The way fans watch and even shop NFL football has changed during the streaming era, and the league’s tech teammates at Genius Sports are sticking around to clear lanes through the turbulence.
The National Football League and Genius Sports agreed to a multi-year extension of their current deal that runs through the 2029 season and would expand the bounds of their partnership into new territory.
Currently, Genius Sports provides the NFL’s real-time, official play-by-play stats, Genius Sports’ predictive proprietary Next Generation Stats (NGS), and its sports betting data feed to league media partners and sports betting operators.
That won’t change, as Genius Sports will still have exclusive distribution rights to NFL data. It also remains the only supplier of live games for international sports books, as well as the exclusive representative for NFL international owned and operated ad inventory and NFL sports betting ad inventory in the U.S., powered by Genius Sports’ FANHub platform.
Under the new agreement, Genius Sports and the league will work together to find new outlets for FANHub data.
“Across data, video, advertising, and integrity services, Genius has proven to be an important strategic partner through the first four seasons of our partnership,” said Brent Lawton, vp of business development and strategic investments at the NFL.
Under the expansion, meanwhile, Genius Sports will search for new ways to build its technology into NFL broadcasts and other products.
In 2023, Genius Sports launched BetFeed to bring sports betting data to live games streamed on smartphones and tablets. In 2024, it powered the EA Sports Madden NFL Cast to give NFL partners a branded alt cast and build its data into an interactive, game-like stream.
Going forward, Genius Sports plans to focus on its GeniusIQ data and AI platform to build betting, ad, broadcast, and fan options for the league.
Meanwhile, as the NFL remains concerned about the integrity of its game amid legal sports betting, Genius Sports looks to offer the league services that pick up on anomalies and indicate where something may indicate suspicious betting activity.
