Global basketball body extends data deal with Genius Sports

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport’s global governing body, has extended its data partnership with Genius Sports.

The parties have signed a new, long-term extension to a relationship that began in 2004.

FIBA and Genius will continue to collaborate on a number of digital and data initiatives, such as the FIBA Organiser, a digital competition management tool, and the FIBA LiveStats play-by-play data collection system.

FIBA LiveStats is operated at courtside across more than 85,000 games around the world each year, capturing and distributing data as it happens in the game.

The deal will also see FIBA and Genius work together to prevent the collection of unofficial data from FIBA events, which they have said will provide leagues and national federations with control over their data and ensure it is not used for betting-related corruption.

“We have been working together for more than 15 years to develop and offer state-of-the-art digital tools for national federations and leagues,” FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said.

“Thanks to this renewal, we will continue the joint efforts in creating innovative tools and make sure that our sport is even more attractive to fans around the world.”

Mark Locke, chief executive of Genius Sports Group, added: “Together, we’ve powered over 500,000 games from courtside in over 150 countries and engaged more than 25 million fans.

“But this renewal is as much about the future as our achievements to date, and we’re excited to introduce a number of cutting-edge innovations later this year, driving the next stage of digital transformation and data analytics for leagues and federations at all levels of basketball.”

Last month, Genius also struck up a new partnership with the Bulgarian Football Union and signed a deal with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).