Hundreds of football players throughout England plan to take legal action against a range of businesses dealing with betting data. The action seeks payment for the use of their performance and tracking data.
If successful, the lawsuit could have ramifications regarding player data for betting markets.
The potential benefit could be worth “hundreds of millions of pounds” to the plaintiffs. The suit is being spearheaded by former Leyton Orient and Cardiff City manager, Russell Slade, and his company Global Sports Data, under the Project Red Card banner.
While defendants in the case were not yet named, Richard Dutton, director of Elias Partnership, told iGaming Business that companies involved in the sports betting industry could be targets.
“It’s about the performance and tracking data, which we contend doesn’t have the players’ consent, and it’s about the rights of players,” Dutton said. “No individual owns their data, but we have rights about its use, particularly under GDPR but also under, for example, the Data Protection Act of 2018.”
The crux of the problem deals more with businesses profiting from the data, not who owns the information.
“There’s nothing wrong with you or I making notes for our own benefit of how a player is playing,” he said. “That’s how many players are scouted. The issue here is that organizations are compiling all this data on the players and then selling it without the appropriate consent, and that’s not okay.”
More than 400 current and former players have signed on, with hundreds more interested. These players intend to sue for a total that Dutton said could be in “the hundreds of millions”, though this would be spread across a range of defendants that would also include businesses outside of the betting industry.
