Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl bought more than $3.3 million in company stock last week, according to a Form 4 filed Monday.
The open-market purchases come after Koerl told analysts he would buy $10 million worth of shares on last week’s first-quarter earnings call. Sportradar’s stock dropped sharply in late April after two short sellers published allegations that as much as 40% of the company’s revenue may come from unregulated markets.
“I believe the company’s current valuation does not reflect the strength of our business and our long-term prospects, and I am confident in the path we are on,” Koerl said. “Accordingly, I intend to personally purchase $10 million worth of shares in Sportradar when our trading window opens.”
Sportradar stock opens up on Koerl buy
Sportradar opened Tuesday at $13.50, up 3.7% from Monday’s close following Koerl’s purchase, which was announced after the market closed Monday. The stock eventually closed at $13.43 but continued to rise after hours.
Six Sportradar directors also bought shares last week, with those purchases disclosed before the market opened Monday morning. The stock rallied in premarket trading on the buys but eventually closed down on the day.
Those director purchases were led by Director Marc Walder, who purchased 66,000 shares.
Koerl purchase details
Koerl made multiple purchases totaling 254,100 shares between Thursday and Friday.
He bought 111,100 shares on Thursday at an average price of $13.06. He then bought another 143,000 shares at an average price of $13.23 on Friday.
Koerl now owns 2.278 million shares, a figure that will keep growing as he spends the remaining $6.7 million.
Company denies allegations
The sports data supplier does not serve illegal operators, the company said in a statement. It also does not supply anyone known to be involved in illegal operations.
“Sportradar does not tolerate illegal operations or engagement with operators that are known sources of illegal activities, including criminal misconduct,” reads the statement. “Sportradar thus employs proactive measures to continuously assess risk, irrespective of licensing jurisdiction, to support the business. The team is further overseen by dedicated legal, compliance and risk personnel.”
There are also times where feeds are pirated, which Sportradar actively fights against.
“Sports data is a heavily pirated digital product across the globe,” reads the statement. “Operators – particularly unlicensed ones – routinely, acquire feeds nefariously, reverse-engineer visible client identifiers, and pass that content off as their own.
“Sportradar actively invests in IP-protection, anti-piracy monitoring and enforcement, and continuously audits the internet to detect breaches and unauthorized usage of data. As soon as a potential breach is detected, action is taken.”
