TLDR
- Altenar has filed a motion opposing Sportradar’s request to move their legal dispute to arbitration in Switzerland.
- Altenar wants the case to stay in the US District Court for New Jersey, where it was originally filed.
- The lawsuit claims Sportradar blocked Altenar from accessing official live sports data from leagues like the NBA, NHL, and MLB.
- This marks Sportradar’s second antitrust case in 2026, after a similar claim from PANDA Interactive was dismissed in April.
- A judge must now decide if Altenar’s claims will be heard publicly in the US or sent to private arbitration.
Altenar has asked a US court to keep its legal fight with Sportradar in New Jersey. The filing came just a week after Sportradar asked to move the case to arbitration in Switzerland.
The dispute centers on access to official sports data. This data covers games from the NBA, NHL, MLB, and ATP.
Altenar first filed its lawsuit in March. The company says Sportradar cut off data that Altenar needs to run in-play betting features.
The Core Dispute
Sportradar pointed to a 2021 partnership agreement that includes a clause requiring arbitration. Altenar says that clause does not cover antitrust claims.
An Altenar spokesperson said Sportradar’s headquarters in Switzerland gives it a sense of safety there. The spokesperson added that moving the case to arbitration would shield the company from US courts and public view.
Altenar also said Sportradar can only arbitrate disputes it agreed to arbitrate. The company argued Sportradar cannot use the partnership agreement to avoid US antitrust law.
The original complaint says Sportradar promised to supply live league data to Altenar. It then refused, according to the filing.
Altenar calls this data the core of its sportsbook product. Without it, the company says it cannot compete for in-play betting customers.
The complaint also claims Sportradar launched its own sportsbook platform called ORAKO around the same time. Altenar argues this timing was not a coincidence.
Altenar says it paid Sportradar millions of dollars each year for data access in other countries. It contrasts this with Genius Sports, which it says continues to supply data without issue.
The lawsuit accuses Sportradar of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act. This law addresses monopoly behavior that limits competition.
Altenar argues that without access to Sportradar’s data, sportsbooks will face fewer choices and higher costs. The company says this could reduce innovation in the US betting market.
A Pattern of Legal Challenges
This is not the first antitrust claim against Sportradar this year. In March, PANDA Interactive updated an existing 2023 lawsuit against both Sportradar and Genius Sports.
PANDA argued that both companies tied access to their data with their own betting technology. The company said this practice pushed out smaller competitors.
That case also included patent claims. PANDA said Genius Sports infringed on its patents through products like LiveData and BetVision.
Sportradar faced similar patent claims tied to its emBet and OTT services. However, the antitrust portion of PANDA’s case did not survive.
On April 9, a federal judge in Texas dismissed PANDA’s antitrust claims against Sportradar. This ruling came just days after Altenar filed its own complaint in New Jersey.
Attention has now shifted back to the Altenar case. The New Jersey court must decide whether the dispute proceeds in open court or moves to private arbitration in Switzerland.
That decision will shape how the case unfolds. It may also set a precedent for how sports data agreements are enforced going forward.
For now, both companies are waiting on the court’s ruling on jurisdiction before the underlying antitrust claims can move forward.
