Sportradar expands partnership with MLB for virtual baseball

Wednesday 5th of February 2020

Sportradar today announced an expansion of its existing partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB), launching a brand new virtual baseball in-play offering for licensed gaming operators in the US and across the world.

The virtual baseball in-play game is the first Sportradar virtual gaming solution developed in association with a major US sports league. Featuring official MLB team names and logos, this game gives fans yet another way to engage with Major League Baseball and allows licensed gaming operators to add extra value to their offering, combining fast-paced betting for mobile and online users, with longer betting cycles for retail. This new virtual baseball offering is based upon historical data and can be accessed all year long.

As with all of Sportradar’s virtual sports products, this product has been built for betting, ensuring the experience is as close to real-life as possible. As part of the collaboration, the product uses actual MLB data to simulate live gameplay. For the visuals, over 1,300 individual motions were captured using a combination of cutting-edge motion capture technology, and software developed specifically to add to the real-life look and feel of the game.

“We are very excited to work with Major League Baseball in bringing a virtual baseball gaming solution to the market,” said David Lampitt, Managing Director, Sports Partnerships at Sportradar. “Leveraging MLB’s official content, we are confident that we have an enticing product that consumers will love and that bookmakers will benefit from. As with all of our virtual sports offerings, our aim was to bring the most realistic look, feel, and betting experience to the market.”

Sportradar’s Virtual Gaming Solutions were first established in 2010. Utilized by over 180 bookmakers worldwide, the portfolio now includes Virtual Basketball, Virtual Tennis In-Play as well as soccer, horse and dog racing. All products use a combination of cutting-edge innovation, including Motion Capture, as well as Sportradar’s comprehensive pool of sports and betting data to create the most realistic virtual sports offering possible.

"We are pleased that our partnership with Sportradar has resulted in the development of this new virtual baseball offering,” said Kenny Gersh, MLB Executive Vice President, Gaming and New Business Ventures. “One of the reasons we partnered with Sportradar was to develop new, engaging products for our fans leveraging the power of MLB’s best-in-class content. This first-of-its-kind virtual offering does just that, and we are excited to bring fans this new entertainment option.”