SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Genius Sports Inc has entered a period of negotiations to extend its official betting data partnership with Football DataCo, the data rights holder of English and Scottish football.
The exclusive agreement is still a subject to review and contractual approval by the Leagues and their teams. The ongoing contract is scheduled to run until the end of the 2024/25 season, with the new rights cycle going from 2025 to 2029.
Genius Sports has continued to be DataCo’s exclusive supplier of official low latency data since 2019, with the deal encompassing the English Premier League (EPL), the English Football League (EFL), and the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL).
Football DataCo was formed in 2001 by the professional football leagues in England and Scotland to protect, market and commercialise their official match related data. The exclusive data rights holder is charged with overseeing the collection, management and distribution of the Premier League, EFL, SPFL official event and performance-related data for global partners.
The licensing terms and distribution of English and Scottish football’s data rights have been strongly fought over the years by technology incumbents. In 2022 Genius Sports and main rival Sportradar settle out of court, on the sublicensing terms of the Football DataCo agreement – ending a four-year legal dispute.
The settlement saw Sportradar who had challenged “Genius’ restriction to English football” granted an FDC sublicence to a delayed secondary feed until 2024.
Genius Sports recently marked its eighth quarter showing consecutive growth in its latest full-year 2023 report, reaching revenues of $412m and corporate earnings in adjusted EBITDA of $53m – both metrics surpassing market expectations.
On the results, Mark Locke, Genius Sports Co-Founder and CEO, commented: “We are excited to report our eighth consecutive quarter of financial results above expectations, while demonstrating the increasing profitability of our business model and our ability to consistently execute on our strategic objectives.
