Sportradar brings in Felenstein as new CFO
Felenstein will replace Gerrard Griffin, whose exit was confirmed by Sportradar earlier this year. Griffin is due to leave the business on 31 May.
Felenstein joins Sportradar from Lindblad Expeditions, where he has been serving as CFO since September 2016. Prior to this, he worked for Shutterstock as senior vice-president of investor relations and strategic finance.
Earlier in his career, Felenstein spent almost seven years with Discovery Communications. Here, he worked in various senior investor positions, including executive vice-president of investor relations.
Felenstein also held a similar role at News Corporation and had a spell working in several financial positions with Viacom.
“Sportradar has built an impressive leadership position in the rapidly growing global sports technology market,” Felenstein said. “The company is ideally situated to deliver sustained growth given their strong content portfolio, unmatched product offerings and commitment to industry innovation.”
Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl added: “With Craig’s deep international experience and successful track record building finance organisations as a CFO at US listed public companies, I am confident that he will be a strong addition to our team.
“His track record of helping drive financial strategy and building shareholder value will be instrumental to our continued success.”
Organisational restructure at Sportradar
Confirmation of outgoing CFO Griffin’s departure back in January came as a new leadership structure was also unveiled.
Part of a wider initiative to streamline its global organisational structure, the setup consists of six business functions. This saw several senior members of staff move into new roles and take on additional responsibilities.
Warren Murphy is now chief delivery and operations officer, leading product delivery and operations. Nick Maywald, formerly chief content officer, is working as chief growth and innovation officer, with responsibility for growth and innovation.
Elsewhere, chief commercial officer Eduard Blonk is now leading the commercial function, covering sales, client services and care, sports partnerships, marketing and communications.
Lynn McCreary, chief administrative officer, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, is overseeing legal, risk and administrative services. In addition, Severine Riviere-Gerstner now heads up the people sector as chief people officer.
Griffin is currently leading the finance function but will step down as CFO next month to make way for Felenstein. Also leaving Sportradar is chief strategy officer Ulrich Harmuth, who is pursuing other endeavours.
Sportradar nears upper end of FY23 revenue guidance
Since the restructure was announced, Sportradar has also published its full-year results for 2023.
Highlights include €877.6m (£752.5m/$943.0m) in revenue, at the upper end of its guidance range, thanks to growth in the US. Revenue was 20.2% higher year-on-year.
Significant revenue growth led Sportradar to a total profit from continuing operations of €34.6m, up 229.5% from 2022’s total profit of €10.5m. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 32.6% to €166.8m, close to exceeding Sportradar’s outlook range of €162m-€167m.
After a solid 2023, Sportradar is eying 20.0% year-on-year growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2024. This would take revenue to at least €1.05bn and adjusted EBITDA €200m, with guidance assuming a euro-to-US-dollar exchange of 1.07.
Sportradar is also eyeing a stable adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.0%.