Eighteen European Soccer Leagues Pool Gambling Data Rights in New Tender
As sports betting grows more prevalent around the world, leagues large and small are finding added value in the live data collected from their contests.
The European Leagues, a group that represents the commercial interests of dozens of soccer leagues across the continent, is seeking to capitalize on that trend with a new tender, issued this week, that covers 18 countries and more than 8,100 annual matches. The group is seeking a partner, or partners, that will collect the data in-venue and turn it into real-time betting products for sportsbooks around the world.
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The tender, viewed by Sportico, includes the top domestic leagues in Portugal, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. The rights are available starting in 2022, and the group is seeking either a three- or five-year deal.
The pooling of rights from across the continent has been a relatively new priority for the European Leagues, which earlier this year issued a tender for a media rights deal that covered nine leagues across the continent. The strategy actually began with data—back in 2017 the group pooled rights to eight leagues and later expanded that to 16 in deals with Sportradar, Genius Sports and Stats Perform.
The growth “proves that this rights collectivization process led by the European Leagues provides additional value for both our member leagues and the market,” Chris Gerstle, head of business development at the European Leagues, said in statement.
Not only is the set of rights in this tender even larger, it also includes women’s matches for the first time. The tender says the group is open to either an exclusive deal with one partner, or a non-exclusive deal with multiple firms, but this process is starting earlier than the previous ones, which could provide more time for an exclusive partnership to be reached.
The group is hoping that the sheer volume of matches and the number of relevant markets is an alluring prospect for the handful of companies that act as middlemen between rights holders and sportsbooks. The tender also includes a number of leagues that play through the summer—the offseason for Europe’s biggest leagues.
The gambling data world is dominated by four companies—Sportradar, Genius Sports, Stats Perform and IMG Arena. Bids are to be submitted by Aug. 23, the tender says, with a final decision coming on Sept. 30.
The other participants in the tender include top leagues in Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Norway and Sweden. It also includes women’s matches from Denmark and Germany, as well as the third-tier German men’s league.
