Internationally recognized sports lawyer Steven Burton will join London-based Genius Sports as director of Sports Integrity Services. Genius Sports, founded in 2013, is the trusted integrity partner of the English Premier League, Major League Baseball and Euroleague Basketball, among numerous other of the world’s leading sports leagues and federations.
A 17-year veteran in collecting, using and protecting sports data and integrity, Burton has been named “the foremost legal authority” in sports data by the independent legal directory Chambers and Partners.
Prior to joining Genius Sports, Burton was a partner and the head of Sports Data, Betting & Integrity at Couchmans LLP, one of the world’s premier sports law firms, where he advised Football DataCo Limited (Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League), ATP Tour, WTA Tour, the International Tennis Federation, Israeli Professional Football League, the Football Association of Ireland and Liga de Futbol Profesional, among others.
Burton has been involved in many historically large and valuable sports data deals, including advising Football DataCo Limited since its creation in 1999; negotiating a new 5-year data rights deal for the ITF, covering more than 90,000 tennis matches per year– the largest single package of official data rights in world sport; and working with La Liga to implement their first-ever official data rights plan in 2014.
Genius Sports Executive Director Nick Maywald said, “I am very excited that Steven is joining the team at Genius Sports. With his expertise in the collection, commercialization and integrity of sports data, he is an invaluable appointment as we continue our rapid growth within the industry.”
Genius Sports Chief Executive Officer Mark Locke commented, “I am delighted with the appointment of Steven to such an important role for our business. The combination of innovative technology and official partnerships is crucial in enabling sports federations to maximize commercial revenues whilst protecting the integrity of their competitions. Steven’s track record in these areas speaks for itself”.
Burton noted, “I am incredibly excited about this new role. Having spent my entire professional career helping sports leagues and federations to exploit their official data, maximize their revenues and protect their integrity, it was important for me to join an organization that has a proven track record of working in partnership with sports. Over the last few years, many of the sports that I have represented have chosen to collaborate with Genius Sports and I have been impressed by their integrity, innovative technology and commitment to working with sports to help them to realize their full commercial potential. Joining Genius Sports was an obvious choice.”
