Michael Jordan, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins and Sportradar Founder and CEO Carsten Koerl explored the changing relationship between sports, technology, data, betting and fan engagement during a keynote on the first day of SBC Summit Lisbon.
Hosted by broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher, the “Leadership in Sports Business” session brought together three figures from very different parts of the sports ecosystem to discuss how technology is changing the way fans consume, interact with and monetize sports.
The conversation repeatedly returned to one central theme: the traditional boundaries between sport, media, data, betting and gaming are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.
From game day to a 24/7 sports experience
Koerl opened the discussion by describing the evolution of fan engagement from a largely game-day experience into something that can run continuously across multiple platforms.
The Sportradar CEO said technology is increasingly being used to understand what individual fans want to consume, moving from personalization toward a more customized experience.
That can bring together live sports, data, betting, gaming, sponsorship, merchandising and social media, he said, as the traditional linear television model gives way to a much more fragmented sports environment.
Robins similarly argued that the fundamental objective is to give fans a stronger emotional connection to the games they are watching.
While some viewers may tune in primarily to appreciate elite athletic performance, he said betting and fantasy sports can give fans a reason to care about games involving teams or players they would otherwise have little connection to.
“What betting, what fantasy sports, what these products do is they give you a reason to care about teams that aren’t maybe your home team,” Robins said.
That thinking sits behind DraftKings’ Super App, which is designed to bring products that previously operated across separate applications into a single environment.
“The idea of the Super App was we’re going to take all these different products that we have, a lot of which were living in different apps before, and bring them all into one single app,” Robins said.
He added that advances in technology have made it possible to combine those experiences without sacrificing speed or performance.
Jordan offered a different perspective, comparing the experience of today’s sports fan with the one he knew as a player.
He recalled watching a single football game while growing up, while today’s fans can follow several games at once because they have an interest in the outcomes of multiple events.
The basketball icon also stressed the difference between the athlete’s perspective and the increasingly data-driven experience surrounding modern sports.
“As a player I never really focused on what the stats were or what people were betting on,” Jordan said. “The only objective that I ever had was to win the game.”
Data moves into real-time sports betting
The discussion then turned to the evolution of sports betting and the increasing importance of real-time data.
Koerl described the transformation of sports data collection over the past decade, from human operators gathering information at venues to automated systems capable of capturing detailed player movements at high speed.
He said cameras and tracking systems can now collect around 60 data points from each player 150 times per second, creating a far richer data environment than was previously available.
That information is increasingly being used to power live betting, prediction models, player markets and bet-builder functionality.
Koerl said the industry is now dealing with demand for extremely low-latency data, with some applications requiring information to arrive with delays of around 0.2 seconds.
The next stage, he suggested, will see data become part of the sports experience itself rather than simply infrastructure sitting behind a sportsbook.
Sportradar is already using AI to analyze huge volumes of historical sports data and make predictions about what could happen next during a live game.
Koerl described models trained on billions of data points from thousands of NBA games, including detailed information on player movements, which can be used to predict the most likely next action.
“That’s not a human being. That’s a computer system,” he said.
Prediction markets create new opportunities and uncertainty
Prediction markets provided another major topic of discussion, particularly around their future in the US.
Robins compared the current prediction market boom with the earlier rise of NFTs, arguing that businesses cannot always know in advance whether a new technology or product category will become a lasting trend.
His approach, he said, is to position DraftKings so that it can benefit if a market grows while limiting the consequences if the market ultimately develops in a different direction.
“I don’t know what the end outcome will be in the US for predictions,” Robins said.
Robins said the question of whether prediction markets should be treated as financial instruments or sports betting is ultimately part of a broader legal and regulatory debate.
Rather than attempting to predict the outcome, he said DraftKings is focused on maintaining enough flexibility to operate under different scenarios.
“How do you make sure that, rather than optimizing for a single outcome, you’re in good shape, you’re okay, you’re doing well, no matter what the outcome?” he said.
Jordan points to authenticity and new sports audiences
For Jordan, the discussion about sports business was also closely connected to authenticity.
The former NBA star said his involvement with companies including DraftKings and Sportradar is based on genuine connections with the businesses and their leaders.
“The things I get involved in are very authentic to who I am,” Jordan said.
He pointed to women’s sports and the growing importance of content as areas he is watching closely, while also explaining his decision to become involved in NASCAR.
Jordan said he saw an opportunity to help NASCAR reach audiences beyond its traditional base, comparing the potential expansion with the way Formula 1 broadened its US audience through initiatives such as Drive to Survive.
“I felt like NASCAR had to get outside of the norm,” he said. “Get more into the mainstream and make it blossom.”
Jordan’s comments also returned to the importance of authenticity when entering new areas of sports business, arguing that consumers need to be able to connect with the people and brands involved.
AI could create customized gaming experiences
Koerl also offered one of the panel’s most forward-looking ideas, describing how Sportradar is exploring AI-driven game development.
He explained that different AI agents can work on areas such as design, payouts, compliance, mathematical models and security, potentially reducing the time required to develop new gaming products.
Koerl suggested that companies could use information about individual consumers to create customized gaming products on the fly, replacing a development process that traditionally requires hundreds of hours of work.
“AI is not just about cost savings and efficiency,” Koerl said. “The innovation happens in the product.”
The company is also exploring ways to connect live sports directly with gaming, using real-time sporting events and data as inputs into gaming experiences.
Jordan: “I just play the game”
The contrast between data-driven sports and the athlete’s mindset became one of the panel’s recurring themes.
Asked how he would have dealt with the modern sports environment if he were still playing, Jordan returned to the same philosophy.
“I just play the game. I can’t worry about what people are betting on. I can’t worry about what the stats are,” he said.
Jordan acknowledged that today’s athletes face a more complicated environment, with personal brands, contracts, statistics, social media and betting all forming part of the wider sports ecosystem.
But he said his own focus would remain on the game itself.
“When I played, all we cared about was making the Chicago Bulls the best team in the NBA and winning championships,” Jordan said.
The panel ultimately highlighted the tension at the heart of modern sports: technology can increasingly measure, predict, and monetize almost every aspect of a game, but the result remains dependent on what happens in real time.