Pros
Multiple offices in different countries, so one gets to meet many different people - from Germany, Norway, Austria, UK, etc. Interesting projects to work on, possibility to shift to another team at another office in another country. Traveling! If you like to travel and see new countries/cities, then look no further. Teams are often split between different offices, so it's not unusual to travel to another part of Europe to plan or kick-off new project (or project phase).
Cons
* Dysfunctional communication or rather relationship between offices. Hard to get through to certain people, the most glaring example is sysadmins, who won't lift a finger unless it's pushed down on them via senior management in Trondheim office (Norway). Meanwhile, your project manager is pressuring you to move forward with deployment/configuration/etc. But it's not just sysadmins, in general it is common practice that unless you go through hierarchy, people won't respond to you or will just shrug you off in a "not my problem" kind of way. Of all the companies I worked in, Sportradar has the worst communication among devs, sysadmins and other tech staff. It's a miracle anything gets done. * Poor middle management - projects managers and product owners are often the ones that have almost no clue about the specific project they are supposed to run (they are actually learning about the topic throughout the project) and lack overview of how that particular project fits into overall company strategy. So it may happen that the project is in full motion, but then after 6 months someone somewhere (either in Swiss headquarters or in Norwegian office) decides to completely change the direction or pull the plug altogether. Also, a lot of times when something is decided inside the team about certain topic/problem, it may happen that Trondheim office jumps in and overrides team's decision to force its own view/solution. * Hierarchy and bureaucracy. Looking to work in a company with hands-off approach and flat structure? Then run away from Sportradar as fast as you can. You have little or no choice in the tools being used, practically no freedom in solving problems and anything bigger than a small bugfix needs to go through levels of approvals. Failure to get approval before trying or doing something, will get you in trouble with project manager. Self-initiative is highly frowned upon. You have been warned. Oh, they do have a company-wide program that rewards ideas in general sense (like idea for a new product), but that program is useless when one wants to move something inside the project. To sum up, level of freedom is practically zero. * Hardware. This one is much less important, but still worth mentioning. Sportradar is pretty cheap when it comes to buying equipment for developers, so don't expect to get the latest and greatest when you start working. And everything is Dell. Some people get Macbooks, but vast majority needs to work with Dell crap. Which is a stark contrast to other companies (at least those I worked for), where you can pick whatever you want and with good specs. * Did I mention Trondheim office, Norway? Trondheim office is the king in everything tech oriented. No matter why or how, it's their way or highway. So, if you are a developer or networking engineer or anything related to tech, make sure to apply for a position Trondheim office.
