“We’re fortunate to have smart and highly strategic capital partners from both inside and outside of sports betting”

How would you describe the current stage of ALT Sports Data’s operations and development?

We are in scaling-up mode. We came to market just over three years ago with a unique platform that marries official and exclusive league rights, data, a proprietary trading platform and tech infrastructure, as well as owned media properties and engagement tools, and gaming.

In a short time, we are proud to report that we have established partnerships with Tier 1 operators, including bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, Hard Rock, ESPNbet, Plannatech, and Underdog Fantasy. We also have existing integrations with Openbet, Playtech, Innprojekt, and Abelson, and we are in the process of three other significant integrations with other platform providers and odds providers.

Over this time, we’ve assembled a portfolio of 25 of the world’s most exciting and highly engaged sports properties, securing official, exclusive global data partnerships that span a wide spectrum of sports. Our reach includes motorsports, with Formula 1 at the pinnacle and supported by additional partnerships across premier racing series such as NHRA and SuperMotocross World Championships.

In combat sports, we work with innovative, fast-growing organizations, including Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, Power Slap, and others, redefining the fight landscape. We’ve also established a strong presence in action and alternative sports, through partnerships with iconic events like the X Games, World Surf League, and Professional Bull Riders, alongside other emerging properties capturing global fan attention. This diverse mix of partners allows us to deliver unmatched data solutions that fuel fan engagement and betting activity worldwide.

With each new sport and each new operator, we are rapidly increasing the number of net new customers and crossover customers we are sending to sportsbooks and growing the amount of handle and margin for them.

How significant was raising additional funds in your recent seed funding round? What opportunities does this open up for you?

For an emerging enterprise in such a large and untapped space, capital is the essential fuel that allows us to explore and expand our footprint to exploit the opportunity. We’re fortunate to have smart and highly strategic capital partners from both inside and outside of sports betting. Our recent $5M round was oversubscribed and was led by both Relay Ventures and Eberg Capital, with participation by Motley Fool Ventures and Scrum Ventures, and follow-on investment from existing investors. The value of our investment team partners cannot be overstated.

What this round has allowed us to do is staff up to meet a growing inbound demand from leagues and operators. We intend to raise a subsequent round of capital in the coming twelve months that will significantly expand our capacity and further grow our footprint and impact through investments in our technology infrastructure and our owned media assets, and fan engagement tools.

You recently described ALT Sports Data as “more than a data provider.” Could you elaborate on this and explain where you sense the company fitting within the broader betting ecosystem?

We consider ourselves to be among the next wave of fan engagement acceleration platforms in sports. Part of what we believe makes us unique in the space is rooted in a few key pillars: our Platform, our Portfolio, and our Partnerships. We have taken an aggregated approach to the market and come in as a collaborative partner with the goal of being complementary and additive to the entire industry, vs directly competitive.

With aligned interests baked into both our operator partnerships and our league rights deals, we sit squarely between a $1.7B sports industry clamoring to gain access to legal and live sports betting and a $200B sports betting industry that genuinely needs to drive innovation and attract and retain high-value new customers in differentiated ways. Unlike larger legacy data players in the space, we view the world through the lens of fan engagement and demand generation first, and we leverage data and tech and our league rights and owned media assets to unlock their collective potential.

In your opinion, are bettors’ needs evolving, and is there a noticeable shift toward less mainstream sports?

Our sense is that bettors’ needs are in fact changing, and that these needs track well with the changing needs of sports fans and consumers more generally. They want variety, they want access and deeper connection to a wider variety of sports, and they want unique and authentic engagement experiences.

They also expect personalization, and they expect us to show up and be present on their terms. Be that with bespoke and shareable content and/or fan engagement tech solutions tailored to their individual needs, we need to meet our fans when, where, and how they want us to as this appears to be vital to future success.

Do you also see operators recognizing the need to enrich their offerings with less mainstream sports?

Our journey began with us bringing sports to sports betting that had either never been considered before, or by bringing enhanced offerings for those sports that had been present, but not invested in. The position we find ourselves in today is that we have Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators coming to us and requesting our content. Primarily as a means to tap into the highly engaged and potentially valuable audiences that sportsbooks struggle to access.

Our leagues provide operators with access to new, relevant, differentiated content and the ability to not only acquire, but also to retain, and in some instances even reengage customers who may have churned out at one point. Additionally, of the 200M combined social fans and followers that we bring to operators, roughly 42% represent a net new customer opportunity as they are not interested in Big 4-5 sports, and the others do readily crossover to mainstream sports being offered.

We refer to the opportunity not unlike e-commerce, though we refer to it as Engagement commerce. To the extent that the shelves of a retailer are dominated by only a handful of items, they are vulnerable to direct competition. On the other hand, if even if only one percent of a books’ customers demand surfing, skateboarding, curling, or jai alai and the book does not have it, the customer is likely to choose the book that does.

What role does the NXTbets platform play in your overall operations?

NXTbets.com has become a vital bridge between our sports property partners and the sports betting ecosystem. What began as a compliance-focused solution, ensuring league partners could responsibly and legally direct their fans toward becoming first-time depositors (FTDs) and bettors, has scaled into a key driver of fan engagement and revenue generation.

Today, NXTbets.com operates as a consumer-facing hub, where leagues send their audiences to discover how to responsibly bet on and engage with their sport. This platform not only educates and informs fans but also facilitates geo-specific regulated pathways to partner sportsbooks, enabling leagues to share in the resulting betting revenues.

Beyond its foundational role in attribution, NXTbets.com has evolved into a content and engagement engine, producing tailored insights, educational resources, and entertaining betting-related content focused on the world’s most exciting sports. This approach stimulates betting activity, connects recreational and sharp bettors with personalized sportsbook offers, and reinforces responsible gaming practices… all while expanding the reach and value proposition of our league partnerships.

I’ve already asked about your place in the betting ecosystem, but what about the sports ecosystem? How do you see ALT Sports Data’s role in the world of sports that rarely make the headlines?

This is perhaps the opportunity we are most passionate and excited about. We began with our purpose being to help sports betting address both their needs for a new supply of content as well as their needs for demand gen of new and high-value customers. As our vision continues to expand, rooted in increasing points of proof and traction, we increasingly recognize our unique position and opportunity in sports and sports fandom more broadly.

Leveraging our platform, process, and our partnerships, we see the ability to help bring attention and provide points of active engagement for hundreds of leagues by marrying technology, data, media, and gaming. In doing so, we are helping emerging and currently underrepresented sports leagues to stand on the same stage as major league sports to expand their TAM, deepen engagement, drive revenues, and grow resulting enterprise value. The ultimate byproduct of this is that the athletes, fans, and surrounding communities all benefit from increased visibility and credibility, and by providing a point of access for many more people to the sports they love.

Humbly and admittedly still early in our journey, we see the very real potential for ALT Sports Data to stand alongside the world’s most powerful sports fan engagement leaders.