When speaking with Todd Ballard, co-founder and chief marketing officer at ALT Sports Data, his passion for “alternative sports” is evident. ALT Sports Data provides data, betting odds and marketing solutions tailored to sports like skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding. Ballard’s background, particularly his tenure at GoPro, has been instrumental in shaping the company’s approach to these niche sports.
GoPro’s influence
Ballard’s career took a pivotal turn when he met GoPro’s owner during the early days of the company. GoPro was a client of Ballard’s marketing agency before he sold it and joined the camera company permanently in 2011, helping build its reputation among enthusiasts of lifestyle sports such as mountain biking, skiing, motocross and surfing.
Ballard recalled, “We knew we couldn’t compete with the big consumer electronic brands on traditional sports. So, our strategy was to target those rich and highly influential audiences that were being ignored by non-endemic brands.”
This strategy proved successful as GoPro became a leading electronics and global lifestyle brand by focusing on pursuits of passion surrounding sports and activities that define a global audience of over one billion people. This approach mirrors what ALT Sports Data aims to achieve in the sports betting industry.
After a decade at GoPro, Ballard was approached by his friend, colleague and ALT Sports Data’s Founder and CEO Joe Dunnigan in 2021, who asked, “Why can’t we bet on the sports we have built our career on, raised our families around and know how to build demand for?”
After tapping high-level executives from within the sports betting industry for advice and direction, the duo drew inspiration from their experience at GoPro that highlighted the potential of niche sports to attract dedicated audiences, which they now seek to replicate in the betting world.
Leveraging lifestyle sports in betting
ALT Sports Data is poised to be the leading provider of official sports data and odds for alternative sports, and their current portfolio of exclusive properties have a social following alone of over 70 million people. The company’s strategy is rooted in the lessons that Ballard and Dunnigan learned at GoPro, as well as the decades of brand building within these hard-to-reach consumer segments—building a community around niche sports and leveraging that passion into commercial success.
Besides the data provider services they offer, ALT Sports Data has also built a media brand, NXTbets, to serve as an authentic on-ramp for their leagues’ fans to learn how, where and what to wager on. Leveraging their league partners’ massive footprint across linear, digital and in-venue, combined with tapping iconic personalities to create exclusive content, the fast-growing affiliate business is a strong catalyst in driving demand and volume to sportsbooks.
Ballard half-jokingly added, “if Sport Radar, Bettor Collective and Barstool Sports had a baby that grew up in Southern California, that would be us.”
Despite the repeal of PASPA, alternative sports have yet to gain significant traction in major U.S. sportsbooks; Ballard attributes this to the focus on big sports, leaving niche sports underrepresented.
“There’s a bit of knowledge and domain expertise around sports that hasn’t been tapped into by sportsbooks,” he explained. “Additionally, alternative or emerging sports have been set-up for failure in sports betting. Most leagues don’t have an in-house betting expert, so we are working with the leagues as their eyes, ears and voice to ensure all necessary points are covered, including regulatory, data acquisition, compliance, modeling, distribution of odds and streams and, most important, marketing initiatives that engage and educate their loyal fanbases.”
But, this year alone has seen progress for ALT Sports Data, which has penned partnerships with brands like Betway, Underdog Fantasy, DraftKings and FanDuel.
Drawing parallels with Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Nike
To illustrate the potential, Ballard cited how brands like Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Skullcandy disrupted large consumer categories by embracing alternative, youthful and active lifestyle communities. These brands thrived by connecting deeply with their target audiences, much like GoPro did. Similarly, Nike struggled to break into skateboarding footwear until it authentically embraced skate culture, eventually becoming the largest-selling footwear brand in skate culture. “It took Nike multiple attempts to crack the code. Once they realized they couldn’t buy their way in, they authentically embraced the culture and it paid off,” Ballard remarked
The opportunity for sportsbooks
Ballard believes sportsbooks have a similar opportunity by partnering with ALT Sports Data. The company has already formed partnerships with leagues such as the World Surf League, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and NHRA. “We’re thinking of how we take all these learnings we’ve gained over the last 25 years in other industries and apply them to these aspirational sports that drive more fan engagement than traditional sports,” he said.
ALT Sports Data’s approach involves not only building relationships with leagues and developing betting products but also stimulating audiences through targeted marketing initiatives. However, success depends on sportsbooks embracing these niche sports. “Ultimately, sportsbooks need to lean in,” the firm’s CMO emphasized. “While everyone is fighting for the same consumers and driving up acquisition costs, there are other highly relevant cohorts that are just now being exposed to sports betting.”
ALT Sports Data is on a mission to connect alternative and emerging sports with the sports betting industry, leveraging the deep-seated passions of fans and the rich experience of its founders. As Ballard concluded, “Sports betting is one of those next frontiers for these sports. The sports industry sees it, and sports betting is just starting to see it.”
By channeling the authentic, community-driven strategies that worked for GoPro and iconic brands like Nike and Red Bull, ALT Sports Data aims to carve out a significant niche in the sports betting market, transforming how alternative sports are commercialized and enjoyed.
