Sportradar´s move into anti-doping will transport the clean sport movement into the new tech age

Sportradar established its Anti-Doping Services unit in 2019, not long before the global Covid-19 pandemic when the world increasingly turned to technology as a way of maintaining efficient operations at a time when face-to-face interaction was challenging. Our motivation for setting up Anti-Doping Services was simple: by building a team with 40+ years’ experience in anti-doping, and with Sportradar’s existing expertise in technology, we wanted to assist anti-doping organisations, sports federations and leagues with innovative technical solutions that could raise the effectiveness of the global anti-doping system.

For years, anti-doping has been – and it remains so today – an underfunded industry. An industry that we, as sports fans, want to maintain so that we can believe in true sport, yet an industry that has often been playing catch-up. It is an industry that relies to a large degree on human input, even in this advanced technological age when other sectors have turned to the utilisation of data and technology, and the benefits it can bring. And this is where we saw an opportunity to support the clean sport movement: to help it build on its successes by integrating cutting-edge technical solutions that could make the work more efficient and most effective to benefit the clean athlete community.

In terms of our offering, we have launched our Remote Testing System, which is a fast, flexible and, most importantly, secure solution (using Blockchain Technology). In essence, this is testing via a recorded video call with a doping control officer on one end and an elite athlete on the other. By applying digital technology to the collection procedure, we are able to ensure the integrity of the process and allow anti-doping organisations to collect doping samples remotely. The system offers testing via Dried Blood Spot, Exhaled Breathe and even urine (for privacy reasons, the urine sample collection itself is not recorded on camera, though a scan of the area is conducted beforehand to check for any potential manipulation). This remote testing solution – which took on added prescience during the testing drought caused by the pandemic – offers a useful addition to traditional in-person testing. Best of all, it can help reduce costs for organisations and create a new way of protecting clean sport.

Our most established service is Intelligence and Investigations (I&I). Our I&I team has been using its background in law enforcement, the military and investigative journalism to help anti-doping organisations in the detection and prosecution of potential violations of anti-doping rules, the development of targeted testing plans, the protection or risk reduction of major competitions, and the identification and disruption of trafficking networks. The team already provides valuable intelligence support to national anti-doping organisations, including those of Germany and Canada, international federations, sports integrity units and national law enforcement agencies.

We are excited about the potential that lies ahead to help guide the clean sport movement forward, utilising technology and cutting costs to benefit clean athletes.