Sportradar has said it will continue “scanning” for affiliate acquisition opportunities in Europe and Latam following the successful integration of XLMedia’s US-facing assets.
Speaking to EGR last week at ICE, senior vice-president of product for Sportradar ad:s, Nikolaus Beier, said potential expansion to the pure-play affiliate sector could continue.
Sportradar acquired XLMedia’s US-facing affiliate assets, including Saturday Down South, for an initial $20m in November 2024.
A further $1m earnout was added to the deal in March last year, as Sportradar expanded its marketing suite under the ad:s banner to include traditional affiliate assets.
On the potential for further affiliate M&A, Beier said: “It’s a fair question. As a company of Sportradar’s size, we are always scanning the market for opportunities. At the moment, there is nothing I can talk about, but we are looking.”
During Q3 2025, Sportradar reported a 33% jump in its marketing and media services arm due to “contributions related to our expanded affiliate marketing capabilities”.
On the performance of the assets, Beier added: “We’re happy with the performance, and I think it’s an absolute success story.
“There’s a couple of things we really liked. It’s a US-focused business. The US is a very, very important market for us, so we wanted to have a presence there. That’s one thing.
“The other thing is, we really like the team. They are absolute experts in that space and there was a great connection there.
“I’ve done a couple of M&A integrations, but I have to say this one was the smoothest one we had.”
Away from M&A, Beier said Sportradar would be able to ride the disruption of AI in the affiliate sector, especially given the wide net of the ad:s business.
Affiliate bosses, including Catena Media’s Manuel Stan, have warned generative AI could be a headwind for the sector as consumer search behaviour shifts.
Beier noted: “We knew those trends. Generally, when you when you look at the [affiliate] industry, I agree; they’re struggling. So, there are questions.
“At the same time, when you look at that industry, they’ve undergone change multiple times in the last 25 years. So, I’m not so worried. There will be ways to continue that business, but you need to adapt. And I think the question now is really, how does that pivot and adaption come about?
“With the Google [search] changes, I have to say they didn’t affect us that much, others were affected much more. We have been able to close some very interesting media partnerships. So, to be brutally honest, we don’t see a lot of changes in the search behaviour. I think we are very well positioned as a company because of our broader distribution and not just a pure focus on affiliation.
“While we definitely need to see how things develop, I’m not generally concerned, but I think there’s a bit more concern in the markets, as always, when there are changes coming up.
“There will be pressure. But you also saw OpenAI just announce they will start allowing advertising. Google could add advertising to Gemini-based search; I think there is a good chance it will be more difficult to get ranked. But we’re in a great position.”
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SVP of ad:s dvision tells EGR that integration was an “absolute success story” following $20m November 2024 deal for North America-facing assets
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