Sportradar and its AI-powered GameFrame will transform live NBA player data into on-air graphics for NBC‘s regional sports networks.
The deal, announced Monday, begins this season and runs through the 2026-27 NBA season, supporting hundreds of NBA games across those regional sports networks.
“As NBC continues to evolve how it serves fans across platforms, Sportradar is helping deliver the data-driven tools that bring greater clarity and context to live games, creating more engaging NBA viewing experiences for fans,” said Brian Josephs, Sportradar’s VP of the Americas.
NBA the outlier for US sports
Among major U.S. leagues, the NBA is much less conducive to live betting compared with football and baseball, Sportradar Senior VP of Fan Engagement Patrick Mostboeck told LSR.
GameFrame aims to bridge that gap through real-time visualizations layered into the live betting experience, he said.
Right now, live betting sits at around 50% of all handle in the United States, behind the 70%-75% typically seen internationally.
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming in a recent EKG Line newsletter called out DraftKings as the live betting leader so far with 86% uptime according to Bettormetrics. More uptime equals not just more time to make bets but a better user experience, leading to higher engagement and retention.
When could US catch up?
Mostboeck said it is hard to pin down when U.S. bettors will start to live bet at the same clip as international audiences, calling it a “crystal ball exercise” to try to guess.
That said, if the same growth from 2025 continues into this year and beyond, the market is probably just a year or two away from hitting that ~70% range, Mostboeck said.
The international market benefits from a much larger tennis audience than in the United States, but there are some strong U.S. players coming up in the ranks that could make a difference, he added.
