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The rebuilt Pac-12 will sell its data to sportsbooks starting next year, part of a new, wide-ranging partnership with Genius Sports.
Under the deal, which was announced Tuesday morning, Genuis Sports will be the official gatekeeper for Pac-12 game stats and IP for gambling operators around the world. Genius Sports will also roll out its GeniusIQ data capture technology across all Pac-12 football and basketball venues, support the conference’s digital marketing, help schools use data to improve on-field performance and provide gambling integrity monitoring services.
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With the deal, the Pac-12 becomes one of just a handful of leagues to openly commercialize its gambling data. As Sportico has reported previously, there were discussions across college sports around 2022 on the possibility of big-money data deals similar to those being signed in the major pro leagues. Those talks cooled over the past few years as economic realities reset expectations for many conferences. The MAC has had a deal in place with Genius Sports since 2022, and the NCAA last year expanded its Genius Sports relationship to include gambling data sales. The Pac-12 signed a data deal with Tempus Ex Machina in 2022, but that partnership did not include the sale of live feeds to sportsbooks, according to a conference spokesperson.
It’s unclear how much Genius Sports is paying the Pac-12, which reported $576 million in revenue on its fiscal 2024 tax return.
The deal comes amid another wave of rapid change at the Pac-12. Once safely among the most powerful (and richest) conferences in the country, the Pac-12 was gutted during the realignment wave the happened following the COVID pandemic. The league lost Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC to the Big Ten; Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal to the ACC. That left just Oregon State and Washington State as remaining members.
Commissioner Teresa Gould has been aggressive in rebuilding the league. It will welcome seven new members next school year—Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Utah State, Texas State, San Diego State and Gonzaga.
As the major U.S. pro leagues have rushed into revenue opportunities offered by legal sports betting, colleges have been more reluctant. Monitoring betting across different NCAA tiers is harder than in the NBA or NFL, athletes aren’t compensated nearly as much and there’s different types of social pressure that come with betting on college athletes. NCAA president Charlie Baker has made gambling protection one of his most public positions, and that was true long before a series of federal probes exposed bet-rigging at numerous pro and college basketball programs.
Official data deals like this one between the Pac-12 and Genius Sports do provide new revenue opportunities—some sportsbooks want to spend for faster data and logos to use inside their apps—but they also provide some sort of control over the types of bets that are offered. The NCAA’s deal with Genius Sports, for example, enabled the group to limit “risky bet types” at sportsbooks that bought the data. In their announcement on Tuesday, the Pac-12 and Genius Sports said the conference’s new Authorized Gaming Operator (AGO) program would push to eliminate “risky bet types” as well. They said it would also create “greater transparency [and] information sharing,” “prevent prohibited bettors from placing wagers,” and “combat the threat of betting-related corruption.”
It’s unclear exactly how valuable these data rights are for prediction markets, which have disrupted the legal sports betting industry over the past year. As Sporticopreviously reported, Kalshi has a relationship with Genius Sports competitor Sportradar, but at a lower level than its relationship with most sportsbooks.
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Under the deal, which was announced Tuesday morning, Genuis Sports will be the official gatekeeper for Pac-12 game stats and IP for gambling operators around the world. Genius Sports will also roll out its GeniusIQ data capture technology across all Pac-12 football and basketball venues, support the conference’s digital marketing, help schools use data to improve on-field performance and provide gambling integrity monitoring services.
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With the deal, the Pac-12 becomes one of just a handful of leagues to openly commercialize its gambling data. As Sportico has reported previously, there were discussions across college sports around 2022 on the possibility of big-money data deals similar to those being signed in the major pro leagues. Those talks cooled over the past few years as economic realities reset expectations for many conferences. The MAC has had a deal in place with Genius Sports since 2022, and the NCAA last year expanded its Genius Sports relationship to include gambling data sales. The Pac-12 signed a data deal with Tempus Ex Machina in 2022, but that partnership did not include the sale of live feeds to sportsbooks, according to a conference spokesperson.
It’s unclear how much Genius Sports is paying the Pac-12, which reported $576 million in revenue on its fiscal 2024 tax return.
The deal comes amid another wave of rapid change at the Pac-12. Once safely among the most powerful (and richest) conferences in the country, the Pac-12 was gutted during the realignment wave the happened following the COVID pandemic. The league lost Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC to the Big Ten; Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal to the ACC. That left just Oregon State and Washington State as remaining members.
Commissioner Teresa Gould has been aggressive in rebuilding the league. It will welcome seven new members next school year—Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Utah State, Texas State, San Diego State and Gonzaga.
As the major U.S. pro leagues have rushed into revenue opportunities offered by legal sports betting, colleges have been more reluctant. Monitoring betting across different NCAA tiers is harder than in the NBA or NFL, athletes aren’t compensated nearly as much and there’s different types of social pressure that come with betting on college athletes. NCAA president Charlie Baker has made gambling protection one of his most public positions, and that was true long before a series of federal probes exposed bet-rigging at numerous pro and college basketball programs.
Official data deals like this one between the Pac-12 and Genius Sports do provide new revenue opportunities—some sportsbooks want to spend for faster data and logos to use inside their apps—but they also provide some sort of control over the types of bets that are offered. The NCAA’s deal with Genius Sports, for example, enabled the group to limit “risky bet types” at sportsbooks that bought the data. In their announcement on Tuesday, the Pac-12 and Genius Sports said the conference’s new Authorized Gaming Operator (AGO) program would push to eliminate “risky bet types” as well. They said it would also create “greater transparency [and] information sharing,” “prevent prohibited bettors from placing wagers,” and “combat the threat of betting-related corruption.”
It’s unclear exactly how valuable these data rights are for prediction markets, which have disrupted the legal sports betting industry over the past year. As Sporticopreviously reported, Kalshi has a relationship with Genius Sports competitor Sportradar, but at a lower level than its relationship with most sportsbooks.
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