Genius Sports have secured the exclusive rights to collect and distribute live football data of English and Scottish Premier Leagues worldwide. The data will be transmitted to sports betting companies with less than one-second delay. The financial details of the deal remain unknown.
The League brings the highest profile of domestic football and is popular globally because of top players. Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea have a huge global fan base as well. The previous partner of the League was Perform Group. The rights holder for Premier League, Scottish League, and English League is Football Data Co.
Now with the transfer of the right, Genius Sports will be using its betting department Betgenius to collect the live data directly from the stadiums and cover over 4,000 soccer matches. Both the English and Scottish leagues will transmit data from all levels of matches for this deal. Access to accurate and official data quickly helps in sports betting as well. Betting operators prefer to be ahead of the curve in live wagering scenarios to provide the best betting opportunities to their players. Media companies also use this data which brings a new source of revenue for the Leagues.
As football is a globally popular sport, it provides several opportunities in terms of viewership and user participation. Therefore, there is a significantly higher number of people who like to bet on the sport. The high-profile matches bring a major revenue for operators as well. According to the UK Gambling Commission, 46% of the total online sports betting revenue can be attributed to football alone. However, there is no data about the portion that the leagues charge from this sum.
The League has shown great interest in the Asian markets recently, where sports betting and Premier League football are both popular. Genius Sports could help it bring its games to a wider audience and earn a bigger chunk of betting revenue.
The deal is also big for Genius Sports, and the company’s CEO Mark Locke called it “transformational” for his business. He noted that the deal gives exclusive access to sports betting content around the world and helps in reinforcing their commitment to bring competitive betting products and services for the customers. The company may also want to take advantage of the newly opened US market. Ten states have already legalized sports betting in the country, and many more are expected to follow this year.
