The NBA announced non-exclusive betting data partnerships with Genius Sports and Sportradar, who will now be able to supply official data to sports books.
The agreement includes all NBA and WNBA games beginning with the NBA’s ongoing season. Genius Sports and Sportradar, who are global industry leaders in providing betting data, will also license real-time betting products to sportsbooks.
The NBA has spearheaded an effort from the major U.S. sports leagues to encourage sportsbooks to license official data. Last summer, the NBA became the first league to name an official gaming partner in MGM Resorts, and that deal also includes official data. Sportradar is also the sports betting data provider to MGM GVC Interactive, the joint venture of MGM and tech platform GVC.
“We’ve been pretty consistent that we think the use of official data is very important for sports betting,” said NBA VP for fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross at the ICE Sports Betting USA conference in New York. “Through using the reach and the influence that Sportradar and Genius Sports have in the industry, we think we’re in a position to provide widespread usage of that data. We also thought it was important that we create a competitive marketplace for that data. We really want there to be as any operators as possible using it, and to be able to tap into the expertise of both Sportradar and Genius will help us to do that.”
Sportradar is already the official provider of both real-time NBA data and the official distributor of NBA betting data outside of the U.S.
“This agreement is an organic extension of the relationship that we have in place already for several years,” said Sportradar US president Matteo Monteverdi.
SportTechie Takeaway
Betting on the NBA has long existed without official data sources, of course, but the growing popularity and legalization of mobile, in-play wagering has a critical need for reliable, real-time data. The best way to get that is from the official league source, especially for creative prop bets. Many of those can be informed by, or wholly rely on, native digital tracking data—such as the NBA’s Second Spectrum system—that is proprietary and requires a data partnership.