Genius Sports and 888 Holdings have reached an agreement that will provide tech and data, including the NFL’s official stream, to power the new Sports Illustrated sportsbook.
Under the deal, Genius Sports will supply SI Sportsbook with its full suite of U.S. data and trading solutions. Genius already had an existing global partnership with Gibraltar-based 888, which is a partner in SI Sportsbook alongside SI owner Authentic Brands Group.
A relative newcomer to the U.S. sports betting scene, SI Sportsbook is live in just one state, Colorado. It is expected to launch elsewhere in the near future.
“This is an important step in SI Sportsbook’s launch,” Yaniv Sherman, head of 888’s U.S. business, said in a statement. “By extending our global partnership with Genius Sports, we are able to combine our proprietary technology with its exclusive real-time sports data to provide a first-class betting and gaming experience for sports fans.”
This is just the latest partnership that Genius Sports (NYSE: GENI) has signed in the last few weeks involving official NFL data and the right to use league logos, and more are coming in the next few weeks. This is the first, however, with an operator that doesn’t also have a commercial partnership with the league in the U.S.
The official NFL sportsbook partners all committed to also buying the data from Genius, but the London-based data firm paid a large price—hundreds of millions in cash and stock—to the NFL in hopes that it would also generate business outside those commercial league deals. The league’s 2021 season kicks off Thursday.
In June 888 (LON: 888) agreed to partner with ABG on an exclusive 20-year deal to be the operator behind SI Sportsbook. That deal has an upfront licensing fee, and additional payments based on performance metrics. Authentic Brands also received a 4.9% stake in 888’s consumer-facing U.S. business, with options to buy up to nearly 20% at future dates.
888 is the NFL’s official sports betting partner in the U.K. and Ireland.
