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Sportradar used its Q1 earnings call to answer short seller claims about unlicensed operator revenue, after two reports sent shares down sharply last week.
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CEO Carsten Koerl gave analysts a clearer number after Callisto Research and Muddy Waters questioned the revenue Sportradar receives from unlicensed operators.
“We do not work with black market operators,” Koerl stated on the post-Q1 earnings call. “For the grey market, we have a solid compliance structure in place,and we only work with licensed operators.
“Overall, it’s [between] 5% to 12%, 13%. That’s the range which we have, and we are drilling this down from our operational business.”
Callisto Research had claimed that a former senior Sportradar employee placed unlicensed operator revenue at 30% to 40%. Its report also estimated the number of unlicensed platforms could top 270. Muddy Waters separately alleged that a Sportradar sales employee said the company “serves everyone” during ICE Barcelona 2026, where investigators said they were asking about Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and China.
Sportradar shares fell 22.6% by close on Wednesday after the reports. Koerl rejected the claims on LinkedIn the next day, calling them “false, misleading and defamatory.”
He repeated that position on the earnings call.
“To be clear, Sportradar and I reject the unfounded and misinformed allegations contained in the reports,” Koerl said. “For 25 years, Sportradar has maintained regulatory licenses in jurisdictions around the world.
“Unfortunately, these actors strive on misinformation and repackaging historical allegations to drive down company stock prices at the expense of long-term focused investors.”
Koerl said leagues, clients, partners, commissioners, and regulators had contacted the company since the reports came out.
“I get a lot of support from all sites, our partners, our clients, the industry, some commissioners. And from a regulator perspective, we are in contact with some regulators on a very frequent basis.
“Some of them contacted our teams, they explained to them the situation and that’s an ongoing process. Overall, the response was overwhelming for me that I got so much support and feedback on the allegations.”
Koerl also addressed a Muddy Waters claim involving Yabo Group, described in the report as China largest illegal operator. He said investigators targeted a junior sales employee at ICE, where Sportradar held around 4,000 meetings.
He said any sales discussion only begins a much longer review.
“When a sales guy is selling something, there is a kickoff of a very intensive KYC process,” Koerl said. “That has the identification, the verification, the licence verification against the regulator, the verification of a corporate filing and the register, which is in there. Then finally, running this through sanction lists from all the available markets where we are acting. And then it goes to a final review of our legal counsel before a contract is signed.
“So this is far off from signing a contract, and this was a purposeful sting campaign on a relatively young sales employee at ICE.
“[There’s] no excuse on this, [it] should not happen, but this was far off from signing a contract or teasing somebody into doing business in illegal markets.”
Away from the dispute, Sportradar reported 11% Q1 revenue growth to €347 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to €66 million, while the company recorded a €6 million loss.
Sportradar also named Sameer Deen as COO from 18 May. Deen joins from Entain, where he served as group COO and president since December 2023. Koerl said Deen will be “instrumental” in commercial work and operational improvement.
Koerl said:
“We will continue to drive innovation across our business, uphold the highest levels of integrity and transparency while delivering increasing value to our clients, our partners and our shareholders.
“The underlying fundamentals of the business remain strong, and we are confident in our growth strategy and the opportunities ahead.”