Genius Sports And Sportradar Take Their Arguments To Court

• Genius Sports and Sportradar are each suing one another for ultimately the same reasons.
• Genius Sports has been the sole provider of Premier League data for sportsbooks but Sportradar has been illegally obtaining data from these games to supply their sports betting clients.
• Each company wants the other to step down from their stance on the issue and it is assumed the cases will be combined and heard together for a resolution.

LONDON – Genius Sports and Sportradar have been at legal odds with one another for quite some time and Genius has taken it a step further by filing a lawsuit in the British High Court on Friday against the sports data company. Not only is Genius Sports requesting damages be paid by Sportradar for their wrongdoing, but they are also seeking an immediate injunction to stop Sportradar from using any English or Scottish football league data from matches being played.

Sportradar has already filed their own lawsuit prior to this one back in 2020 where they are suing Genius Sports for their anti-competitive policy they’ve enforced by assuming the sole rights to all British and Scottish football league game stats.

The Details

Beginning in May of 2019, Genius officially became the one and only supplier of UK football data to sportsbooks through an agreement with the leagues. Within these contracts, it states that any and all scouts acquiring data to be supplied for the purposes of betting on sports like that of Sportradar be thrown out of the venues during games. The UK competition tribunal was set to hear the case Sportradar has against Genius Sports for their anti-competitive policy that does not allow them to use data of the Premier League.

But in that argument, Genius is backed by the fact that they have the rights through a contract to the information they provide to mobile sportsbooks as well as retail. That provides a strong case coupled with accusations against Sportradar for breach of confidence and conspiracy to injure by unlawful means. These two reasons can be brought up as ticket purchasing policies require those buying tickets to games to be spectators and not sit in the stands taking reports on stats and data unofficially for the benefit of their company by then selling this information to their clients like Sportradar has been doing.

Genius Sports maintains that this unlawful behavior by Sportradar and their scouts have led to lost revenues which is why they are requesting damages be paid.

What’s To Come

While both cases are separate, they could be heard together and go before one judge when proceedings begin.

Sportradar wants to be able to provide Premier League data to legal sportsbooks and not have Genius Sports have the monopoly on that part of the market and Genius Sports wants Sportradar to not be eligible to offer this service to their clients and pay damages for the time they have been doing it unlawfully.

It’s very much the same issue that could allow for the cases to be combined. Both sports wagering suppliers offer their services within the legal United States sports gaming industry and could continue their rivalry across the pond.

News tags: British Football League | British High Court | Genius Sports | Premier League | Scottish Football League | Sportradar | UK competition tribunal | UK Football