SBJ Power Up: Genius Sports re-ups with Football DataCo

ICYMI yesterday, SBJ's Power Players: Mixed-Use Development featured a section on the next wave of mixed-use sports venues from my colleagues Bret McCormick and David Broughton. It's an exciting time to be a sports fan anywhere. -- Ethan Joyce

In today's edition of Power Up:

Genius Sports, FDC ink deal
Athlete's Voice: Formula E driver Lucas Di Grassi
Yahoo Fantasy App gets makeover

Genius Sports extends live betting data rights deal with Football DataCo

Genius Sports has extended its live betting data rights deal with Football DataCo through 2029, building on a relationship that began in 2019. Football DataCo is the data rights holder of the English Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The new agreement, beginning in the 2025-26 season, also includes distribution rights over official player market data, which will underpin pre- and in-game betting markets such as shots on target, assists and passes completed, among others.

Through its work with Football DataCo, Genius Sports distributes live betting data to its sportsbook partners for more than 4,000 matches per season, according to Genius. Its work with the EPL also extends to powering Premier League Data Zone , parlance for alternate analytics-focused livestreams that leverage Genius-owned Second Spectrum’s AI tracking technology.

Genius Sports was named one of SBJ’s 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies for 2023 , a year in which the vendor increased its revenue 21% , secured data rights extensions with the NFL and FIBA and launched the BetVision in-stream wagering solution. Genius also signed a landmark optical tracking data deal with the WNBA earlier this year.

Yahoo Fantasy App gets makeover, content infusion

Yahoo Sports has made a significant update to how Yahoo Fantasy fans experience the app this season. The update comes with a new modern design as well as features to simplify navigation. In addition, Yahoo Fantasy will add several new content offerings to position itself as a fantasy-only news source for fans.

“The redesign is not about altering or fundamentally changing but enhancing, adding some modern aesthetic and design to it,” Yahoo Sports President Ryan Spoon told SBJ. “We haven’t really undergone a major change or release here aesthetically in UX in about seven years. We think that there is a lot that we can do that showcases the work, and the good work that we do that we haven’t done a good job at elevating.”

The app’s new design is focused on making sure users have an easier time maneuvering the app while staying in it, thanks to a new global navigation feature with three tabs: Home (team scores, real-time data updates, fantasy matchups, player availability and league standings), News (analytics and advice from Yahoo Fantasy experts) and Scores.

A driving principle for Yahoo Sports is to create a smart fantasy player with a full understanding of how to both use the game and manage their team. To achieve this, Yahoo Sports is introducing multiple types of new content for the upcoming football season:

• The Yahoo Fantasy Forecast featuring Matt Harmon to deliver news and analysis five times a week.

• Fantasy U -- an online guide for players to learn about the app and improve their team.

• The Get to the Points newsletter by Andy Behrens and Scott Pianowski .

Existing content such as Yahoo Fantasy Football Live will continue, airing twice a week. Tera Roberts joins Yahoo Sports as their newest fantasy analyst.

“Making a smarter fantasy player is actually relatively tangible,” Spoon said. "It’s about making you better at the gameplay, able to understand what you’re watching, and understand how to manage your team. A goal for us is that hopefully you play on Yahoo, but if you don’t, I still want you to use the app and get value out of our analysis and rankings.”

Along with the app update, Yahoo Sports partnered with NBC Sports to create a sweepstakes awarding the winning fan one million dollars, to promote fan engagement for both the app and games on NBC.

“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with NBC, and it’s something Yahoo is very proud of,” Spoon said. "NBC has a fabulous lineup in NFL this year, three games the first week across their properties. We looked at this together to figure out how to integrate what they do wonderfully and what we do wonderfully on the fantasy side, to put those together in a way that unites and drives a benefit to the game.”

Fans can enter the sweepstakes by playing in a private league on the Yahoo Fantasy app. Additionally, if your player scores a touchdown during one of the three NBC opening games, you will gain another entry. The contest will close at the conclusion of the opening week of the NFL season, and the winner will be decided on a date to be determined this fall.

Formula E's Lucas Di Grassi talks partnering with Rubicon on carbon offsets, starting the Zero Summit

* * * * *

You can’t have a discussion about sports technology today without including athletes in that conversation. Their partnerships, investments and endorsements help fuel the space – they have emerged as major stakeholders in the sports tech ecosystem. The Athlete's Voice series highlights the athletes leading the way and the projects and products they’re putting their influence behind.

* * * * *

Lucas di Grassi has driven in Formula 1, won a championship in Formula E and twice reached the podium of Le Mans, the famed 24-hour marathon race. After competing with Virgin Racing’s F1 team in 2010, he switched to the FIA World Endurance Championship and also became Alejandro Agag’s first employee of Formula E, charged with helping design the original electric racing car that the circuit would use.

Di Grassi, 39, is a multi-lingual native of Brazil who is close to completing a degree program at Harvard Business School. He co-founded the Zero Summit to promote sustainability and innovation of zero-carbon technologies and serves as a Clean Air Advocate of the United Nations Environment Program.

Most recently, Di Grassi partnered with Rubicon Carbon , a management firm for carbon credits. Rubicon’s logo has adorned the driver’s car and helmet at the Hankook Portland E-Prix in Portland, Oregon last month. Di Grassi has personally offset his personal carbon emissions for the entirety of his Formula E career, matching what the racing circuit has done since inception .

“When I met Lucas the first time, I said, ‘This guy is so switched on and is so into this,’” Rubicon CEO Tom Montag said. "He is such a good guy and what a great person to partner with in trying to get the message out to people about the value of this: He has a global basis, and he drives a car for a living.”

On partnering with Rubicon on carbon offsets . . .

So I've been racing in Formula E and, in parallel, I created this summit on technologies that will mitigate carbon emissions called Zero Summit back in 2020. We have a very strong partnership with Bloomberg, and through the partnership with Bloomberg and a friend in common, I met Tom and Rubicon. One of the core principles of Formula E, the racing series that I race, is to be net zero from inception and to develop the electric technology that we will see in electric cars.

The only way that we can be net zero from inception is that we need to offset some of the carbon. You cannot travel to races by sailing a ship all over the world. So I wanted to be the first racing driver to be net zero all my career in Formula E, personally. The team offsets some of their emissions. Formula E offsets the whole emissions from their own, and speaking to this friend of mine in Bloomberg, the conversation was, how could we do that with a credible company, with somebody that has been doing that for a long time and is the best in the market?

We want to work with the best and Rubicon’s name came along. I met Tom, and then we organized the way for me to buy this offset. So we calculated the offsets of these 10 years, and then I bought these offsets, which are carbon removal projects that are listed as S&P 500 companies. It is a great thing for the world of carbon removal projects, and carbon credits are somehow still not very known by the average person, especially on the personal level. And I think sports and entertainment is a great way to communicate, saying, ‘Look, this is how it works. This is how we can not only offset ourselves, but everybody can actually contribute their part, if they are willing to.’

On his initial interest in sustainability. . .

I always raced my whole career, and my target was to go to Formula 1. When I was in Formula 1, they were starting to introduce hybrid technologies into F1 cars, and then I raced endurance cars. And I'm not an activist. Of course, I think to try to preserve the environment is a positive thing. Trying to control negative externalities is also positive thing. But I'm not an activist. I'm not a tree hugger. I don't try to mitigate my lifestyle in exchange of some greater good. No, I'm a very pragmatic guy, and motorsport has been a laboratory for technologies.

My assumption, being pragmatic, is technology is what's going to save humankind. Humans are always going to use more energy, more resources. As people go out of the poverty, they want to eat more meat. They want to drive better cars. They want to have AC in their houses. They want to have three TVs instead of one. It's a natural progress of humankind to use more goods and use more services. So the only way for us to have a sustainable planet, or let's say, a stable environment, is that we should gain efficiencies. And the way to gain efficiency is basically to develop technologies.

On why auto racing is a good driver for the cause . . .

Therefore motorsport is probably one of the only sports in the whole world that actually we are doing the entertainment, which people like cheering for the driver, A or B, but the technology that is there actually is going to go into a commercial car, is going to be cheaper, better, is going to change mobility. And that was the case for combustion engines in F1 and the hybrid systems.

That was the reason why I decided to start in Formula E. I was the first employee of Formula E back in 2012, and this reasoning led me to say, ‘OK, the next step in racing will be electric, and therefore I'm going to bet on Formula E to be successful.’

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Formula E (@fiaformulae)

On starting his sustainability summit . . .

I was already in Formula E since the very beginning, and in 2019 I decided to go back studying a bit. So I went to study at Harvard University. I'm doing this three-year MBA there, and the discussion in the classroom with my colleagues was always about how to adapt their businesses to mitigate their negative externalities, and to adapt to this new world, to create efficiencies. And there was not a summit about it.

There was no discussion about it. Latin America, especially Brazil, which is, I would say, one of the main countries in the world that could lead this, let's say, low-carbon economy — because we are already a low-carbon economy right now — there was nothing about it. So I said, ‘Why we don't have this discussion with the key people in Brazil?’ So that's why I decided to do the summit.

On offsetting his career carbon consumption . . .

It’s done now for my entire career of Formula E. wow, my entire career, often my I haven't calculated since inception yet. That’s going to be the target, I think, since day zero. But it's quite funny, because the first go kart I drove — F1 is talking about synthetic fuel right now. ‘Are we going to go to 10% synthetic fuel?’ And I was listening to them talking. I was like, in ‘95 when I was nine years old, when I started go kart, I already used biofuel. We used 100% ethanol because it gave more power to the go kart than gasoline. And in Brazil, we have available ethanol. It is the same price as gasoline, and you can buy it any pump, so we use ethanol in go kart. So I was like, ‘OK, so the new breakthrough technology that you guys are doing is actually my go kart experience from ’95 when I used 100% biofuel.’

On the costs of offsetting his career . . .

It’s surprisingly not so expensive, and I'll share the number: it was $30,000, more or less. Most of it is air travel. It is the biggest impact, and if you think about it, it is not that expensive, and that's the reason why it is actually so easy to do it right now. But as more people actually start offsetting and the supply of carbon credits into the market starts to become less than the demand, this price needs to go up. And if there is, let's say, a multinational or transnational entity controlling all these carbon credits, it will be very interesting to see how the dynamic flow of these projects and the offsetting and the price structure evolves.

As the moment it is almost zero burden financially — it's $3,000 a year of offsetting my season in Formula E. It is not so much. But if every season, the price starts to go up and it becomes a financial burden to offset this carbon more and more, I will start thinking, ‘OK, how can I emit less carbon?’

On how the carbon offset market could evolve . . .

If more people buy those credits, and the market goes from, let's say, $2-3 billion, to $200 billion, or $2 trillion, it starts to really go up. All the companies, they'll be financially incentivized to look to increase their efficiency, and to start really thinking about, ‘OK, I’m going to fly this much, but maybe I take a train the next leg because maybe the carbon pricing starts to make financial sense for more people.’

This process creates this financial burden. At the moment it is voluntary, but if it's a regulated market and the market starts to actually demand this for the companies and people to actually start offsetting themselves, it will push everybody to be more efficient, and new technologies to be financially more available. You can actually scale the production of batteries, making it even cheaper, and then electric cars would be even cheaper. So it helps the trend towards, let's say, a net-zero world in terms of carbon output and input.