Genius Sports extended a comprehensive sports betting data partnership with three English football leagues on Friday, including a new provision to supply the English Football League’s Championship division with A.I.-powered tracking technology.
As the official tracking data and analytics partner of the English Premier League, Genius has already supplied the English Premier League (EPL) with sophisticated player-tracking data since 2020. Under Friday’s expanded partnership, Genius extended an official betting data agreement with Football DataCo (FDC), thus expanding a rights partnership with the EPL, the Scottish Professional Football League, and the English Football League (EFL).
The multi-year deal extends Genius’ partnership to collect, license, and distribute official live betting data from the leagues to sportsbook operators around the world. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The Premier League is the most popular league in world sport and Genius Sports has created the fastest, most accurate, and secure feed on U.K. football to power first-class products for sportsbooks around the world,” said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports, in a statement. “We are delighted to extend our partnership to continue to power innovation.”
Second Spectrum data
As part of the deal, Genius expanded the partnership to capture “sub-second, skeletal tracking data” for all EFL Championship and Championship playoff matches through its Second Spectrum technology. Consequently, the company’s A.I.-powered tracking systems will be installed at all remaining league stadiums, capturing positional data on every player, match official, and the ball used in a given match.
In the past, Genius has used augmentation technology from Second Spectrum to create automated, real-time graphics based on in-stadium data. The technology has the capability to capture analytics such as player speed and shot velocity to enhance match broadcasts for viewers.
In the U.S., leading sports betting states have yet to allow wagers on shot speed with MLS soccer props, even though wagers on exit velocity will be available at Major League Baseball‘s Home Run Derby next month in Seattle.
“Genius Sports and Second Spectrum continue to generate first-class data and provide innovative solutions for a variety of Football DataCo’s stakeholders,” said Adrian Ford, FDC’s general manager, in the statement. “The technology is improving all the time, extending the creative use of data to improve the presentation of English and Scottish football.”
The sports betting industry continues to leverage A.I. technology to power in-game markets with increased rapidity and improved accuracy. Nevertheless, as A.I. technological solutions proliferate, there is mounting concern that some companies will use predictive analytics to gain an unfair competitive edge over customers.
We're proud to announce a major extension & expansion of our partnership with Football DataCo:
⚽️ Exclusive supplier of low latency live betting data
📊 On 4k+ games @premierleague, @EFL, @spfl
🎯 New official tracking partner to @SkyBetChampLink: https://t.co/fAJ34aUG7A pic.twitter.com/PRaF68NFwo
— Genius Sports (@GeniusSports) June 23, 2023
A contentious legal battle
Under a previous deal, Genius maintained the exclusive rights to provide FDC betting data to global sportsbooks through 2024. Last October, Genius and Sportradar resolved litigation that enabled the former to market and license FDC data.
As part of the settlement, Sportradar agreed to refrain from engaging in unofficial in-stadium data scouting throughout the three leagues. Sportradar filed a lawsuit against Genius and Football DataCo in March 2020, alleging that Genius violated U.K. and E.U. competition law by preventing the company from collecting and furnishing data on certain league games.
Genius Sports and Sportradar own a practical duopoly on the global sports betting data market, with the majority of exclusive data partnerships with the world’s leading professional sports leagues. Genius signed an exclusive betting data partnership with the NFL in 2021, months before Sportradar inked a similar agreement with the NBA.
