Genius Sports Group outlines Project Red Card concerns in latest SEC filing
Potential adverse judgments in footballer-led GDPR data movement could force global data firms to alter their business strategies
Genius Sports Group has addressed a data rights complication that could “materially affect the sports data industry as whole”.
The data giant outlined a potential worst case scenario as legally required to do so in its latest filing with the SEC ahead of its IPO with SPAC partner dMY Technology Group II.
The issue pertains to an ongoing movement by a group of UK-based professional footballers against data companies’ rights to access player data under GDPR legislation.
Project Red Card, which is fronted by former Cardiff City and Leyton Orient manager Russell Slade, argues that without explicit consent from players, data rights companies are exploiting them for their own financial gain.
Player data is currently licensed by Stats Perform as official data partners to the Premier League.
In the SEC filing, Genius Sports was required to highlight the campaign as a potential upcoming legal issue to help inform potential shareholders.
The filing read: “Recently, a group of UK football players issued a data subject access request under the GDPR to various participants in the sports data and sports betting industries.
“If the request (named “Project Red Card”) develops into legal action, it could significantly alter the way we collect and use sports data relating to players, and could materially affect the sports data industry as whole.
“Under the terms of our existing contractual arrangements, any adverse judgements could impact the validity of such contractual arrangements and/or our ability to rely on intellectual property rights to prevent third party infringement, which may force us to alter our business strategy and have an adverse effect on our business,” the filing added.
Besides the impact on company operations should the issue reach the courts, there are also financial implications associated with breaches of GDPR legislation.
In the UK, GDPR failures are met with a £17.5m fine or 4% of annual global turnover depending on which figure is more significant. EU GDPR breaches, which also relate to EU citizens living in the UK, are met with a €20m sting.