Europe offers a contrast to the United States and perhaps a blueprint in the ways data plays into the sports betting market.
In the U.S., official league data has become a thorn surrounding the possibility of further regulation, thanks to a mix of politics, sports integrity and money. Strong opinions abound on all sides, said an article in Legal Sports Report. The same topic generates far less controversy in Europe.
Legal Sports Report said sports betting has developed differently in Europe, where the process has taken a decade to evolve. But with data, a key divergence with the U.S. relates to EU database rights, which provided the platform for the evolution in Europe of in-play betting with the availability of the data at a relatively low price point, thus fostering innovation at a product level.
“The fact that there isn’t a recognized right in sports data means it is an industry (in Europe) that has grown up with a relatively modest level of input cost,” said David Lampitt, global head of league partnerships at Sportradar.
The database right applies whether the data is collected under the auspices of an official league data deal or via open source means. As a result, all three major suppliers – Sportradar, StatsPerform and Genius Group – now provide both types of data to their clients.
There is some friction building in Europe with English soccer. Football DataCo is eyeing the developing debate in the U.S. and pushing for greater fees in return for access to official league data. FDC’s new official and exclusive deal with BetGenius has recently been the cause of some escalation in tensions, according to Legal Sports Report.
Outwardly, this is because of the somewhat heavy-handed actions of security guards employed to identify and eject from the grounds data scouts from other organizations. But it’s really because of what has been rumored to be the prices demanded by FDC/Genius Group for access to their data.
Open-source scouting is also an issue in the U.S. but to a lesser extent due to the number of games that are televised. In markets such as the UK where there is a TV blackout on English Premier League and English Football League games taking place at 3 p.m. on a Saturday, it means in-stadia scouting is more often required.
Where developments in the U.S. and Europe converge is in the area of player-tracking technology. In Europe, such techniques has not been business-critical for betting, said Lampitt, due to the nature of the bet types on the most popular sports of soccer and tennis.
In comparison, Angus McNab, previously a vice-president at Perform in the U.S. and now a New York-based consultant in this arena, says player-tracking will be much more mission-critical for U.S. sportsbooks.
“Next-generation tracking data will be of much higher value in U.S. sports—basketball, football, hockey in particular—as they have a far higher volume of substitutions/line changes so player identification and who is on the court/pitch becomes critical for creating many more prop bets,” McNab said.
Such data is impossible to replicate other than through official league data access. If bet types based on that data become the industry standard, then that will likely strengthen the value of official data but inevitably have a greater impact on costs.
It will also have an impact on the debate around legislative efforts on mandated use of official league data. The debate is far from dead in Europe, but to date sports-betting rights have only come into play in France and Poland.
Elsewhere, it has long been deemed that the benefits sports gain from their commercial relationships with betting far outweigh the need for a further legislated financial contribution.
This is unlikely to change given the extent of the entanglements between sport and gambling across the continent and the comparative lack of political heft on the part of the various sports leagues and bodies.
However, the U.S. major leagues may provide a more heavyweight lobby in this respect. Still, states with sports betting have been reluctant to provide this protection to the sports leagues with only Illinois and Tennessee having any requirement on mandated official data.
Any extra financial leverage for the leagues would likely reduce the financial benefits for the states themselves who are vying for a slice of the same pie.
