The UK sports data and technology company Genius Sports has started legal action against its competitive sports leagues’ data management and integrity services provider Sportradar. The lawsuit was filed in the UK High Court over the ongoing legal disagreements between the two data companies.
In May 2019, a subsidiary of Genius Sports was appointed as the exclusive data supplier for the English Football League (EFL), English Premier League (EPL), and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) by Football DataCo under the terms of an agreement commencing with the beginning of the 2019/20 football season. Under the provisions of the deal, the sports betting unit of the company – BetGenius – has been given the rights to gather live match data from more than 4,000 football matches in the UK and distribute it on a global scale, to various sports betting operators.
Apart from that, Genius Sports adopted what was called a “zero tolerance policy” of cutting rival data firms’ access to data scouts, also known as data journalists. According to a filing that was submitted in court on February 5th, 2021, Sportsradar breached Genius Sports’ exclusive data rights deal by sending some data scouts to matches across the three abovementioned football leagues.
Judge Says Both Legal Cases Should Be Managed by the Same Judge
Last year, in March, legal proceedings were rolled out by Sportradar against Genius Sports under the claims that the GS’ collaboration with the three aforementioned football leagues violated competition rules. As claimed by Sportradar at the time, the agreement provided its market rival with a super-dominant position in the field of collecting sports data.
Then, in December 2020, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) issued a ruling that it would act as the main judiciary in the competition and data rights violation claim. In a statement that was made to Sportico, Sportradar denied the premise of the Genius Sports’ lawsuit and further noted that it has always been its view that relying on private and exclusive law rights is not the right thing to do when it comes to anti-competitive agreements.
The General Counsel of Genius Sports, Tom Russell, has responded to the statement, saying that GS is only engaged in scouting that honours the rights of everyone else and respects sports’ control over the events. He further said that no data scouts of Genius Sports enter stadia where others old the exclusive rights to do that.
It was confirmed by judge Sir Peter Roth that the legal cases of both Genius Sports and FDC could progress to the UK High Court in case the original competition case tilts in favour of the two companies. Still, Judge Roth has recommended that both cases are given to the same judge to manage.
- Author
Olivia Cole
