Altenar attacks Sportradar in court over sports data access

Altenar has filed a lawsuit in New Jersey targeting sports tech rival Sportradar over an inability to break into the market in the United States due to what the former describes as data access restrictions created by the defendant. The complaint was filed on Tuesday, March 31, with the District Court of New Jersey.

According to the lawsuit by Altenar, Sportradar’s partnerships with US leagues, such as the NBA, NHL, and MLB, allow the platform to offer its product while others, such as Altenar, cannot, the complaint argues. Sportradar has not commented extensively on the case, but has said that it has disagreed with the accusations levelled against it, and ensures that it will take the necessary procedural steps to address the legal challenge. Altenar and Sportradar were previously partners, but Sportradar has secured rights to league data in the wake of the PASPA 2018repeal, leading to its entrenchement in the market, Altenar suggests. Sportradar, Altenar says, promised to grant access to US data in the wake of PASPA’s overturning through a separate agreement that does not cover data for other leagues across the rest of the world, but such an agreement has never been put in place.

This, Altenar now says in its lawsuit, is an essential input that prevents it from offering its services locally in the United States. Altenar insists that it has no access to Sportradar data even though the company has itself invested heavily in the necessary infrastructure to support a US rollout. Altenar, however, cannot move forward as it cannot secure the data that operators would need in order to demonstrate to potential clients that it can deliver the product they are paying for, the company further claims. Altenar also insists that Sportradar controls a significant portion of the value chain and could be favoring its own operations in an unfair way. There is no commercial justification behind denying Altenar access to data, the company said, other than to help safeguard Sportradar’s flagship position in the market.