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Genius Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have announced a “landmark initiative,” which is designed to transform the digital collection and distribution of intercollegiate sports data, following SCOTUS’ landmark decision on PASPA.
Further to its development, promotional, and technical support for data software, Genius Sports is to also serve as the NCAA’s exclusive agent in licensing real-time official data from its championship events, including March Madness, to media platforms and other organisations.
Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports, said: “This technology will deliver a world-class experience for NCAA fans, coaches, players, athletic directors and administrators alike.
“We’re delighted to be playing a pivotal role in the NCAA’s digital transformation, implementing one of the most advanced technology systems in sports.”
Set to benefit in excess of 1,100 of the NCAA member institutions, the move is a huge development on previous times, which has seen college sports stats and records exist in hundreds of different places, with individual schools and conferences managing their own collection, aggregation and distribution.
Beginning with men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in 2019, the technology will subsequently be rolled out to schools for other NCAA sports, including volleyball, football, soccer, baseball and softball.
Detailing the benefits and improvements set to be felt by NCAA member schools and conferences, Genius Sports stated they would include “enhanced data capture and distribution services, richer coaching insights, and the ability to captivate fan and media experience by delivering engaging statistics to multiple platforms in real-time.”
Oliver Luck, executive vice president of regulatory affairs and strategic partnerships for the NCAA, added: “This digital transition comes at a time when data for all intercollegiate sports are increasingly important to our fans, our institutions and our partners.
“This initiative will transform the way we collect, use, and distribute the vast amount of sports data being consumed across all sports at every level. It will allow our schools to upgrade to state-of-the-art technology.”
