Genius Sports files lawsuit against rival Sportradar

Genius Sports files lawsuit against rival Sportradar

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Genius Sports files lawsuit against rival Sportradar

According to a recent report by Sportico, Genius Sports has filed a lawsuit against its main rival provider Sportradar in the British High Court.

Back in May of 2019, Football DataCo (FDC) chose the Genius Sports subsidiary as the exclusive live data supplier for the Premier League, English Football League (EFL) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). That deal started during the 2019/2020 season.

The terms of this deal stated that the company’s sports betting division BetGenius would obtain the rights to gather live match data from more than 4000 UK football fixtures. This data will then be handed over to international bookmakers around the globe

Furthermore, Genius Sports also refused access to ‘data journalists’, who are also known as data scouts, from rival data firms including Sportradar. The firm took a ‘zero tolerance policy’, but according to the filing (which was submitted on the 5th of February), Sportradar violated Genius Sports’ agreement by sending scouts to matches in three different leagues.

Sportradar also initiated legal proceedings against the firm in March of 2020, and stated that the firm’s deal with the Premier League, EFL and SPFL was ‘anti-competitive’ and provided it with a ‘super-dominant position’ in the sports data collection scene. Then, in December of last year, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled that it would be acting as the lead judiciary in the data rights and competition infringement claim.

In the statement to Sportico, Sportradar refused the presumption of Genius Sports’ lawsuit by saying: 

Sportradar’s position has always been that private law rights cannot be relied upon to give effect to an anti-competitive arrangement.

Still, in an answer to that exact publication, Genius Sports General Counsel Tom Russell’s said that his firm only takes part in scouting that respects others’ rights. He then added:

We respect sports’ control over their events. We don’t enter stadia where others have rights.

Furthermore, Judge Sir Peter Roth confirmed that both of these cases could be handed over to the High Court if the main competition case goes in favour of the two companies, but has also stated that both cases should be handled by the same judge.

As of late, Sports data has been an incredibly valuable asset in the betting and gambling sector. Both of these companies have landed nine-figure deals with tournaments including the Premier League, and even American sports divisions such as the National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL).

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