FanDuel and Sportradar Agree to Stream Bundesliga Soccer on FanDuel’s Betting App for Live Betting

With outlets all over the media landscape looking for live sporting events, the sports data company Sportradar and FanDuel have teamed up to offer live streaming of Bundesliga soccer and international tennis.

Sportradar can show these events because they own rights to televise a large group of international tennis tournaments as well as select European soccer matches including Bundesliga, Germany’s top soccer league.

The sports data company plans to launch live streaming of sporting events with FanDuel’s help while gambling odds surround the screen, making it one of the most significant marriages of live sports and wagering in the United States market to date.

FanDuel will accommodate the Sportradar feed directly into their online interface, giving bettors instant data, including lines of other sporting events.

The partnership will also allow FanDuel to host live lines of the match on the website as it happens during the stream allowing for instant betting.

Other bookmakers will be paying close attention because FanDuel will not own an exclusivity for the programming.

This means that Sportradar can team up with other sportsbooks to showcase their programming.

FanDuel’s general manager, Niall Connell, believes the live aspect of watching and betting in unison will drive American bettors to their website.

“If you’re betting on something, you tend to want to watch the outcome of it,” Connell said.

“It’d be a bit like betting on a horse race but not being able to see the actual race at all,” he continued.

“Plus, a lot of this tennis content is matches that aren’t on terrestrial T.V.”

Why is This Partnership Such A Big Deal for the United States?

Although Europe has had live streaming and betting for several years, the FanDuel and Sportradar partnership signal the first such agreement on U.S. soil.

Gamblers in the United States have not been allowed to watch an event live while on their betting app.

While there is excitement around the move, growth that could include bigger American leagues, like MLB, NFL, and NBA, will be stunted as large network conglomerates own television rights to those leagues.

The monopoly of America’s big networks certainly reduces the shine of the announcement, as Sportradar is rolling out German soccer and international tennis.

These are two sports that Americans have not shone much of an appetite to bet.

The two companies hope the partnership changes the way the sports are viewed in the U.S.

“We are really excited to bring live streaming to the U.S. market with FanDuel,” said Neale Deeley, Sportradar’s vice president of U.S. sales and gaming.

“We have been longstanding partners of both FanDuel and parent company PaddyPower Betfair across a wide range of betting and fantasy services,” Deeley continued.

“We’re proud to be an ongoing part of their U.S. expansion plans.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Major League Baseball agreeing to show 13 games on YouTube and the NFL coming to terms with Twitter for more live streaming of football games in the fall.

Although neither of those deals involves a direct betting element, it is easy to see how a sportsbook like FanDuel or DraftKings may be able to partner with an online giant, much like the FanDuel/Sportradar partnership, for on-demand betting of bigger leagues soon.