Securing the secrets of sports data

As the billion-dollar sports betting market continues to grow, so does its need for pitchside data, but the dispute over who owns it is getting fierce, as Alex Baldwin discovers.

The sport data market has grown fast over the past decade to become a multi-billion dollar industry where companies pay a substantial premium for mere seconds of an advantage over competitors.

Two of the biggest names in sports betting data, Genius Sports and Sportradar are currently locked in a high-profile lawsuit to determine whether this live data can be monopolised, and neither wants to back down.

“A core point of contention in situations like this is whether the information being viewed at these events is confidential,” explains Ian De Freitas, partner at Farrer and data dispute specialist.