IBIA welcomes IMG Arena as latest member

The agreement will see both organisations “strengthen their engagement on betting integrity and sports data distribution”.

IMG Arena becomes the latest organisation to partner with IBIA, which signed memorandum of understanding agreements with the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and Spain’s Jdigital earlier this year.

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “The move is natural progression following an increasing engagement between IMG Arena and IBIA on betting and integrity issues. It acknowledges the growing importance of sports data to IBIA’s regulated betting operators and the benefits both parties see from closer cooperation.

“IBIA values IMG Arena’s contribution to the protection of the integrity of sporting events and the related sports data rights that it distributes globally. The association looks forward to building upon our existing relationship and widening our engagement activities.”  

IMG Arena completed its acquisition of data collection specialists FlightScope Services earlier this year. Its parent company Endeavour also completed a deal to acquire Scientific Games’ sports betting division OpenBet for $1.20bn.

“We are thrilled to become an associate member of the IBIA,” added IMG Arena’s executive vice president and managing director Freddie Longe. “We are committed to protecting the integrity of sport and have had a consistent position and commitment to distribution of official content since our launch in 2012.

“The IBIA is a leading global voice on integrity for the licensed sports betting industry and we are proud to develop our partnership further in support of our shared vision.”