Sportsradar considering legal action
It is being alleged that Sportradar has now threatened to take legal action against Genius Sports in a row over the data supplier’s deal for exclusive rights to the English Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League.
Earlier this year, Genius Sports bought the rights from Football DataCo, denying any obligation to enter sublicensing agreements with other data suppliers.
The agreement is intended to run for five seasons, from 2019-20 to 2023-24.
The CEO of Genius Sports, Mark Locke, has previously told the media that, “There is no requirement for us to sublicense the rights, but we are willing to have conversations with anyone who wants to have a conversation with us.”
Despite Genius’ apparent openness to discussion however, Sportradar has accused the supplier of blocking competition by entering into the exclusive arrangement.
The agreement requires other data suppliers to purchase sub-license rights from Genius Sports before providing data, but Sportradar wants to collect its own data, claiming the current arrangements “infringe on UK and EU competition law.”
A letter which was published in the media over the weekend, accuses Genius Sports and FoorballDataCo of “aggressively targeting” anyone else collecting live match data in stadiums.
When approached by various news outlets, Genius Sports refused to comment.
