ALT secures $5m to revolutionise betting for alternative sports
ALT Sports Data, a rising star in the world of sports technology, has just closed an impressive $5 million seed funding round, drawing substantial interest from investors eager to back its ambitious vision. The round, described as “oversubscribed due to overwhelming interest from investors,” was co-led by Relay Ventures and Eberg Capital, with Motley Fool Ventures and Scrum Ventures also on board.
The company, founded by former GoPro alumni Joe Dunnigan (CEO), Todd Ballard (CMO), and Michael Jordan (CPO), is setting out to disrupt how fans engage with sports, particularly those outside the mainstream spotlight.
The company’s mission is clear: to empower all sports stakeholders and audiences by redefining how fans interact with and visualise sports. “ALT Sports Data is more than a data provider,” said CEO Joe Dunnigan. “With our growing portfolio of rightsholders and partners, we’re creating the infrastructure that’s driving new revenue and deeper engagement across the entire value chain.”
Bringing alternative and emerging sports to the betting mainstream
Unlike its larger competitors, such as Sportradar and Genius Sports, which focus on major leagues like the NBA and NFL, ALT Sports Data is carving out a unique space by prioritising alternative and lifestyle sports. These include Championship Drag Racing, PowerSlap, the World Surf League, Monster Energy SuperCross, and more recently, the X Games and Formula 1.
Chief Marketing Officer Todd Ballard explained, “There are a lot of leagues out there that are not the NFL, the MLB, the NBA, that, quite frankly, I feel have been systemically set up for failure in sports betting because there’s just no real innovation or thought put into them.” He added, “Why can’t we bet on a bunch of these sports like surfing and motocross?”
ALT Sports Data’s game plan is pretty straightforward: team up with these leagues and give them the data backbone they need to make betting not just possible, but actually fun for their fans, especially the ones who usually get overlooked. “Emerging niche sports have these massive audiences behind them that are pretty passionate, and give the leagues a new point of engagement, a new opportunity to drive more fans to their sport, and ultimately drive new revenue streams into them,” Ballard said.
This strategy is already bearing fruit. Earlier this year, secured a global partnership with the X Games, allowing fans to wager on the event for the first time in its 30-year history. Shortly after, Formula 1 named ALT Sports Data its official betting data supplier, a move that outmanoeuvred legacy data and media incumbents.
The partnership merges F1’s data rights with ALT Sports’ proprietary trading platform to deliver optimised real-time odds and pricing, alongside streaming and engagement tools for F1 sportsbook partners.
Building the future of fan engagement and sports betting
ALT Sports Data’s ambitions extend beyond simply providing data. The company is developing NXTbets, a media and wagering solution designed to offer tools and content for more than 175 million sports fans within its ecosystem.
NXTbets aggregates odds from multiple sportsbooks and creates content to direct users to betting platforms, much like established affiliates in the industry. “ASD is carving out a high-impact niche with global relevance,” said Michael Proman, Partner at Scrum Ventures. “Their team understands the nuance of culturally relevant sports and how to translate that into real-world engagement.”
The Formula 1 partnership is particularly significant, as it signals a shift in how major sports properties view betting as a tool for fan engagement. “Sports betting is an increasingly important part of the global fan experience,” said Emily Prazer, Chief Commercial Officer at Formula 1. “[We are] committed to delivering new and entertaining ways for our audiences to engage with the sport.”
For ALT Sports Data, the future looks promising. As Roger Ehrenberg, Founding Partner at Eberg Capital, put it: “We’ve backed some of the biggest shifts in data and marketplaces as ALT Sports is building both. They’re ahead of the curve on where sports consumption and betting are heading.”
ALT Sports Data has caught a bit of a tailwind. With some fresh cash, a bunch of new partners, and an eye on sports that usually fly under the radar, it’s starting to shake things up. Will it go toe-to-toe with the industry heavyweights? Hard to say. But for now, it’s turning heads, and not just among fans. Investors are watching, too.
