Muddy Waters Goes Short on Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD): 'Putting the BET into Aiding and Abetting'

Muddy Waters Goes Short on Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD): 'Putting the BET into Aiding and Abetting'

On 22 April 2026, Muddy Waters Research published a short report on Sportradar Group AG (NASDAQ: SRAD), titled "Sportradar AG: Putting the BET into Aiding and Abetting — The Leader of Sports Integrity Powers the World's Illegal Online Sportsbooks." The report alleges that the world's largest sports-data and integrity company has, as a matter of business strategy, actively aided and abetted illegal gambling across black and grey markets worldwide.

Epistemic note: The publication of the Muddy Waters report is a fact. The claims inside it are allegations made by a short seller with a disclosed financial interest — they have not been independently verified by The Forensic Ledger, have not been adjudicated, and may be disputed by Sportradar. This article summarizes the published report with citation; it does not adopt its conclusions as established fact.

The undercover sting at ICE 2026

The report's most striking evidence is an undercover operation. At the ICE 2026 gaming conference in Barcelona, Muddy Waters investigators posed as operators of a startup sportsbook and told Sportradar's sales team — "repeatedly and explicitly" — that their target markets were Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and China, all of which ban online gambling.

According to the report, not one Sportradar salesperson refused. Instead, an Asia-focused sales executive allegedly:

• walked them through product offerings tailored to each illegal market;
• bragged that Sportradar "serves everyone";
• offered to introduce them to the Yabo Group — described as China's largest illegal gambling operator, whose Cambodian call centers are staffed by trafficked and enslaved workers — warning that Yabo's people didn't attend ICE because "they would be hunted down," then offering the introduction anyway.

"This is who SRAD is," the report concludes.

The 'FBI of gambling' claim

Sportradar's CEO, Carsten Koerl, has publicly compared the company to the "FBI of gambling." On the Q3 2025 earnings call, he described a "4-level" KYC process and claimed the company monitors illegal market activity "very closely." Muddy Waters calls this claim "a lie" — contradicted, the firm says, by the undercover investigation, by Sportradar's own website code, by the testimony of fifteen current and former employees interviewed, and by what it describes as the exposed infrastructure of a business model that depends on illegal operators to survive.

The report's kicker: *"The FBI does not offer to introduce informants to human traffickers at trade shows."

What Sportradar allegedly knows

Unlike companies that simply sell software, the report argues, Sportradar holds extensive data on its customers and their customers' customers — IP addresses, time zones, language settings, device configurations, mouse movements, and the referral sites through which bettors arrive. The firm says Sportradar collects 500+ data points per match and retains user data for three years. The implication, per Muddy Waters: *"SRAD knows where the bets are coming from. It has always known."

The revenue estimate and named clients

Muddy Waters estimates that illegal operators today deliver approximately 20–40% of total revenues at Sportradar. Using two proprietary code-analysis methodologies developed with cybersecurity experts, supplemented by interviews with former Sportradar sales executives, the firm says it identified nearly 50 companies as current or recent Sportradar clients or collaborators operating in illegal markets. Named in the report:

• 1xBet and FonBet in Russia (described as organized-crime-linked);
• 8xBet, OKVIP, and SBOBet in Southeast Asia (linked to Cambodian modern-slavery operations);
• the Yabo Group in China.

The report states that Sportradar had previously denied supplying 8xBet — and that Muddy Waters found Sportradar's Client ID in 8xBet's source code.

What would falsify this thesis

Falsification would look like: independent verification that Sportradar's KYC and integrity controls meaningfully screen out illegal operators; the named clients being shown to operate lawfully or to have no commercial relationship with Sportradar; the undercover exchange being contextualized or refuted; and the 20–40% illegal-revenue estimate being shown to be materially overstated. Any company response or refutation should be weighed alongside the report.

Muddy Waters' disclosed position

Muddy Waters disclosed that, as of publication, it was short the securities of, or derivatives linked to, Sportradar — and that upon publication it intended to begin covering a substantial majority, possibly all, of its short positions. The firm states this risk reduction is not a reflection of reduced conviction, but prudent risk management for a fiduciary of investors' capital, and that it may be net short, net long, or flat after publication.

Sources

• Muddy Waters Research — MW is Short SRAD (report page)
• Muddy Waters Research — Full report PDF (April 22, 2026)
• Supporting documentation appendix (PDF)

⚖️ Editorial Disclaimer

This article is based on, and summarizes with citation, a research report already published by Muddy Waters Research on its own website (report page · full PDF · appendix). The Forensic Ledger is an independent newsroom and structured archive; it is not the author of the underlying allegations and does not adopt them as established fact.

All claims, figures, and characterizations attributed to the report — including the undercover ICE 2026 account, the offer to introduce the Yabo Group, the "serves everyone" quote, the "4-level" KYC characterization, the 500+ data points per match, the three-year data retention, the 20–40% illegal-revenue estimate, the ~50 named illegal-market clients, the 8xBet Client ID claim, and any characterization of Sportradar's management or business model — are allegations made by a third party (Muddy Waters Research) that disclosed a short financial position in Sportradar at the time of publication. They have not been independently verified by The Forensic Ledger, have not been adjudicated by any court or regulator, and may be denied, disputed, or refuted by Sportradar Group AG.

This article is published for informational and journalistic purposes only — to report on the existence and contents of a publicly available research document. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, and not an endorsement of the report's conclusions. Nothing herein should be construed as a statement of fact about Sportradar's operations, compliance, clients, or management. Readers should consult the original source, any company response, and their own due diligence before drawing conclusions.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, The Forensic Ledger disclaims all liability arising from reliance on this summary. Any reproduction of the report's substance is attributed to Muddy Waters Research; readers are directed to the original publication for the authoritative text.