According to an official announcement, NFL and Genius Sports have decided to further their association till the finishing of the 2027-2028 NFL season. Genius will be part of the association with regard to the Super Bowl LXII in 2028. The initial agreement was inked in April 2021, and Genius Sports came in for the data rights pertaining to the NFL games. In that period, the agreement value stood at $1 billion.
As per the mutual understanding, Genius will hold on to the position of being the NFL’s sole distributor related to the real world, as well as play-by-play analytics, proprietary Next Gen Stats (NGS) data, and NFL’s sports betting data offered to the media, and the operators into sports betting.
According to the CEO of Genius Sports, Mark Locke, the extension will provide the opportunity for them to take further their initiative of data-oriented fan connect and open the doors for creating a much more enhanced scenario for the NFL enthusiasts, along with the media, the concerned teams, sportsbooks and others associated with the game.
As per the terms and conditions of the extended association, the allocation of the NFL’s watch and bet platform will commence from the 2023-24 NFL regular season. In the previous year, it was Caesars Entertainment that was the initial U.S. sportsbook responsible for airing live game content on NFL watch and bet platforms through the use of mobile handsets and tablets.
In order to take the viewer’s exposure to NFL sports betting to the next level, Genius will be utilizing its machine learning, coupled with the live streaming technologies, to build on the live betting options with regard to sportsbook associates.
Besides the NFL, Genius has plans to utilize its AI-boosted tracking technology with three other UK-based football leagues, the prime one being the English Premier League. The entity is looking towards bringing together live betting and on-screen visuals like CBS Sports’ Romo Vision for offering bettors multiple markets which are connected with the league’s Next Gen Stats.
The initial season of the association witnessed NFL’s in-game betting between active sportsbooks reach 25% of the handle in terms of betting on the games. Where the in-play handle for 2022-23 was concerned, it rose to 40% as compared to the previous season. The share value of Genius was roughly $6, indicating a rise to the tune of 4.79%. From the opening value for 2023 being $3.60 per share, it has managed to increase by 70%.
As per the Vice President for Business Development and Strategic Investments at NFL, Brent Lawton, from 2021, Genius Sports has been engaged in sharing their data with sportsbooks to come up with fresh methods of interacting with NFL enthusiasts. The extended period of the association will only help in furthering the activities more effectively.
