The International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body of pro-cricket has announced that Sportradar will serve as its new lead data and media rights distributor.

The partnership will see Sportradar charged with the data and media distribution of 275 ICC syndicated matches including eight men’s and women’s tournaments – starting in this month with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup hosted by India in the UAE and Oman, through to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2023.

The partnership looks to create more opportunities for the ICC to engage with fans.  Finn Bradshaw, Head of Digital at ICC, noted: “Innovative use of sports data is one of the key pillars of our digital strategy. This partnership with Sportradar will help us grow our global cricket fanbase and deepen our engagement with it.”

Backed by the technology and specialist cricket capabilities of InteractSport, the enterprise looks to use its Cricket Live Score Plus (CLS+) data-capture tool to provide ‘deep, rich, live ball-by-ball’ match data to media platforms via bespoke feeds and dedicated channels.

David Lampitt, Managing Director, Sports Content and Partnerships at Sportradar, commented: “Cricket is among the most popular sports globally, and we see huge potential to grow its fan base still further, helping fans interact with the game on an even deeper level.”

Sportradar will integrate the ICC data into its Premium Cricket Service (PCS), in a bid to create an ‘enhanced provision’ for sportsbook operators, while the new data will also be used to power the ICC’s digital platforms, including icc-cricket.com and its mobile app.

“Our partnership with the ICC is an exciting step towards engaging those new fans and, with the full breadth of our unique technology powering it, we will deliver enhanced cricket content globally – across a range of platforms,” added Lampitt.

Sportradar’s Integrity Services will provide the ICC with bet monitoring and reporting for all 275 matches through its Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), which scans the betting market to report any suspicious matches to partners.

Last month, in a further attempt to engage fans worldwide with cricket, the ICC entered an agreement with Cricket Australia to broadcast the Australian cricket schedule on its recently launched ICC.tv platform, focusing on ‘upcoming’ markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia.