Genius Sports wins latest Danish court case against rival data firm
Danish High Court dismisses FirstPlay appeal as injunctions remain against Danish and Bulgarian entities
Genius Sports has won the latest stage of a legal dispute against rival sports data firm FirstPlay A/S after judges in the Danish High Court upheld a prior December injunction against the firm.
Judges dismissed an appeal made against the injunction, which prevents FirstPlay A/S from “directly or indirectly carrying on activities that involve collection, processing and distribution of sports data” for a period of 18 months from October 2019.
An appeal against a secondary injunction made specifically against First Play A/S’s owners was also dismissed, with the firm ordered to pay Genius Sports’ legal costs.
In addition to reaffirming prior injunctions, the High Court ruled that FirstPlay Denmark and its FirstPlay Bulgaria business act as one enterprise, including the Bulgaria-based business within the scope of the injunction.
Genius Sports COO Steven Burton welcomed the judgment as “complete vindication” of the claim brought against First Play A/S.
The case centres on former employees of InPlay Sports Data, a company acquired by Genius Sports in 2018.
However, soon after the acquisition, the employees left Genius to set up new firm FirstPlay.
In the previous judgment, justices at the Copenhagen City Court alleged additional Genius Sports employees were contacted with a view to recruiting individuals for the new business.
The ex-employees claimed they had not intended to establish a new business at the time, abandoning any intention to do so in July 2019.
But justices at the Copenhagen court also alleged emails were sent on two separate occasions seeking to obtain “knowledge of trade secrets/business-related sensitive data” relating to employee salaries and the firm’s sports data portfolio and pricing.
As such, the court ruled that FirstPlay’s actions constituted a “talent drain” on Genius Sports, which is contrary to the Danish Marketing Practices Act.
FirstPlay A/S has not commented on the appeal at the time of publication after being approached by EGR.