Sportradar chief executive Carsten Koerl opens the supplier’s 2023 sustainability report by comparing its efforts to those of an athlete. “[Success] is grounded in committed, diligent and consistent efforts,” he says. “Our ESG programme represents our commitment to making ethical, sustainable and socially responsible choices, consistently.”

Its strategy spans a number of facets, from fostering diversity, equity and inclusion within its workforce to actively engaging with the communities where it operates, as well as complying with global regulations and reducing its carbon footprint.

This all forms a strategy centred around the acronym SPORT. Sustainable, People, Oversight, Respect and Technology-led.

The programme has developed at pace. For example, Sportradar undertook its first company-wide survey to better understand its environmental impact in 2023. This informed its efforts to migrate internal workload to AWS and away from physical data centres, with 85% of workload transferred to the cloud. It aims to increase that to 90%. Lease renewals are now informed by sustainable office developments and ultimately saw 520 employees in the Philippines relocated to more sustainable office space in December last year.

Training reigns supreme

When it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, Sportradar reported a 100% completion rate for its equity and diversity workplace training, supported by four Employee Resource Groups (ERGs); Women in Tech, Sportradar Pride and the Neurodiversity and Multicultural ERGs, both formed in 2023. 

And for a business in which sporting integrity is a key tentpole, complying with the highest possible standards of oversight and governance is a key tenet of its ESG strategy. Again, it boasts 100% completion rates for its modules on its code of conduct and insider trading. That integrity business also provided 2,270 pro bono hours of prevention, detection and investigation support in 2023. 

Technology underpins all of Sportradar’s efforts. Whether that is constantly updating and refreshing its security standards or maintaining the highest possible protocols for data privacy, the supplier applies the same drive to enhance and improve its products and underlying technology to the sustainability strategy.

“These are not corporate obligations,” Koerl writes. “This is a moral imperative that drives us to create lasting value for all stakeholders – our investors, clients, partners, employees and the communities in which we live and work.”

Over the next two weeks iGB will be counting down the ten highest ranked companies in FiNTEL Sustain’s Sustainability Plus rating system. Watch FiNTEL Sustain founders Robert Montgomery and Steven Myers share the rationale for creating a gaming-specific rating system in this exclusive interview.