Content is king. After more than 25 years, Bill Gates' famous phrase about how the internet would revolutionize our lives while predicting that real money would be made online.
Fast forward to today and the global betting industry epitomizes this phrase that official live football content is king. While other sporting competitions may attract more betting attention in some markets, such as the NFL in the United States, nothing comes close to football from a global fan engagement perspective.
There are countless reasons for football's global notoriety as necessary content. As a recent survey (EY Sports Engagement Index) shows, football appears at the top across several generations who watch, follow and play any sport. Football is simply considered the "world's game" with a global fan base numbering in the billions that attracts major sponsors.
Built for Betting
The growing demand for football has helped create an incredible variety of bets. Bookmakers cater to this global audience, offering a wide range of markets across thousands of football competitions played across all international time zones.
Added to this is the way the game is structured and played, providing the key ingredients for a perfect betting product that has allowed football to trigger an explosion in live betting over the last 15 years. Football is a highly unpredictable, low-scoring game that tends to produce more results against all odds when compared to other sports such as basketball or rugby.
This unpredictability, combined with the natural rhythm of football games – with ups and downs in the action around occasional major events – provides bettors with constant live engagement, as well as space to pause and think about their next bet.
Of all the championships, none surpass the popularity of the English Premier League when it comes to betting. More than 30 years after its creation, the Premier League is currently broadcast in 188 countries to more than 800 million homes, reaching thousands of fans around the world. From a betting point of view, the Premier League attracts more attention than any other competition in the world, with a competitive atmosphere where “anyone can beat anyone”, and with a high potential for engagement.
We at Genius Sports have since 2019 partnered with Football DataCo, the exclusive holder of the official UK football data rights, including the Premier League. From that moment on, our average football bets per customer more than doubled, accelerated by the addition of premium, high-quality content to our offer. In addition to British football, the Genius Sports package includes official data rights partnerships with the Bundesliga (Germany), Argentine Football Association (AFA), Dimayor (Colombia), Liga MX (Mexico) and many others.
The complete football offer
Through the new agreement with Stats Perform, Genius Sports now has access to official data, captured on the field, from all major football leagues in Europe and Latin America. In Europe, we can offer premium odds during games through our LiveTrading solution for championships such as La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, creating complete coverage for our partners in the big five European men's football leagues.
With the sports betting licenses that will be issued in the coming months in Brazil already on the horizon, we have also added premium competitions organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and main regional federations to our offer. This includes the Série A, Série B, Paulista championships and many others.
Similar to Europe, this package completes our Latin American football offering with the biggest competitions in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru. And most importantly, all of Genius Sports' sports betting and content services for these competitions are powered by the highest quality official data.
The global betting industry has undergone seismic changes over the past decade, with the legalization of activity in major markets, the continued growth of online and in-play betting, and the convergence between sports and media. But some things never change and, just as content is still king, in our world so is betting.
Guilherme Buso
Senior account manager for sports and betting at Genius Sports
