Leading sports data companies Infostrada in Europe and Sports Direct in North America have been bought by major music and publishing data company Gracenote for $54 million.
Both have been key players in the provision of data to broadcasters, leagues, professional clubs and other media sources over recent years.
They have also seen huge growth in the provision of information and data to the sports betting industry.
Infostrada split into separate production and data divisions at the end of 2014 but that signalled to the larger Gracenote that there was an opportunity to buy and move into the lucrative and rapidly growing field of sports data.
SportsDiorect has a relationship with 50 leagues and 2000 sports teams across the United States and Canada and also owns Covers.com one of the largest betting advice companies in US sport.
Sports betting is becoming more acceptable in the US, an area where it has formerly been illegal and is still treated with caution across the states where that has now changed.
The market is enormous though and Gracenote has obviously factored in future relaxed legislation into the purchase decision.
Grace note developed its business in metadata recognition of music and video and has built a substantial business across media including Apple and its iTunes business.
Live TV and broadcast coverage of major events has led to sport being seen as critical in any long term future for entertainment and this is unlikely to be the last major purchase in the field.
Sport for Business is partnering with Sports Analytics Europe on it’s Conference at Old Trafford on June 29th and 30th. From tomorrow Sport for Business members will be able to secure a 50% reduction in the price of attending the conference.
This will be the first of a number of initiatives in sports data that will be enabled by Sport for Business over the coming months.
