Under the revised deal, Genius Sports will remain the NFL’s exclusive distributor of real-time official statistics and proprietary Next Gen Stats data, as well as the league’s official sports betting data feed for media companies and sports betting operators globally.
As part of the agreement, Genius Sports granted 9.5 million warrants, each representing the right to buy one share in the business, to the NFL, with 4.5 million vesting immediately and the remaining 5 million vesting in April 2028.
Based on Genius’ share price at the time of the announcement, the award is worth approximately $94m.
The NFL already owned some 14.5 million shares in the business as exercisable warrants, according to media reports, which together with the newly granted warrants bring its effective shareholding in the business to nearly 8.7%.
That figure, reports suggest, makes the league effectively the largest shareholder in Genius Sports.
Expanded partnership details
As well as exclusively distributing official NFL data, Genius will continue as the sole supplier of official low latency live games distributed to sportsbooks internationally.In addition, the new deal means Genius will now exclusively represent the NFL’s in-game advertising inventory.
The company continues to be an official reseller of the NFL’s advertising inventory, leveraging its FANHub platform. Under the revised agreement, Genius and the NFL will collaborate on further activation opportunities with FANHub, the company said.
Additionally, Genius will continue to provide integrity services across all NFL games and tentpole events.
“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.
“We are excited to extend and expand our partnership as we continue to partner on innovative ways to deliver content to NFL fans.”
Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke added: “The NFL delivers a tremendous platform to accelerate our business, and we are thrilled to extend and grow our strategic partnership.
“Our expanded NFL partnership further strengthens our leading position at the heart of the sports technology ecosystem, and represents a key milestone in our FANHub rollout, setting a new standard for data-driven immersive experiences for NFL fans, broadcasters, teams, sportsbooks, brands, and sponsors.”
