Muddy Waters Research has put out a mini-documentary on Sportradar ($SRAD), and they aren’t pulling punches. They say the company runs on illegal gambling money, leans on addicts to keep the volume up, and is dragging match-fixing risk into the lower tiers of sport.
Their estimate: 20% to 40% of Sportradar’s revenue is tied to illegal gaming. One industry contact they quote thinks the gray and black market share is closer to half. Take out even half of that, they argue, and Sportradar goes from profitable to unprofitable overnight.
Also see: Carson Block: There’s Power In Feeling Like You Have Nothing To Lose [In-depth Interview]
The tier 3 and tier 4 problem
Sportradar pays a lot for exclusive data rights from the big leagues, MLB, the NBA, the ATP, Bundesliga. Muddy Waters’ argument is that legal betting on those leagues isn’t enough to earn that money back. So the rest has to come from somewhere lower down:
- Tier 3: semi-professional matches.
- Tier 4: women’s ping pong in Poland, futsal in Brazil, two guys playing tennis in an Egyptian hotel, FIFA video game matches.
“Sportradar: All-In on the Underworld” Be informed and entertained by MW’s mini-doc showing the evidence of how $SRAD knowingly powers illegal operators, preys on addicts, and makes lower levels of sport susceptible to corruption. pic.twitter.com/ORMTjWyxUn
— MuddyWatersResearch (@muddywatersre) April 27, 2026
This content is cheap. A scout at a venue is enough, and for ping pong Sportradar actually built AI and computer-vision rigs to capture the data itself. Margins are higher than on top-tier sport. And, Muddy Waters argues, most of it really only exists so that addicts have something to bet on between bigger events.
ICE Barcelona and the Arbo Group
Muddy Waters sent investigators to the International Casino Exhibition in Barcelona. According to the report, one Sportradar sales rep told them the Arbo Group hadn’t turned up because its people were worried they’d be arrested on landing. Arbo has been linked to “pig butchering” rings and human-trafficking call centers in Cambodia. That admission didn’t shut the conversation down. The rep allegedly went on to offer introductions to other intermediaries, including TitanNet, with the selling point that TitanNet “doesn’t require a license.”
Rebranding in Asia
Where Sportradar can’t legally operate under its own name, the report says it white-labels the product. One former counterparty named “Lucky” as the brand used across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, and said there are other labels for other regions. Disclosed customers include 188 Bet (now TapTap) and Stake. When Muddy Waters asked about 1xBet, management wouldn’t answer. They then say they found Sportradar’s 32-character widget loader client ID sitting in 8xBet’s site, even though management had denied that relationship.
The bottom line
Muddy Waters’ Carson Block calls Sportradar “probably the most hypocritical company we’ve seen” in 16 years of short-selling. He goes after CEO Carsten Koerl personally, pointing out that Koerl publicly criticizes operators in Korean black markets while the company’s own 2022 year-end deck talks up growth in India, where online gambling is illegal.
Sportradar likes to call itself the “FBI of online sports betting.” Muddy Waters thinks the corner drug dealer is a closer fit.
Muddy Waters Research also putout a full report which is embedded below.
https://muddywatersresearch.com/research/2026/mw-is-short-srad/
