Athletes Unlimited, Sportradar all-in on women’s sports betting – Insider

Athletes Unlimited has long been betting big on women's sports.

Now, the network of women's sports leagues is all-in.

AU has agreed to terms on a multi-year sports integrity partnernship with Sportradar, an industry leader in sports data collection and analysis. The deal will help Athletes Unlimited further delve into the sports betting market by offering the network's five leagues protection from match fixing and other betting-related corruption.

"Sports betting is an important initiative in the growth of Athletes Unlimited as a sports property," AU Senior Director of Special Projects Nicole Pawlak told Insider. "Having the ability to wager on our games will help us attract new fans and increase engagement across all our leagues."

Athletes Unlimited is no stranger to innovation. The network already reinvented the scoring systems in softball, volleyball, lacrosse, and basketball while bringing each game to the masses.

The leagues' unique athlete-centered model also offers a markedly different product from more traditional professional sports leagues. In each sport Athletes Unlimited offers, players earn points based on both team wins and individual performance. The player leaderboard changes in real-time, and at the end of each week, the top four point earners become the captains of reshuffled squads for the following week's games.

"Athletes Unlimited's innovative model which features our unique scoring system, a leaderboard which changes after virtually every play, drafting new teams every week, and crowning an individual champion of team sports should make it very entertaining for sport bettors at every level," Pawlak said.

Parterning with Sportradar helps ensure AU's leagues will be protected from malfeasance as they attract a wider range of sports betting enthusiasts.

"Sportradar is the global leader when it comes to integrity, education, and technology in the sports betting space," Pawlak added. "And we couldn't be more excited to partner with them as we continue to build our betting platform."

Through the partnership, Sportradar will offer its Universal Fraud Detection System to help AU identify suspicious activity and irregular betting patterns. Additionally, the company will offer educational programs for AU's athletes on match fixing, social media integrity, anti-harrassment, and other topics that help preserve trust in AU's product and better the experience for athletes themselves.

Athletes Unlimited has already ventured into the sports betting space. Softball kicked off the network's sports betting journey in 2020 via Free to Play with DraftKings, then added betting lines with Caesars, DraftKings, and Bet365 the following year. And in its inaugural season which is currently underway AU basketball offers lines with Caesars in Nevada, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Michigan.

Despite Athletes Unlimited's previous forays into the gambling sphere, the network's most recent partnership marks a pivotal expansion of the leagues' sports betting offerings. Sportradar will help the network appeal to a wider array of sportsbooks and brands within the space by ensuring the security of its offerings.

"In less than two years, Athletes Unlimited has worked to build a strong sports betting platform that will create a safe and trusted experience for our fans, players, and staff as well as make our property attractive to top betting sites," Pawlak said. "Our partnership with Sportradar is a major step to help us achieve that goal."

"We both want to change the way the world experiences sport," she added. "And today, we are one day closer to that."

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Athletes Unlimited, Sportradar all-in on women's sports betting - Insider