SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The betting rights of Lega Serie A will be revised, as the Italian football top division invites tenders to service a range of media and data packages for the 2024/25 campaign.
General terms for the Grant of Rights of Serie A have been published by Serie A management, underlying the strict fulfilment of data distribution requirements, authorisations and exclusivity of contracts.
Nine packages have been drafted by Serie A to any interested stakeholders, with each package – organised A-F(c) – covering a different aspect of the league’s global or domestic media and betting rights.
Perhaps of most significance for the majority of data suppliers in the multinational betting scene – such as Sportradar, Genius Sports, IMG and incumbent rights holder Stats Perform – is Package A.
The International Sports Betting Package encompasses audiovisual rights, match data and coach data and covers all countries and territories outside Italy, including high-profile football betting markets such as the UK and Germany.
Exclusive rights to audiovisual, match and coach data are granted to the successful bidder for this package, but can only be distributed in approved territories for sports betting purposes.
However, Italy is itself a prominent betting market, home to several international and domestic brands – Entain’s bwin, Flutter’s Sisal and SKS365’s PlanetWin, for example – and so Package B is also of significance.
Unlike Package A, this domestic round of rights does not include audiovisual rights but does cover match data and coach data for the Italian market.
Packages C-E cover media data, sports betting tracking data and media tracking data, whilst the three F packages are combinations of others. F(a) is a combination of A and B, F(b) consists of A, B and D, and F(c) covers C and E.
General terms specifically outline that data partners must control and monitor ‘rights limitations’ available to sub-licensees with regards to exploiting Serie A’s data tracking, publishing of content, protection of interactive services and reserved rights.
The document further outlines specific requirements and controls on how licensed partners can grant/authorise Serie A data and content for sub-licences.
Should a licence agreement be authorised, the licensee must accept full responsibility of the data rights management, in which Serie A clubs and officials will hold no liability should terms be breached.
Regarding payments, a security deposit of 15% of the total licence fee must be paid to the league upon completion of any agreements. This is followed by three instalments of the remaining yearly fee – 40% by 1 July 2024, 40% before 1 November 2024 and the last 30% before 1 March 2025. This timeframe will be repeated across each year of the contract.
Serie A provides further requirements on the payment schedule of its betting data contract, tax charges, reporting duties and use of brand, IP and trademarks available to partners.
Although rights holders are permitted to leverage sponsorship and advertising opportunities, this activity is subject to certain parameters. Notably, firms cannot use images of Serie A footballers, officials or management, or official logos or emblems of the league.
Lastly, successful licence holders must also update Serie A on a monthly basis with details regarding the top 10 markets contributing to gross gaming revenue (GGR), authorised users’ habits relating to both in-play and pre-match betting and the league’s market share in comparison to other domestic top-flight divisions.
Domestic and international betting data rights to the Serie A are currently held by London-headquartered sportstech firm Stats Perform, as mentioned above. The company first secured the rights back in 2021 under a three-deal deal covering not just the league but also the Copa Italia and Supercoppa Italia.
Since July 2019, Italy has imposed a blanket ban on gambling advertising and sponsorships across Italian sports. The ban on gambling advertising was enforced by the ‘Dignity Decree’ authorised by the Lega-5Star coalition government.
Recent developments have seen the government of PM Giorgia Meloni, commit to undertake a review of Italy’s gambling laws, needed to modernise the sector and settle costly licensing disputes.
