Carsten Koerl took control of Sportradar in 2001 and still runs it as CEO today. He built the company into the data engine behind sports betting in the US. It supplies official stats to leagues like the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Forbes lists his net worth near $1.3 billion, and Sportradar just closed a $225 million rights deal with IMG Arena.
Who Is Carsten Koerl?
Carsten Koerl didn’t start Sportradar from a blank page. Two Norwegian entrepreneurs, Petter Fornæss and Tore Steinkjer, built the original software in 2001 under the name Market Monitor AS. Their tool scraped betting odds from sportsbooks across the internet.
Koerl bought a 51% controlling stake in the young company that same year and became its CEO. He later moved the headquarters to St. Gallen, Switzerland, and rebuilt the business around licensed, real-time sports data instead of scraped odds. Sportradar’s own materials credit him simply as founder. The fuller record shows he acquired and transformed an existing startup.
He trained as an engineer, not a bookmaker. Koerl holds a master’s degree in electronic and microprocessor engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany. That technical background shaped how he rebuilt Sportradar’s data infrastructure.
Today, Sportradar works with more than 1,700 clients across 120 countries. It serves as the official data partner for the NBA, NHL, MLB, FIFA, and UEFA, among others. For US bettors, live odds and stats in apps like DraftKings and FanDuel trace back to Koerl’s company. Not every league still uses Sportradar’s data, though (more on that below).
Carsten Koerl’s Career Timeline: From bwin to Sportradar
Carsten Koerl’s career in sports data started before Sportradar existed. He founded the online betting company betandwin, known as bwin, in 1997.. He took bwin public on the Vienna Stock Exchange in 2000, then exited the company to start something new.
That new venture became Sportradar. Carsten Koerl bought a controlling stake in Market Monitor AS, the Norwegian sports-data startup that would become Sportradar. He rebuilt it around data integrity and real-time statistics.
The table below traces the key milestones.
| Year | Milestone |
| 1997 | Founds betandwin (bwin), an online betting company |
| 2000 | Takes bwin public on the Vienna Stock Exchange |
| 2001 | Buys a controlling stake in Market Monitor AS (later renamed Sportradar), founded that year in Trondheim, Norway by Petter Fornæss and Tore Steinkjer |
| 2012 | Sportradar merges with Kilka; EQT invests in the company |
| 2021 | Leads Sportradar’s Nasdaq IPO, valuing the company near $7.4 billion |
| 2022 | Named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Switzerland |
| 2025 | Closes Sportradar’s acquisition of IMG Arena’s global rights portfolio |
| 2026 | Sportradar appoints Sameer Deen as its first Chief Operating Officer |
Sportradar’s 2021 Nasdaq listing turned Koerl’s stake into a fortune almost overnight. Forbes estimated his 31.8% share was worth at least $2.3 billion the week trading began.
How Carsten Koerl’s Sportradar Powers US Sports Betting
Sportradar doesn’t run a sportsbook. Instead, it supplies the official data and streaming feeds that sportsbooks, leagues, and broadcasters build their products on. That distinction matters for anyone trying to understand why the company shows up so often in sports betting news.
The company holds data partnerships with most major US leagues, but not all of them. Illinois and Tennessee currently require sportsbooks to use official league data for settling live in-game bets. That gives whichever company holds those rights real leverage in those markets.
For Carsten Koerl, these partnerships are central to Sportradar’s US strategy. The company can monetize official data, streaming, and integrity services across multiple sports.
| League | Partnership type | US market relevance |
| NBA | Non-exclusive official betting data | Shared with Genius Sports since 2018; the NBA also holds an equity stake in Sportradar |
| NFL | No current partnership | Genius Sports won exclusive NFL data rights in a 2021 bidding war and has since extended that deal through the 2029 season |
| MLB | Exclusive global data, AV content, and integrity services through 2032 | MLB holds an equity stake in Sportradar as part of the 2025 renewal |
| NHL | Exclusive betting data, streaming, and integrity partner | 10-year deal signed in 2021, running through roughly 2031 |
Sportradar held the NFL’s data rights from 2015 to 2021, when the league picked Genius Sports instead. Sportradar’s own leadership called the winning bid economically “irrational” at the time. Since then, the company has focused its US growth on the leagues it still holds.
Because most of these contracts are confidential, exact dollar figures rarely become public.
Carsten Koerl, the IMG Arena Deal and What’s Next
In November 2025, Sportradar closed its acquisition of IMG Arena’s global sports betting rights portfolio. It bought the portfolio from Endeavor Group Holdings and OB Global Holdings. The deal added relationships with more than 70 rights holders and roughly 38,000 data events a year.
Structurally, the deal favored Sportradar. Instead of paying cash, the company received $225 million in financial consideration. That sum split between an upfront payment and prepayments made to rights holders.
The acquisition also pulled marquee tennis events like Wimbledon and Roland-Garros into Sportradar’s portfolio.
Koerl called the deal a milestone for the company’s growth strategy. With IMG Arena folded in, Sportradar covers more than 1 million sports matches a year. That spans 14 sports across six continents. For Carsten Koerl, the IMG Arena acquisition expands Sportradar’s reach across sports, rights holders, and live betting markets.
Carsten Koerl Net Worth
As of August 24, 2026, Forbes put Carsten Koerl’s net worth at roughly $1.3 billion. That ranks Carsten Koerl among the world’s billionaires. Forbes updates this figure daily, so it changes with Sportradar’s stock price.
His wealth comes almost entirely from his Sportradar shareholding, which sits around 27% of the company. At the 2021 IPO, his 31.8% stake was valued above $2 billion. That stake has since diluted to roughly 27%, as Sportradar issued shares to partners like MLB for rights deals.
Some insider-trading trackers that rely only on SEC Form 4 filings show a much smaller figure, sometimes under $40 million. That’s not a contradiction. Form 4 filings capture only certain registered share transactions, not his full ownership held through trusts and holding entities.
Forbes and other net-worth trackers report the fuller figure against Sportradar’s market capitalization instead. Koerl lives in Zurich, Switzerland, and holds German citizenship. He is divorced with three children, and Forbes lists his age at 61 as of 2026.
The Bottom Line on Carsten Koerl
Carsten Koerl has spent nearly three decades building the infrastructure behind modern sports betting, first with bwin, then with Sportradar. His company’s fingerprints show up in nearly every legal sportsbook operating in the US today. Watch how he integrates the IMG Arena rights and handles Sportradar’s next move into live betting data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Carsten Koerl?
Carsten Koerl is a German entrepreneur who took control of Sportradar in 2001 and still serves as its CEO. He previously founded betandwin (bwin) in 1997 and took it public on the Vienna Stock Exchange before turning to Sportradar.
How much is Carsten Koerl worth?
Forbes put his net worth at roughly $1.3 billion as of August 24, 2026, based mainly on his Sportradar shareholding. Forbes updates this figure daily, so it changes with Sportradar’s share price.
What does Sportradar actually do?
Sportradar collects live sports data and distributes it to sportsbooks, media companies, and leagues. Sportradar holds official data partnerships with the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Meanwhile, it supplies the stats that power in-game betting odds across the US. However, it lost the NFL’s data rights to rival Genius Sports in 2021..
What was the IMG Arena acquisition?
Sportradar closed its acquisition of IMG Arena’s global sports betting rights portfolio in November 2025. The deal added more than 70 rights holder relationships and brought events like Wimbledon and Roland-Garros into Sportradar’s coverage.
Is Carsten Koerl still involved in Sportradar day to day?
Yes. Koerl remains Sportradar’s Chief Executive Officer and its largest individual shareholder. He continues to lead the company’s acquisitions and league partnerships.