DerbyWheel, the new international pro keirin track racing series, has announced a three-year partnership with sports technology company, Sportradar. The focus of the partnership is on services to help safeguard track racing competitions.
Officially hitting the boards for its inaugural season in 2024, DerbyWheel aims to take the sport of Keirin racing to a global audience, having previously been a predominantly closed domestic enterprise in Japan and South Korea.
Sportradar will assist DerbyWheel on the sports integrity side of the event series, looking to ensure high levels of fair play and protect DerbyWheel from threats such as match-fixing, doping and other fraud.
Sportradar will provide bet monitoring through its team of experts using the company’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS). Sportradar will also provide intelligence and investigation, integrity auditing and education & prevention services for DerbyWheel professional riders.
James Pope, CEO of DerbyWheel, said “Sportradar has the credentials at operating the best-in-class range of solutions for sports, media and betting industries and so we are incredibly proud to be partnering with them.
“Operating at a gold standard level from the get-go is of huge importance to us. Our partnership with Sportradar shows our commitment to integrity and ensuring DerbyWheel events will deliver high quality sport at the pinnacle of fair play.”
Sportradar’s EVP Integrity Services, Andreas Krannich, added “As the new global keirin racing event, Derby Wheel sets high standards from the outset and shows that they are firmly dedicated to providing clean and fair sport to its fans.
“The formation of this partnership puts robust measures in place to mitigate any integrity threats that may arise. At Sportradar, we are fully committed to assisting our partner’s integrity operations and look forward to supporting DerbyWheel over the coming years.”
In its homeland of Japan, keirin track racing is closely aligned with sports betting, being one of only five sports that it’s legal to bet on in the country. The DerbyWheel business model will focus on content distribution to provide a live feed and data to licensors for the purposes of sports betting. This will supported by other commercial revenue from events.
