Genius Sports secures official rights to Serie A data

Genius Sports has been awarded the exclusive right to collect official Serie A betting data in-stadia from the start of the 2019-20 season.

The data will be captured pitchside and distributed as a live feed to licensed sportsbook operators outside of Italy via its sports betting arm, Betgenius.

The deal covers Serie A and Coppa Italia games.

Genius Sports chief commercial officer Jack Davison said: “Our partnership with Serie A is another example where we work with the most important global sports competitions to ensure our sportsbook operators have complete confidence in the security of their data supply and that our organisation will deliver the most trusted and compelling betting products to operators around the world.

“We look forward to working alongside Serie A to help extend the reach one of the largest leagues in world football.”

As part of the deal, Serie A will launch its first rights enforcement initiative, including the identification and ejection of unauthorised data collectors operating in-stadia.

Genius has made similar clampdowns on non-official data providers a part of its deals with UK football and world basketball.

The UK clampdown caused some concern within the industry that operators would be missing in-play data when the season kicked off, but anecdotal evidence over the weekend suggested most operators had signed up to the Genius official feed.

The provider, now majority owned by PE fund Apax Partners, also has an official data deal with NASCAR.