Michael Jordan told a packed MEO Arena in Lisbon that sports fans now want a stake in the outcome, opening the SBC Summit keynote on 29 September alongside Sportradar chief executive Carsten Koerl and DraftKings chief executive Jason Robins. The panel, titled Leadership in Sports Business and moderated by broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher, put Jordan on stage with the heads of two companies he has backed for years.
Jordan’s opening remarks
Jordan started with how his view of fans changed once he moved from the court to ownership, first of the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Hornets, and later of a NASCAR team. He described fans connecting with sport through companies such as Sportradar and DraftKings.
“As I look at it here today, knowing what I know now and being associated with these companies, the fans today are focused on being involved with the outcome,” Jordan said. “Now the fans are the athletes, in terms of how they compete within the game.”
The association he referred to is financial. Jordan has held equity in Sportradar since a 2015 funding round led by Revolution Growth, increased his stake when the company listed on the Nasdaq in 2021, and serves as a special advisor to its board. He also holds about 0.7% of DraftKings, where he took an advisory role in 2020. Both chief executives on stage run companies in which he is an investor.
Question: What do you think today’s fans want that, would you say, previous generations didn’t want?
Michael Jordan: “Well, I mean, it’s a lot of ways you can look at it, right? I think, you know, as a player, I never really focused on, you know, what the stats were or what people were betting. I’m out there playing my sport respectfully, you know, and the only objective that I ever had was to win the game. Outside of that, you know, it was outside of my arena.
And once I started looking at it from an economical standpoint as well as an owner, you start to understand the business surrounding the sport itself. And as I look at it here today, knowing what I know now being associated with both of these companies, the fans today have a better understanding or a more focus on the outcome. And they’re willing to get involved in the outcome.
And the way they get involved in the outcome based on the competitive nature that they have watching the game is to bet. And they want to bet on the outcome. Now, I think if you’re going to have disappointment, you’re going to have somebody that’s happy. You’re going to have somebody that’s mad at these two people. Well, these guys are going to be happy as hell.”
Koerl on players over teams
Koerl used the panel to set out where Sportradar sees fan and bettor interest moving.
“We are living in a world where the players are becoming more and more important, the teams less and less,” Koerl said.
Sportradar later summarised Koerl’s position as betting that is “real-time, personalized, predictive.” The company showed a video on PlayRadar, its product that turns live sports betting into a game-style experience, and Koerl then asked Jordan for his view.
Jordan’s answer put distance between the athlete and the data business. He compared a market on who hits the green at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass to analytics predicting whether a basketball player drives left or right, and said his focus as a player was only on the moment.
“The way you look at it and the way I look at it as an athlete is totally different,” Jordan said.
Koerl’s appearance came five months after Muddy Waters Research and Callisto Research published short reports alleging Sportradar earns part of its revenue from illegal and grey-market operators, claims the company rejects and Koerl has disputed publicly. SBC Americas’ live coverage of the keynote did not report any discussion of the reports.
Robins on responsible gaming
Robins took the sharpest question of the session. Asked about responsible gaming, he responded days after The New York Times reported on DraftKings’ use of AI and ProPublica published an investigation into how operators handle problem gamblers.
“I think a lot of people, and it’s frustrating for us, look at us and say, you’re motivated by the wrong things. You don’t want people to bet within their means, you want to take advantage of people. That could not be farther from the truth,” Robins said. “That’s the worst possible thing for our company, for our industry.”
He said DraftKings relies on tools that let customers set limits and take cool-off periods, and that the company blocks accounts in “more egregious cases.” He accepted that “there are things that of course can always be improved” and compared betting to dining out or shopping, saying customers should set a budget and stay within their means.
Robins also addressed fans who abuse athletes over their bets, pointing out that players such as Jordan faced crowd hostility long before legal betting.
“Betting may add a new dimension to that, but don’t make any mistake about it: there’s been that level of noise and attention in athletics for a long time,” Robins said.
What the panel leaves open
The session showed the three positions side by side: an investor-athlete who sees fans moving toward participation, a data supplier building products around individual players and live moments, and an operator defending how it manages the customers that model produces. Sportradar and DraftKings, two of the largest listed companies in the sector, both face scrutiny this year, one from short sellers and a securities class action, the other from US media and regulators over player protection. How each answers that scrutiny over the next earnings cycle will matter more to Jordan’s holdings than anything said in Lisbon.
Source: SBC Summit
