Genius Sports CEO on ‘transformational deal’ with DraftKings
Mark Locke, Genius Sports Co-Founder and CEO, speaks with Yahoo Finance on Genius Sports and DraftKings' multi-year sports data supplier agreement, where DraftKings will gain access to Genius Sports’ full portfolio of global sports data and content, including official NFL data and content.
Video transcript
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- Welcome back. Genius Sports and DraftKings have struck a data-sharing agreement on the NFL and other sports that will help DraftKings gain valuable insight that can be used in marketing and much more. We're joined now by Mark Locke, Genius Sports co-founder and CEO. So Mark, I'm going to be honest. When it comes to betting-- and sometimes even sports-- I'm not the most well-versed. So I'm hoping you can break down this deal for me and for the rest of our viewers just a little bit. I see not all the terms of the deal have really been publicized, but what more can you give us? How big is this deal? How much is it worth? How long is it going to last? And what kind of data is going to be shared from Genius Sports with DraftKings?
MARK LOCKE Sure. Well, I mean, the deal that we struck with DraftKings is a long-term, multi-year deal. And really, it's about Genius providing to DraftKings the necessary data and software services that they need to operate on a long-term basis in the US and global sports betting markets. What we do as a business is we work with global sports-- and you mentioned the NFL, and that's a very significant part of this deal. And what we do is we work with them to acquire the rights, through either software sharing, or paying rights fees. And that allows us to collect live data. And that data is what we give to the sports books in order for those sports books to run.
But the interesting thing about this particular deal is it's much more wide-ranging than that. Often, these deals are just provided on a data-only basis, but what we're doing here is we're getting much more integrated into the whole of the DraftKings business by providing them services around marketing, around AdTech, and around fan engagement. And really, what we're seeing is we're seeing the whole sports betting market, especially in the US, converging around these technology platforms in order to engage fans and give them, really, the best product and the best experience possible.
- Well, certainly, Mark, you enter these agreements because they're mutually beneficial. I get that DraftKings is going to be getting exclusive sportsbook data around the NFL-- I guess initially from Genius Sports. But what is your company, exactly, getting out of this deal, and how is it revenue-generating for you?
MARK LOCKE: So what we do is we get paid by the sportsbook to provide these various different services. So when we launched on the markets, we came out, and we said to the markets that we would be looking to achieve a 40% market share and 5% what's known as GGR, or [INAUDIBLE] the gross profit. And that's how we get paid for the data proportion of what we're doing for the sportsbooks or, indeed, some of the outsourced bookmaking areas. But on top of that, we've entered into a new part of the market where we're starting to access much more of the marketing spend of sportsbooks and past sports leagues globally. And what we're doing is we're working with them in order to spend the money to acquire new fans, engage those fans, and engage those customers on a new basis.
So for us, and for DraftKings, this is a transformational deal. It's a completely new structure. It involves a partnership between the sports-- the NFL, other sports that we work with-- with DraftKings and, of course, ourselves.
- All right, we're going to have to leave that there. Mark Locke, Genius Sports co-founder and CEO. Thank you so much for joining us and for breaking some of that down for us.
