Exclusive: Genius Sports and SoftConstruct settle data dispute
Pair come to mutual agreement to end three-year-long battle as SoftConstruct agrees to multi-year licence deal
Genius Sports and SoftConstruct have reached a mutual agreement to settle their ongoing legal dispute, EGR can exclusively reveal.
The legal battle has reached its conclusion after beginning in September 2019 when Genius Sports sent a letter to SoftConstruct stating it had infringed data rights by copying and using data for its products from Genius Sports’ databases.
The practice, commonly referred to as data scraping, saw Genius Sports proceed to file a claim against SoftConstruct (doing business as BetConstruct) in March 2020 in the High Court.
At the time, Genius Sports was “seeking injunctive and monetary relief against BetConstruct in connection with the alleged infringement”, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In turn, BetConstruct filed a defence against the claim and moved to issue a counterclaim relating to competition law.
However, the pair have now agreed to settle the dispute, with SoftConstruct purchasing a multi-year licence to use Genius Sports’ data via its BetConstruct and FeedConstruct channels.
Genius noted this agreement and subsequent licence “acknowledge[ed] Genius’ ownership of database rights”.
Reflecting on the conclusion of the legal despite, Genius Sports chief commercial officer Jack Davison said: “Genius invests significant time, resource and expertise in creating and developing market-leading technology and databases to collect and supply sports data products across the industry.
“We are delighted that the SoftConstruct team have recognised this value and we look forward to working in partnership with them as we move forward,” he added.
Armand Pinarbasi, SoftConstruct CEO, commented: “This deal enables us to service our customers with the best data. We can now look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship in the years to come.”
The settlement with SoftConstruct follows Genius Sports’ mutual agreement with Sportradar over exclusive betting data rights through to 2024.