Genius Sports Negotiating to Extend UK Soccer Data Rights
Sports and analytics provider Genius Sports is negotiating to extend its official data rights for English and Scottish soccer leagues into 2029, according to a release from the company Tuesday.
Football DataCo Ltd.—the two-decade-old entity that commercializes the match-related data of the English Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League—has entered an exclusive negotiating window with Genius. Genius’ current deal with Football DataCo ends after the 2024-25 season, and the talks would extend the contract for another four seasons.
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News of the talks appeared to have little effect on Genius stock on the New York Stock Exchange in trading Tuesday, opening up a penny at $5.91 a share.
Genius has held English and Scottish soccer data rights since 2019, extending the contract once before, in June 2023. At that time, Genius’ player tracking technology was extended to EFL Championship matches, the second-tier league in England, in addition to sports betting data.
While terms of the contract with Genius aren’t disclosed, Football DataCo reported total revenue of £27.245 million (about $35 million) for the year ending July 31, according to a filing with UK regulators. The organization lists two partners on its website: Genius and Opta, which provides data to media clients. According to Genius Sports’ 2021 prospectus, the Football DataCo deal provides data for more than 4,000 matches annually and is distributed to more than 80 of Genius’ sportsbook clients worldwide.
The leagues’ data was the source of litigation between Genius Sports and competitor Sportradar. The litigation included multiple lawsuits, including one where Genius accused Sportradar of using “data scouts” to gather information at matches and distribute it to facilitate betting. The dispute was settled in 2022 with Sportradar agreeing not to use in-game scouting and to purchase a sublicense from Genius for a delayed data feed.
Details about the negotiating window and possible terms of an extension aren’t disclosed. Genius didn’t respond to a request for comment.
(This story has been updated in the third, fifth and sixth paragraphs to provide additional information.)
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