ESPN today announced it has reached an agreement with Genius Sports Limited (“Genius Sports”) (NYSE:GENI) on a new, long-term deal that will help transform ESPN’s live data-driven storytelling for NCAA sports and enhance broadcasts for the NBA and WNBA.
ESPN will expand its college sports coverage with real-time team and player stats from Genius Sports, the exclusive distributor of official NCAA Data, with access to data across 65,000 NCAA games a year inclusive of basketball, football, ice hockey, volleyball and soccer.
“Genius Sports is a proven entity in the space that we know very well from our previous work together,” said Jeff Bennett, Vice President, Stats & Information Group, ESPN. “The new long-term agreement creates a runway for both sides to ideate into the future using augmented reality live execution concepts in ways that unlock the next generation of fan experiences.”
Additionally, ESPN is extending its deal with Genius Sports around NBA player-tracking data insights while adding the WNBA to its portfolio of sports properties leveraging its data. With the deal, ESPN has access to Genius Sports’ cutting-edge Insight tool used by every NBA and WNBA team. This tool will enable ESPN to easily research, identify and produce video clips that break down team and player performance across both leagues.
ESPN and Genius Sports have worked together in a variety of capacities from powering immersive “altcasts” such as the NBA ‘Marvel Arena of Heroes’ presentation in 2021 to collaborating on live broadcast augmentations for immersive experiences around the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
Said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports, “Following on from our work with ESPN to power the first fully branded sports broadcast with Marvel and immersive March Madness augmented megacasts, we are delighted to strike a major expansion with ESPN. As well as powering crucial NBA and WNBA insights, ESPN can utilize Genius Sports technology to power all of its NCAA data needs including next generation context experiences through our new GeniusIQ technology.”
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