitely be on the lookout for you know just expanded data sets, expanded capabilities as far as following the matches and you know, things like foresight and things like that uh as you're looking across you know, the viewing experience.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 12:22

Cool. That's the first rule of show business. I think keep them coming back for more, Mark. We'll have to do a follow-up. We've certainly seeded a few here. What we'll do is we'll link to the research. It's going to be right at the top of the show notes so that if you're listening to this, you can download it, grab it.

Mark Holland, SVP Media Products, Sportradar 12:37

It'll all be close by. Mark, thanks so much for making this happen. Tim, thank you so much. It was a it was a great time to be here.

Tim Rowe, Host, State of Streaming Podcast 12:44

Absolutely. And if you found this conversation to be helpful, please share it with a colleague or a client. Start a conversation yourself today. We'll see y'all next time.