The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Genius Sports have announced a new deal that extends their partnership until 2019. Genius has been working with FIBA since 2005.
Through the deal, Genius Sports will increase its coverage of basketball events so that in 2016 it will be collecting courtside statistics on over 35,000 games in 120 countries.
“This new partnership goes beyond a pure technology partnership,” stated International Basketball Foundation President and FIBA Honorary President Yvan Mainini. “It will help tremendously with the development of basketball on a global level, especially in countries with limited human and financial resources. The Foundation focuses especially on those members.”
Stats for international and regional events
The deal also gives Genius the non-exclusive rights to distribute live data from over 2,000 high-profile games to betting and media markets. This includes the 2016 FIBA Olympic qualifying tournaments and 2017 Continental Cups.
Genius Sports developed FIBA LiveStats, which “enables courtside capturing of live game statistics, live webcast publishing and reporting to coaches and media.”
As the “Official FIBA Data and Statistics League and Federation Partner,” Genius will roll out its Sports Management Platform to National Federations, and in 2017, its LiveStats solution will be standardized across all of FIBA’s European members.
“Sports technology and the creation, distribution and monetisation of data are central to any sports development strategy,” said Genius Sports Chief Commercial Officer Nick Maywald. “We are delighted to announce this expanded agreement with FIBA and look forward to working with even more federations and leagues across the world to make basketball the most popular sports community.”
Data availability drives growth, good for sports betting
More and better statistics have become an important tool in increasing interest in all sports. High quality data can be exploited to produce media content, drive fantasy sports competitions and provide the basis for sports betting.
For sports betting regulators, data also helps in the battle against match-fixing. Last week, Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke, explained how important data is in ensuring game integrity and how he sees the future.
“We see an intelligent model wherein all officially sanctioned data and wagers placed with licenced operators passes through a centralised technology hub,” Locke told SBC. “This would allow all wagers to be time-stamped and validated, and wagering activity would be monitored on a second-by-second basis, with any anomalies identified in real-time monitoring of wagering patterns.”
The positive benefits of statistical data in driving increased interest in a sport, together with the use of data to counter negatives such as match-fixing, can combine to help a sport and its allied betting industry flourish synergistically.
Genius Sports also operates with the Premier League, Major League Baseball, and several other leading sports bodies.
