The International Hockey Federation (FIH), the world governing body for the sport of hockey, and Sportradar, one of the leading global sports technology company that creates immersive experiences for sports fans, on Monday announced a global partnership for the exclusive data rights partner for hockey’s world governing body through the end of the 2029-30 season.
As part of the agreement, Sportradar will collect and distribute data globally from all FIH competitions for the next nine years. This includes approximately 300 matches each season, including the FIH Hockey World Cups, FIH Hockey World Cup Qualifiers, FIH Indoor Hockey World Cups, FIH Hockey Pro League, and FIH Hockey5s World Cup, as well as the Olympic Qualifiers.
Sportradar will provide FIH with a bespoke Competition Management platform to manage their tournaments and data more effectively.
Intuitive and easy-to-use, the platform will be tailor-made to fit FIH’s rules and regulations and will help manage competitions, match results, player statistics, rankings and much more. The Competition Management platform will also be made available to all FIH member associations including continental and national associations.
Through a dedicated and focused effort to collect a deeper level of data, FIH will be able to harness the information to provide more insights to engage hockey fans around the world.
Integrity Services are an important part of the partnership. Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection Service (UFDS), a proven bet monitoring system, will help maintain the integrity of FIH competitions and detect match-fixing and other risks. Education and prevention workshops will also be provided to officials.
Commenting on the development, Ed Blonk, Chief Commercial Officer and Regional CEO APAC, Sportradar said: “Sportradar’s expertise in leveraging the power of sports data will allow us to create bespoke solutions for FIH that will help to elevate the profile of hockey and enable the continued growth of the game. We look forward to collaborating with FIH to create enhanced levels of engagement with hockey fans around the world.”
On the other hand, FIH CEO Thierry Weil expressed: “One of our key initiatives is to develop exciting and entertaining events that are meaningful for athletes as well as fan-focused to attract new fans and boost participation. With Sportradar’s proven track record supporting some of the world’s biggest sports federations, we are confident that this partnership will largely contribute to growing hockey globally through bespoke data.”
“Furthermore, we’re looking forward to benefitting from Sportradar’s expertise in providing intelligence solutions to maintain sport’s integrity,” he added.
Notably, Sportradar is one the leading global sports technology company creating immersive experiences for sports fans. The company provide sports federations, news media and consumer platforms with a range of solutions to help grow their business and employs more than 2,300 full time employees across 19 countries around the world.