Genius Sports has been chosen as the successful bidder to extend its official betting data partnership with Football DataCo, which holds data rights to the English Premier League (EPL).
DataCo also holds rights to data from the English Football League (EFL), containing the Championship, League One and League Two, as well as all leagues overseen by the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), including the Scottish Premiership.
Genius has now entered into an exclusive period of negotiation with DataCo as it seeks to get the extension over the line. The renewed agreement is still subject to contract and the approval of the leagues and their clubs.
Genius has exclusively supplied low latency data to DataCo from the EPL, EFL and SPFL since 2019. The current deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 season, with the new contract set to last until 2029.
The fresh deal will see Genius Sports continue to distribute data from over 4,000 UK football fixtures per season.
Genius Sports reports mixed FY2023
Genius Sports recorded a 21% revenue increase for its 2023 financial year, reaching $413.0m (£324.5m/€379.3m) and beating its prior guidance of $391m.
The revenue was boosted by improvements in two of Genius’ operating sectors. This was evident in the 31.1% rise in Genius’ Betting Technology, Content & Services segment, which was responsible for $274.2m of the total revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA also more than tripled, shooting up by 238.3% year-on-year to $53.3m. This again surpassed the initial guidance of $41m.
However, despite the hikes in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, Genius Sports still recorded a loss of $85.5m for the year. This was less than half of the $181.6m loss reported the year prior, with Genius lauding “improved underlying performance”.
DataCo extension the latest move for Genius
In 2023, Genius penned a number of data deals with global businesses and federations. For instance, in March its data tracking business Second Spectrum extended its contract with the NBA.
In May, Genius and the Canadian Football League (CFL) launched data collection system CFL LiveStats. The following month saw Genius expand its integrity deal with the German FA. FanDuel and Genius also dually launched their NFL BetVision streaming solution in November.
In January, Genius announced an automated pricing tool called Edge. Factoring in real-time liability, Edge can recalculate odds at a fixture and market-type level for maximum profitability, including bet-builder products.
Genius’ product director Thomas Holland said Edge plans to offer operators an improved pricing tool over current solutions, which only serve to “limit players and minimise losses”.
